Featured There Are Only Nine Commandments

There is only one original ten words God gave Moses. Any others are false presentations of God's word.

 

The Law was for Israel, to bring them to Christ.

 

As one who has lived in an idolatrous Buddhist culture for many years, making vv. 2-6 into one commandment does not make sense to me. The reason is that making an idol and worshipping an idol are two separate acts. One can make an idol but not worship it, thus perpetuating idol worship, and that is a sin. The idol maker must not be allowed to excuse himself by saying, "I made it, but didn't worship it."

 

Exodus 20:

1 - verse 3 = have no other gods
2 - verse 4 = do not make images of gods
3 - verse 5 = do not worship images of gods
4 - verse 7 = do not use God's name without purpose
5 - verse 8 = remember the Sabbath
6 - verse 12 = honor your parents
7 - verse 13 = do not murder
8 - verse 14 = do not commit adultery
9 - verse 15 = do not steal
10 - verse 16 = do not give false testimony
11 - verse 17 = do not covet​

Now you can alter the count simply by combining (do not do this or that, e.g. make or worship)

And we can find many "do or do not" commands in other parts of scripture such as verse 19.

Jesus gave us more than 75 instructions for us to follow.

 

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Your two and three are actually both one commandment, the second commandment.

 

It's an interesting take, I suppose, but how do you square this argument with the fact that Moses himself tells that God gave him ten commandments?

Exodus 34:28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

Deuteronomy 4:13 So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.

Deuteronomy 10:4 And He wrote on the tablets according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments, which the Lord had spoken to you in the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me.​

In all three instances, the Hebrew word is "ʿeśer" (Strong's H6235) and it totally means ten. The Hebrew word for nine is tēšaʿ (Strong's H8672) and is not used in these passages nor in any other passage that makes any reference to the commands which God wrote on two tablets of stone.


P.S. I just noticed that someone else has already made this same point!

 

I've heard it argued that Exodus 20:17 is simply a final summation of each of the commandments.
By the failure to keep any of the previous commandments, one explicitly breaks the last.

However they are numbered, Israel's testimony of breaking these commandments is written in the pages following Exodus 20:

from the Golden Calf incident of Exodus 32;

to murder of the levite's concubine in Judges 19;

and Jezebel's false testimony against Naboth in 1 Kings 21.​

Israel's only hope was their faith that God would one day send a Savior.

Rob

 

As I said, you can come up with ten by combining making and worshiping. But they are not exactly the same thing, such as a maker marketing his images as opposed to a buyer who worships them.

While "commandments" is traditional, the Hebrew word here is "dabar" (H1697) which refers to a statement, i.e. a sentence, which might address both making and worshiping.

 

Thanks for your informative viewpoint. Our command to not desire what belongs to another does have quite a range. We belong to God, so we should not covet what belongs to Satan, the World, or Fleshy desires. But we can desire more knowledge of God, especially His plan for how we are to live out our lives.

 

Traditional? Seriously?

Ten isn't merely traditional its the number that the bible itself gives, Van. The book that lists the commandments is the very same book that puts the number TEN to them. How does that not just totally end the discussion? How much more of an authoritative source do you need beyond the books written in the bible by the very man who ascended up the mountain and was personally handed the commandments from God's hand to his?

 

Covetousness is not synonymous with "desire" except as a figure of speech. To covet something, in the sinful sense of the word, isn't merely to desire something but to want something that belongs to someone else by right. Covetousness is to steeling as lust is to adultery. Just as lust is the desire to be with a woman who is not your wife, so coveting is the desire to possess property that you have not earned.

I desire to own a Lamborghini but I wouldn't want it unless I could own it BY RIGHT. Meaning that it was either gifted to me by someone else who rightfully owned it or if I bought it.

It is unearned money that Paul is referencing when He stated that "the love of money (avarice) is the root of all kinds of evil."

Even God, who desires a relationship with us in spite of our sin, does not steel it but paid the price for it and now freely offers that relationship as a gift to all who will but except it.

 

A statement or sentence could refer to two or more commands.

 

Yes, you should receive the benefit of the doubt. Ten what, commands or statements? I showed eleven commands.

 

Ten.

 

If all we need to do is accept the gift, what is the reason for God to credit our faith as righteousness?