Is there a factual historical reason for the differences between the Catholic version of the Decalog and the Protestant version? The Protestants seem closer to the original Jewish version.
I hope this is ok for this forum. I’m hoping there is a factual answer in church history.
Here is a link to the three (Hebrew, Catholic, Protestant) versions. I know it’s from an atheist website but it’s accurate. sorry it’s pdf.
No, it’s not accurate. The material presented as the “Catholic Decalogue” is a mere summary; Catholics use the same biblical text, translated differently, as Jews and Protestants. The division of the commandments is a little different – Catholics separate coveting a neighbor’s wife from coveting anything else, and combine the commandment against strange gods with that against graven images, which is not shown in the summary. Why they’re divided differently is probably a matter of personal priorities on the part of the editors.
The Hebrew version there seems to be the Decalogue (10 Commandments) from Exodus. The Protestant and Catholic versions seem to have been adapted – do you know where they came from? Notably some of the explanations, particularly those pertaining specifically to the Hebrews, are missing from the Catholic and Protestant versions, and the Catholic version is especially simplified (perhaps to make memorization easier). The most significant difference is that the Catholic version splits ‘thou shall not covet’ into two commandments regarding coveting one’s neighbor’s wife and his goods and omits the one about graven images, because Catholicism involves a certain amount of images and statues. The Protestant version treats ‘thou shalt have no other gods before me’ as a separate commandment than the one about graven images. ‘I am the Lord thy God, who brought you out of Egypt…’ is a preamble, so different ways of numbering the commandments may or may not count that passage as a commandment. (Remember, the commandments aren’t numbered in the original text, so different sects use different numbering systems.)
What I really want an answer for is the two sets of tablets – the one Moses smashed, which is the traditional 10 commandments given in Exodus 20, and the second set of tablets given in Exodus 34. Exodus 34 says that God asked Moses to go to Mount Sinai (IIRC) with two new tablets, and says that he would write the same words on them – but the Exodus 34 commandments are largely different. My annotated NIV doesn’t give an adequate explanation; it just says that the Exodus 20 version is often called the ‘Decalogue’ and is 10 commandments for conduct and that Exodus 34 is the ‘Ritual Decalogue’, giving 10 commandments directed more for ritual practices than for general conduct.
One interesting thing the NIV also says is that the two tablets would have been duplicate copies of the same 10 Commandments, in keeping with contemporary Middle Eastern legal practice for contracts and covenants. The Commandments are almost always depicted spread out over two tablets, say with 5 commanments on the left tablet and 5 on the right. But the NIV says it would have been two duplicate copies with all 10 commandments on each tablet – one tablet was God’s copy, and one tablet was Israel’s copy.
The numbering of the Commandments in current use follows the commentaries of religious writers from the first century BCE to the fifth century CE.
The “Protestant” (see below) tradition is first attested by Philo of Alexandria, Jewish philosopher (10 BCE - 50 CE) and (Flavius) Josephus, Jewish historian (fl. 1st Century CE) as well as most of the Greek Fathers of the Church.
The “Catholic” tradition is attested by Clement of Alexandria, Christian theologian (ca 150 – 215?), Origen, Christian theologian (ca. 185 - 254), and Augustine of Hippo, Christian theologian (354 - 430). (It was probably Augustine’s usage that got that version adopted in the Western Church. Whether it was prompted by his desire to have two “sex crimes” (adultery and coveting one’s neghbor’s wife) or some other motive, I have never seen documented).
Note that the “Protestant” version is actually the “Orthodox” version, not something the Protestants invented. (Also of interest to me is that the earliest authorities of that numbering system were Jewish. I do not know when the current Jewish numbering system was adopted.)
The site linked in the OP does a reasonable job of presenting the numbering of the commandments according to who uses them, today. (However, the “Catholic” version is also used by a number of the Evangelical Lutheran bodies–which would make sense, given that Luther was an Augustinian monk.)
Its attempt to contrast the two decalogues from Ex 20 and Ex 34 seems to be deliberately slanted to make some point I do not quite grasp. I have never seen the list from Exodus 34 presented as “the” Ten Commandments. There are three places where it is said that ten commandments were provided: Exodus 34:28 and Deuteronomy 4:13 and Deuteronomy 10:4. There are two places where lists of the Ten Commandments are provided: Exodus 20:1 -17 and Deuteronomy 5:6 - 21. If you compare those two lists, you will find a very close correspondence.
Yes there is a few minor differences in grouping and numbering- as of course, in Hebrew they were not numbered or in numbered lines like we have the current Bible. (from the “Oxford Companion to the Bible”) “They appear in two places in the Bible (Exod20.1-17 and Deut5.6-21) and are alluded to or quoted in part in several places…”
“The enumeration of the commandments varies among the religious communities. Worshiping other Gods and making images of the Deity are placed together in a number of religious communties…, while Reformed and Orthodox Christian Communities treat those as the first two commandments. …” (They go on to explain the small differences in the numbering and grouping.)…
“The contents of the Ten Commandments are, however, the same for all of the religious communities, despite the differences in their enumeration. The differences between the contents of Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 are quite small…” Pgs 736-737. Snipped for brevity and to avoid copyright problems.
Thus your source & cite is quite wrong.
Thanks for the responses.
The reason I was led to ask this question is 'cause I’m making my way through Kieslowski’s movie series The Decalogue and I was struck that the graven image commandment doesn’t appear in the films.
Sorry If the site wasn’t as accurate as I’d thought. Based on what I’d found on the web and in the K.J. bible, it seemed accurate at the time.