Quite a few politicians and citizens want the government to display the Ten Commandments on public grounds and in various government buildings, like schools. In such a situation, it becomes reasonable to ask: What exactly are these “Ten Commandments”? What many don’t realize is that there aren’t really “the” Ten Commandments; instead, there are multiple versions of the Ten Commandments.
At first, it might seem odd to question just what the Ten Commandments are supposed to be —aren’t they obvious? Well, no — they aren’t obvious at all. During his 2000 election campaign, President George W. Bush marched into a hornets’ nest by proposing that a “standard version” of the Ten Commandments be posted in schools and public places. “I have no problem with the Ten Commandments posted on the wall of every public place,” Bush told reporters.
Asked if he preferred the Protestant, Catholic or Jewish version of the Commandments, which he must not have realized differ slightly from one another, Bush replied: “The standard version. Surely we can agree as a society on a version that everybody can agree to.”
The issue which Bush and so many others fail to understand is that there is no such “standard version” of the Ten Commandments — something which theologians are painfully aware of. According to Frank Kirkpatrick, a professor of religion at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut “There is no standard version and I don’t see how you could arrive at one. If you try, will people be offended? Sure they will.”
The Ten Commandments appear in three places in the Bible: in Exodus, chapter 20, in Exodus, chapter 34 and in Deuteronomy, chapter 5. All three versions differ with the Deuteronomy version being longer and including different elements.
No version conveniently lists the commandments from one to ten, which is presumably how they would appear when posted. In Exodus, for example, the relevant passage covers 17 verses and encompasses at least 14 imperatives. Naturally there are also a myriad of different translations. It is often believed one of the key Commandments states, “You shall not kill.” But the original Hebrew does not use “kill.” It says, “You shall not murder,” which is clearly very different.
Historically, the commandments have been drastically abbreviated to aid memorization, which then leads to even greater differences on what to put in and what to leave out. The version that is often displayed in homes and offices is a radically shortened version of the original. But isn’t there something in the Bible about not changing the text?
Any time someone chooses to place a listing of the Ten Commandments in a home, office, church, or public space, they will be making choices. They will have to choose which biblical passage to rely upon, which translation to use, and typically which shortened version to use. These are all religious, linguistic, social, cultural, and political choices.
Unfortunately, almost no one is aware of any of these factors — they see whatever listing they use as the “natural,” the “obvious,” or just the “correct” listing that requires no particular choices or input from them. This is what makes debates about the Ten Commandments so difficult. When someone is unaware of how their own background and choices have shaped their actions, it’s far more difficult to get them to make new choices and thus change. It’s also difficult to get them to understand how or why other people might have made different choices — and that those choices are just as valid or reasonable.
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