The Commandments

23. And Moses said unto the Lord, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying. Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.

24. And the Lord said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon them.

25. So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them.

[There seems to have been a perfect observance of the rules laid down by Moses, for it does not appear that the Lord visited his vengeance upon any of the people or broke forth upon them. And now the supremely important event is to take place: The Eleven Commandments are to be issued!]

Book of Exodus, Chapter 20, verses 1 to 17: [The Commandments.]

1. And God spake all these words, saying

2. I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. [#1]

4. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, [#2a] or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

5. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: [#2b] for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

6. And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

[N.B. Verses 4, 5 and 6 are parts of the same sentence, separated only by a colon and semicolon.]

7. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: [#3] for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

8. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. [#4]

9. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: [#5a]

10. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, [#5b] thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

11. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

[N.B. Verses 9, 10 and 11 are parts of the same sentence, separated only by colons.]

12. Honour thy father and thy mother: [#6] that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

13. Thou shalt not kill. [#7]

14. Thou shalt not commit adultery. [#8]

15. Thou shall not steal. [#9]

16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. [#10]

17. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s. [#11]

[In this quotation from the book of Exodus (above) there are seventeen distinct verses, with thirteen distinct “commands” of which eleven are separate and distinct “commandments.” That these have since been condensed into what are known as the “Ten Commandments,” is something that will require analysis, for we shall find that not all the religions which accept these Commandments arranged them alike. Some religious systems fail to include certain provisions that are not in harmony with their ritual, while others number them differently.

Professor Andrew C. Zenos, Dean and Professor of Biblical Theology at McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, supports this contention in his analysis of the Decalogue when he says:

“The arrangement of the moral precepts in the form of ten commandments was neither demanded by the nature of the subject nor suggested by logical or philosophical considerations. It is the result of deference to the popular regard and conventional value of the number ten, recognized at the time.”

However, in the condensation and rearrangement of these Commandments we shall find, as we did in those recorded in the Book of Exodus, that not all the religions which accept these Commandments as a divine revelation arrange them alike. Some are placed in different positions and some are entirely omitted because they are not in harmony with the ritual of a particular creed.]

1. And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep and do them.

2. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.

3. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.

4. The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire,

5. (I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to show you the word of the Lord: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount.)

[It is somewhat bold to contradict so great a lawgiver as Moses or to doubt the veracity of one who has seen God “face to face.” Nevertheless a statement recorded in verse 4 needs careful review, where the narrator says that the Lord did talk face to face with the people. Our first version said that if anyone approached the mount he would surely die. However, verse 5, immediately following, indicates that the writer of this version of the Commandments was well aware of this contradiction.
This contradiction is not to be lightly dismissed, in view of the seriousness of the event. If the event took place, then all descriptions of what occurred should be as definite as any law of nature. This disparity and contradiction cause several doubts to be raised - first, as to the accuracy of the events, and second, as to the validity of the narrative.
The following are the Eleven Commandments as recorded in the 5th Chapter of the fifth of the Five Books of Moses, called Deuteronomy.]

Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 5, verses 6 to 21: [The Commandments.]

6. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

7. Thou shalt have none other gods before me. [#1]

8. Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, [#2a] or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth:

9. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: [#2b] for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,

10. And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

[N.B. Verses 8, 9 and 10 are parts of the same sentence, separated only by a colon and comma.]

11. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: [#3] for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

12. Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, [#4] as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee.

13. Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: [#5a]

14. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, [#5b] thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. 

[N.B. Verses 13 and 14 are parts of the same sentence, separated only by a colon.]

15. And remember that thou west a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.

16. Honour thy father and thy mother, [#6] as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

17. Thou shalt not kill. [#7]

18. Neither shalt thou commit adultery. [#8]

19. Neither shalt thou steal. [#9]

20. Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour. [#10]

21. Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour’s wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour’s house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour’s. [#11]

[In the book of Deuteronomy (above) we find that there are in this narrative sixteen distinct verses with thirteen distinct “commands” of which eleven are separate and distinct “commandments.” Why they have been condensed into “ten” deserves some explanation. Nothing in the narrative justifies this arrangement. Who is responsible for the condensation of these Holy precepts of God?

