07/27/2004: "Question of the Day: Why do Protestants and Catholics have different sets of 10 Commandments"
NOTE: If you'd like to submit a question, either post it as a comment in this entry or e-mail me at questions at thecrawfordfamily dot net.
Today's question comes via e-mail from Trevor, a Catechumen in my Parish's RCIA program. Here's the full text of his question:
'I had a question from a conversation that occured between me and my friend Jeff at work who is a "Born Again" Christian. He had a list of the Ten Commandments that was unfamilar to me. The 2nd commandment was something about not praying to symbols or something along those lines. Then tenth was simply "thou shal not covet." He told me our (Catholic) Commandments are differant. When I got home I checked and he was right. Our 2nd one is do not take the Lord's name in vain and the 9th and 10th are "thou shal not covet thy neighbors wife" and "thou shal not covet thy neighbors goods."'
The Ten Commandments originally come from Moses and the Jewish Exodus from Egypt to the Holy Land. They are referenced twice in the Old Testament, Exodus chapter 20 and Deuteronomy chapter 5. Here is the reference from Exodus 20 (Deuteronomy 5 is nearly identical) from the New American Bible (other translations of the Bible are very similar):
2. "I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
3. You shall not have other gods besides me.
4. You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth;
5. you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their fathers' wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation;
6. but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation, on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7. "You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain. For the LORD will not leave unpunished him who takes his name in vain.
8. "Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.
9. Six days you may labor and do all your work,
10. but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God. No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your beast, or by the alien who lives with you.
11. In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the LORD has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
12. "Honor your father and your mother, that you may have a long life in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you.
13. "You shall not kill.
14. "You shall not commit adultery.
15. "You shall not steal.
16. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17. "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass, nor anything else that belongs to him."
Notice that there aren't inherently numbers associated to the text (the numbers on the left are verse numbers). So in ALL cases the 10 Commandments are somewhat artificially separated into 10. Said differently, there are 15 verses which have been summed up into 10 Commandments. Protestants and Catholics have separated them differently.
The best example to use of how we've seperated them is the Commandment: "Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day" because both Catholics and Protestants treat it the same. In Exodus 20 that Commandment is verse 8. Verses 9 through 11 speak in greater depth to that point, so they are assumed, as far as listing the 10 commandments, to be one. One could argue that there should be a separate commandment "No work should be done on the Sabbath" as keeping the Sabbath holy could be considered too vague to necessarily mean that one couldn't work on that day. But both Catholic and Protestants see verses 8 through 11 as 1 Commandment.
The "controversy" is over the same decision with the 1st Commandment. The Catholic interpretation would be that verses 4 through 6 have the same relationship to verse 3 as verses 9 through 11 do to verse 8 (Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day). Having no other God's besides God, would naturally mean that we don't have any other idols and we sure wouldn't worship them as that would be having another God besides our God. So we see verses 4 through 6 as commentary on the 1st Commandment: You shall have no Gods besides me.
Of course, since it is desired to have 10 commandments, that means that verse 17 can now be split up into two commandments, one that we shouldn't covet your neightbors wife and separately you shouldn't covet your neighbors "stuff" (house, slave, ox, etc.).
The reality is that all Christians hold to the same truths about the 10 commandments. We all believe that what is stated in them is correct and there need be no omissions. As Catholics we don't worship Mary or the Saints. They are not God and should not be worshiped. Similarly, Protestants don't have a reduced emphasis on coveting wives and posessions even though they've reduced those 2 Commandments to 1. We all believe that worship of other Gods/Idols is bad and that coveting other's wives and possessions is bad. All that's been done is that we've numbered the 10 Commandments differently.
What can indeed be said is that during the Reformation, some set of Protestants (it doesn't seem to be linked to Martin Luther, but perhaps either the English Protestants or John Calvin) wanted to make the point that worship of Idols was unacceptable and therefore re-worked the numbering to re-emphasize the commentary (verses 4-6) on what Catholics call the 1st commandment. They expanded it into 2 commandments, the 2nd being that we shouldn't worship idols. Again, wanting to keep it to 10, they collapsed the 9th and 10th Commandments as numbered by the Catholic Church, into 1 Commandment.
As for the history of the Catholic numbering, it seems to date back at least to St. Augustine (born 354, died 430) who wrote of them in his book "Questions of Exodus". The numbering was formally ratified by the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent between 1545 and 1563. The Council of Trent is one of the most important Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church where a number of long held teachings of the Church were officially ratified. This was in response to the reformation which started early that same century and was changing things that had long been held like the numbering of the 10 Commandments and the books of the Old Testament.
In closing I'd just like to point out that this is not an issue anyone should get up in arms about. The important matter is the principles communicated in the 10 Commandments. On this almost all Christians (Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants) agree. We shouldn't be too worried about how we number them as long as we're faithfully following what they say.
Thanks for you question Trevor.
