Featured There Are Only Nine Commandments

I hold a rather unpopular opinion: Contained in Exodus 20:1-17 are the NINE Commandments.

That's correct my dear brothers and sisters! I disagree with both Catholics and Protestants on this one! Now let's all open our Bibles and grab a nice cup of something hot to drink as I proceed to back up this claim.

How I see it:

Verse 1: The introduction to the passage.
1) Verses 2-6: No other gods.
2) Verse 7: Taking name in vain forbidden.
3) Verses 8-11: Sabbath day holy.
4) Verse 12: Honor father and mother.
5) Verse 13: Murder forbidden.
6) Verse 14: Adultery forbidden.
7) Verse 15: Theft forbidden.
8) Verse 16: False witness forbidden.
9) Verse 17: Coveting another's things forbidden.

There we have it. The footnote in my Bible for this passage states:

20, 1-17: the precise division of these precepts into "ten commandments" is somewhat uncertain. Traditionally among Catholics vv 1-6 are considered as only one commandment, and v 17 as two.

So, the Catholic Church starts off pretty much exactly as I do in the beginning. But then things get a little weird. They take verse 17 and split it into two separate commandments. Hm...
???

The Protestant community, on the other hand, does something equally mystifying. They separate verse 3 from 2-6 and make TWO separate commandments about having no other gods. Hm...
???

Conclusion:

There are only nine commandments. It is what it is.

 

The idea is just to read them straight through and to number them. I'm not trying to reduce, simplify, or summarize them. Jesus already did that when he said that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
You have a good point, though. Theft is a form of coveting. If it was contained in the same paragraph like verse 17 or verses 2-6 then maybe I would be arguing for eight. But as it's written, you would have to jump around the passage to combine theft with coveting. I just want to read the passage straight through and get ten commandments instead of nine.

I agree with the Catholics that 2-6 is only one commandment. I agree with the Protestants that verse 17 is only one commandment. But now there's no way for me to get to ten. There are only nine.

Maybe there's something about the ten utterances that was lost in translation.

 

Looking at them as a summary of the 613 is probably the wisest approach.

 

Music plays and the curtains are opened...

Presenting...

The Eleven Commandments:

1. Verse 3
2. Verses 4-6
3. Verse 7
4. Verses 8-11
5. Verse 12
6. Verse 13
7. Verse 14
8. Verse 15
9. Verse 16
10. Verse 17, sentence 1
11. Verse 17, sentence 2

 

How do you get to ten? Do you subscribe to two separate commandments about no other gods (the verse 3 theory) or do you subscribe to two separate commandments about not coveting (the verse 17 theory)?

Even in the face of incontrovertible scriptural support for "ten", when I count numerically every single commandment, all nine of them are for sure definitely there, but I'm still having GPS problems with #10. It's gone rogue!

1 Then God spoke all these words:

(1)
2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 You shall not have other gods beside me. 4 You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; 5 you shall not bow down before them or serve them. For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their ancestors’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation; 6 but showing love down to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

(2)
7 You shall not invoke the name of the Lord, your God, in vain. For the Lord will not leave unpunished anyone who invokes his name in vain.

(3)
8 Remember the sabbath day—keep it holy. 9 Six days you may labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God. You shall not do any work, either you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your work animal, or the resident alien within your gates. 11 For 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.

(4)
12 Honor your father and your mother, that you may have a long life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

(5)
13 You shall not kill.

(6)
14 You shall not commit adultery.

(7)
15 You shall not steal.

(8)
16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

(9)
17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Bible Gateway passage: Exodus 20 - New American Bible (Revised Edition)

 

They updated the footnote in the revised edition. I have the earlier one.

1. –17
   The precise numbering and division of these precepts into “ten commandments” is somewhat uncertain. Traditionally among Catholics and Lutherans vv. 1–6 are considered as only one commandment, and v. 17 as two. The Anglican, Greek Orthodox, and Reformed churches count vv. 1–6 as two, and v. 17 as one. Cf. Dt 5:6–21. The traditional designation as “ten” is not found here but in 34:28 (and also Dt 4:13 and 10:4), where these precepts are alluded to literally as “the ten words.” That they were originally written on two tablets appears in Ex 32:15–16; 34:28–29; Dt 4:13; 10:2–4.
   
   The present form of the commands is a product of a long development, as is clear from the fact that the individual precepts vary considerably in length and from the slightly different formulation of Dt 5:6–21 (see especially vv. 12–15 and 21). Indeed they represent a mature formulation of a traditional morality. Why this specific selection of commands should be set apart is not entirely clear. None of them is unique in the Old Testament and all of the laws which follow are also from God and equally binding on the Israelites. Even so, this collection represents a privileged expression of God’s moral demands on Israel and is here set apart from the others as a direct, unmediated communication of God to the Israelites and the basis of the covenant being concluded on Sinai.

 

That is an EXCELLENT explanation! I love it! It makes so much sense to look at it that way. I might have to rethink my position. Lol