« A Fourth of July Hymn
Main
Be Cautious about the 40,000-Year-Old "Footprints" for Mexico »
July 4, 2005
Whose Ten Commandments Anyway?
With all the discussion of the Ten Commandments in the news lately, only a few have asked, "Which Ten Commandments?" Well, Tyler F. Williams on Codex Blogspot has some very good observations on the question.
Part of the problem is that the Commandments are not numbered in the biblical text. The title "Ten Commandments" is derived by the reference to עשׂרת הדברים "ten words" in Exod 34:28 (see also Deut 4:13; 10:4). Thus, there have developed different ways of dividing the Commandments into ten. It is typically noted that there are three different enumerations of the Ten Commandments: (1) Modern Jewish, (2) Roman Catholic/Lutheran, and (3) Reformed and Evangelical Protestant/Eastern Orthodox. . .
Williams gives a complete table showing the principle differences between the traditions. The following is an example of the second, err first, err third Commandment.
| Tradition 1 (Modern Jewish) |
Tradition 2 (Roman Catholic, Lutheran) |
Tradition 3 (Reform and Evangelical Protestant, Eastern Orthodox) |
|
| 2 | "No other gods... idols" | "No wrongful use of the name" | "Shall not make idols" |
He also notes that there are differences between the Commandments as reported in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. Check out Exodus 34:28 while you have your Bibles out.
He directs to a collection of papers on the Ten Commandments, The Ten Commandments in History and Tradition (Ben-Zion Segal, ed.; Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1990).
Posted by Duane Smith at July 4, 2005 1:05 PM | Read more on Religion |
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.telecomtally.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1247