The Conflicting Arrangement of the Ten Commandments as Revealed by a Comparison of the Protestant, Roman Catholic and Hebrew Versions

As stated previously, and subsequent facts will prove, that not all the religions which accept these Commandments as the revealed words of God condense them in the same manner or interpret them the same way. They are arranged to suit the exigencies of the particular creed and to fit the ritual of the particular form of worship.

Religious leaders tell us that the Bible is the inspired word of God, and that man must not presume to pit his finite intelligence against it. Yet that is exactly what the churches have done with so important a part of the Bible as the Commandments - God’s words said to be written with his own finger!

If there is any place where perfect accord should exist in Biblical matters among the sects, it should be in the Decalogue. If they do not agree about the only message that God is supposed to have delivered himself, how can we expect to find them in agreement on matters about which they admit there exists much doubt and speculation?

Although the Protestant, Roman Catholic and Hebrew Bibles vary but slightly and then only textually, the listing to follow reveals a deliberate change made by those responsible for the arrangement of the Commandments. 

In the First Commandment, the reader will note that the words “I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,” is left out of the Protestant version completely, and partially from the Catholic. It forms the First Commandment according to the Hebrews.

In the Roman Catholic and Protestant versions, the reference to being “brought out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,” was left out for very good and sufficient reasons! That part of the Commandment has absolutely nothing whatever to do with Protestants or Roman Catholics. When the Commandments were written, they were not in existence. They were never in Egypt, and the Lord had no occasion to free them from the yoke of bondage; by this very omission the Ten Commandments are stamped as a purely provincial code, applicable, if at all, only to the Children of Israel. In this respect both the Roman Catholics and the Protestants have refrained from using it, despite the incontrovertible fact that it is part of the Decalogue. The view of the Arian Catholic Church is that nothing should be omitted, this sentence pertains specifically to the Jews who's ancestors escaped from slavery in Egypt; this therefore will only be used with the first Commandment for Messianic Jews who are in the Church, because logically it is not recognised as a Commandment and was only relevant to the Children of Israel at the time of writing.

In some editions of the Hebrew Bible, the word “bondage” has been substituted for “slavery.” The explanation given for this change by the best Biblical authorities is that the Jews do not want to characterize Egypt as a place of slavery while the Jews living in Egypt are enjoying liberty there. Was the integrity of the text sacrificed for the sake of expediency? 

In wording this Commandment, however, the Roman Catholics were cleverer than the Protestants. They used the first five words of the Commandment but left out the succeeding damaging phrase, and have added, though in a corrupted form, the first part of the Second Commandment. The Protestants, unable to use the First Commandment as biblically recorded, have daringly taken the first sentence of the Second Commandment as the first one in the arrangement of the Decalogue!

We find that the Roman Catholics leave out the entire Second Commandment. They omit it because it would interfere with the most lucrative part of their ritual - the worship and adoration of saints. Roman Catholics not only make “graven images” in direct prohibition and violation of the Second Commandment, but they also worship these images in defiance of an angry and vengeful God.

Roman Catholic historical records show that the Church has continuously, since the fourth century, published a mutilated set of Commandments and maintained it as the true version by prohibiting anyone from reading the Bible!

Since the Seventh General Council, 787 A.D., the Second Commandment has either been omitted or falsely explained away. In fact, so cleverly did the Roman Catholic Church perpetrate this heresy that up to and even after the Reformation it was not discovered, and formed the Decalogue as accepted by the Anglican Church as late as 1563. So strongly was this mutilated version of the Commandments entrenched that even Martin Luther did not discover the imposition until several decades after his schism with Rome, and accounts for the Lutherans accepting the Roman Catholic version of the Decalogue.

The Arian Catholic church has chosen to refer to the text of the Decalogue in Exodus of the King James Version of the Bible for additional evidence of the perfidy of the Roman Catholic Church in omitting the Second Commandment. We quote Chapter 20, verses 4, 5 and 6: 

In order to omit the Second Commandment from the Decalogue, not only must verses 8, 9 and 10 be eliminated from Chapter 5 of the Book of Deuteronomy, but the above verses 4, 5 and 6 must also be deleted from this chapter as well as from other portions of the Bible.

While the Roman Catholic Catechism omits this Commandment from its arrangement of the Decalogue, the Catholic Encyclopaedia admits its validity as part of the Commandments and even its application to the prohibitions of making and worshiping graven images!

