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NASB | Deuteronomy 5:21 ¶ 'You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field or his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.' |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Deuteronomy 5:21 ¶ 'You shall not covet [that is, desire and seek to acquire] your neighbor's wife, nor desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.' [Luke 12:15; Col 3:5] |
Subject: Why change order of commandments? |
Bible Note: When I became Catholic, this was a struggle for me, so I think I might understand why you ask the question. In fact, one of the first things I heard about Catholics when I became a new Christian was that Catholics changed the Ten Commandments to cover up their forbidden worship of images. And it was one of the last things about Catholicism that I got cleared up. Much of what cleared things up for me has already been said. I'd just like to add a couple of small things that were important to me. Lutherans use the "Catholic numbering" of the Commandments. The Orthodox (whom no one accuses of being iconoclasts) use the "Protestant numbering". It was mainly the influence of St. Augustine (a Western Christian who seems to be held in high regard by most all Christians including not a few "anti-Catholics") that led the Catholic Church (and Lutherans) to number the Ten Commandments as they do. The Orthodox warmly embrace the veneration of images (as was commended to all the faithful by the Second Council of Nicaea), yet they apparently see no need to "cover it up" by some "nefarious renumbering" of the Ten Commandments. The influence of St. Augustine was much less in the East, after all. I've come to see this question as something of a "tempest in a teapot." Clearly the veneration of images remains a point of disagreement between Protestants and Catholics. Nor is it the first time Christians have disagreed about it. To a certain extent, it is merely the symptom of the much more fundamental disagreement over authority. For Catholics, the decision of Nicaea II is just as authoritative as the decision of the Council of Jerusalem (in Acts 15) which also dealt with a difference in how Christians should interpret the Old Testament. Protestants disagree. I pray we'll someday all agree again. Praised be Jesus Christ! David Burton |