Are you aware that your version of the Ten Commandments is the Greek Orthodox and Protestant (except for Lutheran) version?
Catholics and Lutherans run together what you have as I and II, and separate X into two. I think that Lutherans have IX as prohibiting coveting a neighbor's wife, whereas Catholics say "house." But I may have that wrong.
In any case, contrary to what almost everyone thinks who argues the legal issue of the presence or absence of the Commandments in classrooms, etc., there is no agreement in Christendom or between Christians and Jews as to exactly what they are.
From the Britannica:
Traditions differ in numbering the Ten Commandments. In
Judaism, the prologue ("I am the Lord your God, who brought you
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage") constitutes
the first element, and the prohibitions against false gods and idols the
second. Medieval Roman tradition, accepted by Luther, regards all
these elements as one and preserves the number 10 by separating
the prohibitions against coveting another's wife and coveting
another's possessions. In the Greek Orthodox and Protestant
Reformed traditions, the prologue and the prohibition against false
gods are one commandment and the prohibition against images is
the second. (See Lutheranism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism.) |
