Are there two (or three) different versions of the Ten Commandments?

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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?"

Often, someone will merely be reusing some "zinger" which they saw in an online argument (but which they didn't research themselves). They count on Christians being ignorant about God's law. You can introduce some humility to their attitude by requiring them to commit to details. Find out how deeply they understand the claim they are making.

Even if they do know what they are talking about, you will need them to commit to a particular claim, so that you can then debunk it properly. There are at least three ways that this claim ("different versions of the Ten Commandments") can be understood.

Different numbering of the same commandments

If the claim is merely a discrepancy between how the commandments are numbered, then the claim is simply false. The Ten Commandments were not numbered in the Hebrew scriptures. Numbering is an external imposition on the text. Different Jewish and Christian groups have applied varying numbers to them, and they did not settle on a coordinated system.

In the two main scripture passages which "enumerate" the ten commandments (Exod. 20 and Deut. 5), there are more than ten normative sentences involved. In fact, it is possible to divide the "ten commandments" into more than ten commandments (perhaps as many as fourteen), if we wanted to divide them up into individual normative sentences. Try this some time, and you will see what I'm talking about.

But traditionally the commandments have been divided into ten. The Jews divided it one way. The Catholics and Lutherans divided it a different way. Other Protestant groups divided it yet a different way.

Different commandment motivations/explanations

As I mentioned, there are two main passages in which the Ten Commandments are presented: Exod. 20, and Deut. 5. Every Christian ought to take the time to compare the two different passages, just to see the (minor) differences between the two.

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[1], 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?"

  1. ↑ A fancy word for "editor."
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