The Roman Catholic Church stands convicted not only by evidence taken from its own records, but also by its own authorities. The listing of the Commandments as they appear in the King James Version of the Bible has additional value to us besides furnishing incontrovertible evidence in indicting the Roman Catholic Church for deliberate deception in omitting the Second Commandment from the Decalogue.

That image worship is a degrading superstition and was condemned by the early Church Fathers in scathing terms, is one of the amazing contradictions of Roman Catholicism. St. Augustine, undoubtedly the foremost of the group, said: “He who worships an image turns the truth of God unto a lie.” Even the crucifix, which is worshiped and adored today, is as much an idolatrous instrument as the image of a man or woman. It was introduced as part of the worship of the Church only in the latter part of the sixth century, and finally authorized by the Council of Constantinople, 692 A.D. The crucifix was unknown until the sixth century, and liberal Protestants still abhor its use as being a macabre idol and beneath the dignity of an intelligent person.

The Christians of France, Germany and England condemned the action of the Seventh General Council authorizing the worship of images, and foremost among the opponents was Charlemagne.

It would require too lengthy an analysis to give the complete reason why the Roman Catholic Church violates this Commandment and omits it from its version of the Decalogue. Suffice it to say that when Constantine embraced Christianity, he found that the incurably superstitious would not relinquish their idols, and so the Church, after a feeble and unsuccessful effort, merely incorporated image worship as part of its ritual. The financial returns more than justified the compromise with “God’s Word.”

In order to make up for the omission of the Second Commandment, the Roman Catholic Church moved up the third and made it the second. It will be interesting, as we continue this comparison, to see for ourselves how they provided for the “ten.”

With the exception of using the first sentence of this Commandment as the first of the Decalogue, the Protestants and the Hebrews differ only slightly in the wording, which is not particularly important in this comparison.

For the first time there is perfect accord between the Protestants and Hebrews on one of the Commandments. The Roman Catholics, however, in order to make up for the omission of the Second Commandment, merely move up the next one, making the fourth the third. There seems to be no justification for the mutilated form in which they express it, nor can a reason be found for its mutilation, except to avoid the embarrassing question of why it is to be observed.

While the difference between the Protestant and Hebrew versions is mostly italicised words, we find that again the Roman Catholic Church has misplaced the Fifth Commandment and listed it as the fourth, with the same omissions.

Again the Roman Catholics have moved the sixth to the place of the fifth, whereas the Protestant and Hebrew differ only textually. 

In this Commandment, the Protestants and the Hebrews are also in accord, while the Roman Catholics have placed the Seventh Commandment in the position of the sixth.

Once more the Protestants and the Hebrews are in accord, while the Roman Catholics continue to move up a Commandment in order to provide for the omission of the second.

In passing, I should like to mention that this Commandment was once placed before the one referring to killing because at one time adultery was considered the greater offence. In fact, in the oldest Biblical manuscript, a parchment known as the “Nash Manuscript,” the prohibition of adultery precedes that of killing. 

In this Commandment, the Protestants and the Hebrews are also in accord, while the Roman Catholics have placed the Seventh Commandment in the position of the eighth. 

The significance here lies in the fact that the Roman Catholics have taken a part of the Tenth Commandment and made it the ninth! Refer again to the 17th verse of the 20th Chapter of Exodus of the King James Bible, and it will be plainly seen that this Commandment is in one complete sentence and does not lend itself to a division such as the Roman Catholic Church made in order to cover up its duplicity by omitting the Second Commandment. This is quoted for the convenience of the reader:

If the Tenth Commandment were divided into two verses or two sentences in the Bible, its separation could have been defended on that score; but even such a flimsy excuse cannot be resorted to as a defence in this heresy. Certainly the Tenth Commandment does not admit of separation. It deals with but one human trait, covetousness, expressed in one complete sentence. In addition, the first line of the Commandment, in both the Hebrew and Protestant versions, reads, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house...”  The Roman Catholic arrangement of the Decalogue makes “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife” the Ninth Commandment, and coveting the neighbour’s property the tenth. Roman Catholics apparently use the Deuteronomy version as the source for the Ninth and Tenth Commandments. By doing this, they are placed in the position of accepting the reason for the observance of the Sabbath as the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt!

While the Protestants and Hebrews agree as to the Tenth Commandment, the Roman Catholic version continues with a mutilated arrangement, leaving out vital details of the Biblical text, essential to the understanding of this Commandment.