# Christians vs. non-Christians on the Ten Commandments **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 7, 2016, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727 "2016-06-07T12:52:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/41 "2016-06-08T00:27:20Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > But I remember a segment of the Daily Show where they interviewed a Congressman who advocated posting them in schools, and when asked to name them, he could only come up with a couple or three. Maybe he would have remembered more if they had been posted in his school. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/42 "2016-06-08T00:32:00Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > A little Googling turns up that the story in question was [“No Refuge Could Save”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Refuge_Could_Save). > > Asimov has also written a reasonably famous [essay about all four verses of TSSB](http://www.purewatergazette.net/asimov.htm); IIRC it originally appeared in his column in _The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction_. Interesting. In 1970, at the last MITSFS picnic he came to, he sang all four verses to us. He said that he memorized them so that if anyone called him a Communist or something he could challenge them to a Star Spangled Banner sing-off. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/43 "2016-06-08T00:38:56Z")
I think it was Hitchens that argued that “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” is basically the only non-bullshit commandment. Steal/kill are too obvious; if you need a commandment against those, your society has more pressing issues. Adultery/honor parents are basically “don’t be rude” and don’t really deserve to be commandments. All but one of the remainder are just jealous-god type stuff or thoughtcrime. But the false witness one requires a fairly sophisticated moral compass, or at least one that goes beyond what a 5-year-old could come up with. Without it, you can’t really have a civilization at all. ---
**Author:** ![CCitizen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@CCitizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CCitizen)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/44 "2016-06-08T00:42:34Z")
The Sabbath is is only for Jews. Regardless how interesting conversations on Social Media are – every Sabbath is a 25 hour break. This Sabbath is next to a holiday – 73 hours with no Internet. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/45 "2016-06-08T00:46:54Z")
> [@CCitizen](#): > > Definitely. All Protestant Commandments are taken from The Seven Laws of Noah. No, they’re not. In the Jewish tradition, the Seven Law of Noah are commandments given to “the children of Noah” - that is to say, to all of humanity. This contrasts with the Law of Moses, which is understood to be adressed only to Jews. The result is that, as far as Jews are concerned, righteousness for a Gentile is measured by observation of the Noahide laws, while righteousness for a Jew is measured by the rather more demanding standard of observation of the Law of Moses. The Ten Commandments - both Protestant and Catholice enumerations - are taken from the Law of Moses. There is a good deal of overlap - commandments against blasphemy and murder, for example, feature both in the Ten Commandments and in the Noahide Laws - but the Noahide Laws do not include any injunction to honour one’s parents, or any commandment against bearing false witness. On the other hand, the Noahide Laws do include prohibition on eating the flesh of a live animal, and a commandment requiring the establishment of courts of law, neither of which feature in Christian versions of the Ten Commandments. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/46 "2016-06-08T00:56:05Z")
Non-religious. I got 6/10, which is actually more than I would have thought I could get. I had no idea about the graven image – I thought that was just a Muslim thing. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/47 "2016-06-08T01:19:08Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > A little Googling turns up that the story in question was [“No Refuge Could Save”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Refuge_Could_Save). > > Asimov has also written a reasonably famous [essay about all four verses of TSSB](http://www.purewatergazette.net/asimov.htm); IIRC it originally appeared in his column in _The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction_. Huh. Given his Bible book, I figured he’d have more to say about the “In God we trust” part. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/48 "2016-06-08T01:21:33Z")
Non-Christian here, and judging by how closely Christians follow them, I think there’s been a mistranslation. Aren’t they really the Ten Suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/49 "2016-06-08T01:32:20Z")
Jewish: I can recite all of Exodus 20, in Hebrew, with trope. I’m here to tell you there’s no easy breakdown into exactly 10 commandments; depending on how you count, it’s anywhere from 9 to 17 within the relevant passage. Getting an exact 10 is tricky, and there are at least three reasonable ways to do it if you must have 10. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/50 "2016-06-08T06:57:29Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > I’m a huge Isaac Asimov fan, but he wrote one stinker of a short story where the hero detected a German spy from the fact that he knew the third verse of _The Star Spangled Banner_. The idea was that no real American knows it, but a spy would bone up on stuff like that. Reminds me of Ankh Morpork’s Anthem, [We Can Rule You Wholesale](http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/We_Can_Rule_You_Wholesale). ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/51 "2016-06-08T07:17:40Z")
