Gibt es zwei (oder drei) verschiedene Versionen der Zehn Gebote?

⮜ Beantwortete Fragen

This is one of those claims that might flummox a Christian who hasn't encountered it before. Many Christians cannot name all ten commandments, anyway, but this claim goes to the next level. Three different versions?

Of course, the first response to someone who makes such a claim is -- as usual -- "What do you mean by that?"

Oftmals wird jemand lediglich eine Behauptung wiederverwenden, die er in einer Online-Argumentation gesehen hat (die er aber nicht selbst recherchiert hat). Sie rechnen damit, dass Christen Gottes Gesetz nicht kennen. Sie können eine gewisse Demut in ihre Haltung einbringen, indem Sie von ihnen verlangen, sich auf Einzelheiten festzulegen. Finden Sie heraus, wie tief sie die Behauptung, die sie aufstellen, verstehen.

Selbst wenn sie wissen, wovon sie reden, brauchen Sie sie, um sich auf einen bestimmten Anspruch festzulegen, damit Sie ihn dann richtig entlarven können. Es gibt mindestens drei Möglichkeiten, diesen Anspruch ("verschiedene Versionen der Zehn Gebote") zu verstehen.

Unterschiede in der Nummerierung derselben Gebote

Wenn die Behauptung lediglich eine Diskrepanz zwischen der Art und Weise ist, wie die Gebote nummeriert sind, dann ist die Behauptung einfach falsch. Die Zehn Gebote wurden in den hebräischen Schriften nicht nummeriert. Die Nummerierung ist eine äußere Zumutung für den Text. Verschiedene jüdische und christliche Gruppen haben sie unterschiedlich nummeriert, und sie haben sich nicht auf ein koordiniertes System geeinigt.

In den beiden Hauptschriftstellen, die die zehn Gebote "aufzählen" (Exod. 20 und 5. Mose), sind mehr als zehn normative Sätze enthalten. Tatsächlich ist es möglich, die "zehn Gebote" in mehr als zehn Gebote (vielleicht bis zu vierzehn) zu unterteilen, wenn man sie in einzelne normative Sätze aufteilen wollte. Versuchen Sie das einmal, und Sie werden sehen, wovon ich spreche.

Doch traditionell sind die Gebote in zehn Gebote unterteilt. Die Juden teilten sie auf eine Weise auf. Die Katholiken und Lutheraner teilten es anders auf. Andere protestantische Gruppen teilten es noch auf andere Weise.

Verschiedene Gebotsmotivationen/Erklärungen

Wie ich bereits erwähnt habe, gibt es zwei Hauptpassagen, in denen die Zehn Gebote vorgestellt werden: Exod. 20 und Deut. 5. Jeder Christ sollte sich die Zeit nehmen, die beiden verschiedenen Passagen zu vergleichen, nur um die (geringfügigen) Unterschiede zwischen den beiden zu sehen.

There are not different commandments between these two passages. The same commandments, as abstracted into the ten discrete principles, are found in the following passages (I follow the typical Protestant division/numbering):

1. You will have no other gods before YHWH: Exod. 20:3, Deut. 5:7.
2. You will not make any graven images and worship them: Exod. 20:4-5, Deut. 5:8-9.
3. You will not use God's name in vain: Exod. 20:7, Deut. 5:11.
4. You will remember/observe the sabbath, to keep it holy: Exod. 20:8-11 ("remember"), Deut. 5:12-15 ("keep/observe"). Different motive clauses given.
5. You will honor your father and mother: Exod. 20:12, Deut. 5:16.
6. You will not kill: Exod. 20:13, Deut. 5:17.
7. You will not commit adultery: Exod. 20:14, Deut. 5:18.
8. You will no steal: Exod. 20:15, Deut. 5:19.
9. You will not bear false witness: Exod. 20:16, Deut. 5:20.
10. You will not covet: Exod. 20:17 ("house" comes before "wife"), Deut. 5:21 ("wife" comes before "house").

As you can see from the list above, there are some wording differences, but the differences are either superficial, or located in the supporting language (like the motive clauses). These differences simply augment our understanding. There is no disagreement between the versions.

A third Ten Commandments list?

Modern Critical "scholarship" spends their time figuring out ways to split apart the Torah into various authors, redactors, time periods, and motivations. One of the fruits of this foolishness is the so-called "Ritual Decalogue" (which they locate at Exod. 34:11-27), which is supposed to be a different version of the "ten commandments." Modern scholars -- who are not committed to the divine inspiration of the text -- will claim that this list of commandments was composed at a different time, by a different author/redactor, and for a different purpose than the Ten Commandments with which we are familiar.

Here is the (so-called) Ritual Decalogue:

1. 12 Be careful, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be for a snare among you; 13 but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherah poles; 14 for you shall worship no other god; for YHWH, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. 15 “Don’t make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice; 16 and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods. Exodus 34:12-16WEB
2. 17 “You shall make no cast idols for yourselves. Exodus 34:17WEB
3. 18 “You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib; for in the month Abib you came out of Egypt. Exodus 34:18WEB
4. 19 “All that opens the womb is mine; and all your livestock that is male, the firstborn of cow and sheep. Exodus 34:19WEB 20 You shall redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb. If you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. You shall redeem all the firstborn of your sons.... Exodus 34:20WEB
5. 20 ... No one shall appear before me empty. Exodus 34:20WEB
6. 21 “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest: in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. Exodus 34:21WEB
7. 22 “You shall observe the feast of weeks with the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest at the year’s end. Exodus 34:22WEB
8. 23 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord YHWH, the God of Israel. 24 For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither shall any man desire your land when you go up to appear before YHWH, your God, three times in the year. Exodus 34:23-24WEB
9. 25 “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. The sacrifice of the feast of the Passover shall not be left to the morning. Exodus 34:25WEB
10. 26 “You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground to the house of YHWH your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” Exodus 34:26WEB

If you want to read more about it, there is a wiki page:

Ritual Decalogue

The bottom line is: Exodus 34 contains a list of commandments, which were just as important for the Israelites to keep as the Ten listed in in Exodus 20. But this set of commandments is not a general summary of moral principles in the way that the Ten are. It is an arbitrary grouping by modern scholars who do not understand the unity of purpose behind Biblical law.

If this Ritual Decalogue is what your interlocutor is talking about, then you can explain it to him by saying something like:

"Well, there are hundreds of commandments in the Torah. If I took several groups of 10 commandments (out of the hundreds), and then claimed that there are several different, conflicting versions of the 10 commandments, do you think this would be a fair representation of the Israelite religion?"