The Ten Commandments?

Question

What or who gave the Catholic Church the power to remove the first commandment and split the tenth commandment.

The First Commandment reads : Do not worship any other gods besides me.
The Tenth Commandment reads : Do not covet your neighbor´s house. Do not covet your neighbor´s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else your neighbor owns.

What the Catholic Church did was erase the first Commandment which says do not worship any other gods and split the tenth Commandment so there are two do not covet commandments.

I am just curious. I would like to know how the Catholic Church thinks. How they can change the word of God?

Answer 1

Now this is an interesting question!! To be brief yet concise, I refer you to the Bible, in the part where Lucifer, full of pride and envy, says in part..." I will establish my throne above that of the MOST HIGH, God,.... I will change the DAYS and the TIMES...."
Here on earth, Satan has established his kingdom and indeed gone right ahead to change the day of Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. How? It is a long story but this was done by the agents of the prince of darkness in a great meeting in a town called Nicene in Europe. Here Emperor Charles the Great, better known as Charlemagne, presiding over the trials of those who refused to ackwnoledge the spiritual supremacy of Catholic papacy, saw the passing of a law which declared Sunday as the official day of christian worship. This is total and blatant disregard of God's Sacred Law, in which the true 4th commandments tell us to observe and keep the Sabbath Day Holy...." Exodus. chpt 28. So the arrogance you see even today in that church is not accidental but deliberate challenge to the Supreme God.

Answer 2

The Catholic Church did not erase any commandment. Exodus 20:2-17 does not give a numbering system. There are 14 statements in the passage historically some of them have always been grouped together to arrive at 10 Commandments.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, "The division and numbering of the Commandments have varied in the course of history. The present catechism follows the division of the Commandments established by Augustine, which has become traditional in the Catholic Church. It is also that of the Lutheran confession. The Greek Fathers worked out a slightly different division, which is found in the Orthodox Churches and Reformed communities" (CCC 2066).

Answer 3

You are mistaken. The commandments in Exodus Chapter 20 are not numbered.

The Catholic Church did not remove the first commandment. Following is what the Catechism of teh Catholic Church, the official teaching of the catholic Church says the first commandment is:

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them."

You may consider these two commandments, but together they make a whole commandment. If you are to have one God, you are also not to worship graven images.

There are two "covet commandments" because one commandment speaks of coveting a person's material good and the other speaks of coveting a man's wife. The catholic Church considers these two commandments to make a distinction between material goods and people.

Answer 4

The Catholics didn't change the ten commandments. There is no enumeration of such in Exodus; they are merely listed, without saying where any splits occur.

The words "Do not worship any other gods besides me." do not appear in the Bible. Rather, it says "2I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3you shall have no other gods before me. 4You shall not make for yourself an image, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 6but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. 7You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. "

So, if you are going to get picky about how someone actually enumerates these commanments, you might wish to do so with the actual text.

Catholics, Anglicans and Luterans typically follow the same enumeration. The Jews, Orthodox and the remainder of the Protestants each follow their own.

Too, most of the protestant church changed the enumeration after splitting with Luther. As such, the change occurred with them, and not the Catholics.

All churches follow the commandments as set forth in Exodus and Deuteronomy, but as there are more than ten statements or commands listed, dividing them into ten can result in the individual statements appearing in different positions on the list. It's the same Bible, and the same commandments. Getting nit-picky over which number (and the numbers aren't part of the Bible) is really sort of silly.

Even more worth noting is that it is in the ten commandments where God suppposedly says that he will punish children for the sins of their parents, three and four generations down. Tell me how many people who believe the Bible actually accept that today ....

So, tell me why where one commandment ends, and the next starts is more important than what they actually say.

Answer 5

actually the first commandment is "I am the lord thy god who brought you out of the land of egypt ... " and the second is "thou shalt have no other god's before me"

but really, it depends which religion you are part of. all of the major christian denominations count the first several wrong, as to remove or eliminate the affirmative, singular, self-identification of the proper first commandment. for many of these, it is basically that it is a clear definition of God saying theres no trinity by defining himself very specifically and singularly.

the attached page has a chart that goes over the different enumerations of them.

I find it amusing that you accuse the catholics of doing the very thing that your (apparent) views do to a much more dramatic, damaging degree.

Answer 6

I was going to add my two cents to this question, but Balaam's answers say's it best.
All christian based religions are spin-offs from Catholicism. Due to disagreements on how the bible should be followed.
If it wasn't for Catholicism than none of the other christian religions would exist.
What ever changes and alterations that have occurred to the bible has occured because of these spin-off christian religions - which means they are the one's that have altered the word of god.
Maybe you should read a Hebrew Bible that has not been altered by Protestant beliefs.

Answer 7

Ancient Judaism, most Protestants & Eastern Orthodox all share the same grouping of the commandments.

My understand is that people have purposely combined the first two commandments to hide the commandment that we are not to make images. To keep it at Ten Commandments they divide the tenth commandment.

Answer 8

What gave the Protestants the right to hijack the bible that was written by Catholics.

The first commandment is still one only God.

Just check any Catholic cathechism.

Some brands of american Protestantism are very cult-like.

Answer 9

Romanism is a religion that values ritual, and sees value in ritual rather than behavior.

Pulling the first 2 commandments together was an attempt to gloss over the prohibition of idolatry.

Idolatry is extremely difficult to pull away from and so it is a central rallying point for Romanists.

Answer 10

It does not stop there. They worship statues.

Leviticus 19:4 Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God.

They confess their sins to a mortal man/priest.

That goes against the purpose of Jesus taking our sins to the cross. Mortal man cannot absolve you of your sins. Only Jesus can.

Their basis for their church is money.

1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

They baptize innocent babies and say they go to hell if they are not baptized. That is a blaton lie!

Exodus 20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

They do not teach about salvation through the acceptance of Jesus as your savior.

Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

When "ANY" religion teaches and practices anything that goes against the true word of God, they are being led by satan.

1 Timothy 4:1-2...1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

"Will not endure sound doctrine"... 2 Timothy 4:2-4...2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

I am a former catholic. Been there done that, no thanks! I am now a born again Christian. Praise the Lord!