What value is that test? It only takes a few minutes to memorise all 10 Commandments in order. Now here’s a tiny fraction of what I know about Christianity: - the Ten Commandments are listed in two places in the Bible - God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on top of Mount Sinai - Moses was found in a reed basket as a baby - Moses had a brother Aaron - Moses turned a staff into a snake - Jesus said that to ‘Love God’ was more important than the Ten Commandments I’m an atheist. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/52 "2016-06-08T07:40:30Z")
> [@glee](#): > > What value is that test? > It only takes a few minutes to memorise all 10 Commandments in order. > > Now here’s a tiny fraction of what I know about Christianity: > > - the Ten Commandments are listed in two places in the Bible > - God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on top of Mount Sinai > - Moses was found in a reed basket as a baby > - Moses had a brother Aaron > - Moses turned a staff into a snake > - Jesus said that to ‘Love God’ was more important than the Ten Commandments > > I’m an atheist. Jesus totally cribbed that “Love G-d” thing. When the Pharisees asked him what the most important commandment was, there were a couple of accepted answers, one of which was “The most important commandment is the next one you can do.” But “Love G-d; love other people,” sums up the commandments into two categories. The question wasn’t to test Jesus’ wisdom, but his knowledge of tradition and commentary. Also possibly to find out whether he tended toward “Hillel” thinking or “Shammai” thinking. (He’s Hillel, mostly.) Jesus didn’t say the to love G-d was more important that the 10 commandments, he said it was the most important of ALL the commandments; there are more than 10 in the whole Torah. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/53 "2016-06-08T07:40:47Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I thought they were a Jewish thing. Exactly. The OP is like asking Terry Brooks fans to name the seven members of the Fellowship of the Ring. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/54 "2016-06-08T12:05:11Z")
Missed taking God’s name in vain. If I’d have written them down as I went, I might’ve noticed the missing one and remembered to fill it in. But I didn’t so I didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/55 "2016-06-08T12:19:17Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Exactly. > > The OP is like asking Terry Brooks fans to name the seven members of the Fellowship of the Ring. Not really. Christians use the Ten Commandments as sort of the distilled essence of the moral part of the Jewish law. One of the promises made in baptism in the Lutheran tradition is that the parents and sponsors will teach the baptized the Ten Commandments. It is considered important, in ways that the rest of the Jewish law of the OT (the civil and ceremonial parts) is not. Part of the catechism in Lutheran and Roman Catholic (and, for all I know, other Christian denominations) is explanation of the meaning and application of the Ten Commandments to Christian life. Jesus said that He came “not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it” (Matthew 5:17). I don’t think there is the sharp distinction between Christianity and Judaism that would be implied by a belief that the Ten Commandments aren’t important to Christians. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/56 "2016-06-08T15:53:18Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Christians use the Ten Commandments as sort of the distilled essence of the moral part of the Jewish law. This strikes me as a good way to put it. Although at least one or two of them probably mean significantly different things to a modern Christian than they did to an ancient (or maybe even modern) Jew. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/57 "2016-06-08T16:17:55Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Although at least one or two of them probably mean significantly different things to a modern Christian than they did to an ancient (or maybe even modern) Jew. Not debating, but curious about which ones you mean. Certainly they have become “spiritualized” over time, in the sense that they are applied to modern situations. Most of the sermons I have heard about “you shall have no other Gods before Me” talked about not putting money or social prestige ahead of God, rather than worshipping Baal or suchlike. And honoring the Sabbath doesn’t hold all the accretion of not turning on a light switch that it does for the orthodox Jews of today. Is that what you mean? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/58 "2016-06-08T17:09:16Z")
I’m a Christian, and got 8/10. I forgot ‘Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain’ and ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery’. I do remember that I’m not supposed to do those things, though. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/59 "2016-06-08T17:15:40Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Not debating, but curious about which ones you mean. The Sabbath commandment was the first one I thought of. Aside from the clear but probably unimportant difference in which day of the week is honored, I wonder how many modern Christians think about this commandment when they’re doing yardwork or housework or going out to eat (thus requiring others to work). The “graven images” one, maybe, too. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727/60 "2016-06-08T20:24:22Z")
It took me a few minutes to remember the thing about graven images, since that doesn’t come up so much in Christianity anymore. I also put “honor your father and mother” to high on the list. Using them as some kind of shibboleth is bullshit though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christians-vs-non-christians-on-the-ten-commandments/756727.md?page=4)