Ten Commandments is a list of rules for living and for worship that, according to the Bible, God wrote and gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Ten Commandments are also called the Decalogue, from two Greek words that mean ten words.
The Ten Commandments appear twice in the Bible, in Exodus, chapter 20, and in Deuteronomy, chapter 5. The verse numbers vary in different editions of the Bible, and the wording is not exactly the same in the two passages. The idea that there are exactly 10 commandments appears in Exodus 34:28.
The list below reflects one common numbering of the Commandments. The wording is taken from Exodus in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. The verse numbers follow each commandment in parentheses:
1. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; (2) you shall have no other gods before me. (3) 2. You shall not make for yourself an idol, 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. … (4-6) 3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God … (7) 4. Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. … (8-11) 5. Honor your father and your mother… (12) 6. You shall not murder. (13) 7. You shall not commit adultery. (14) 8. You shall not steal. (15) 9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (16) 10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (17)
This list indicates there may actually be more than 10 commandments in the passage, though there are, perhaps, 10 prohibitions. Scholars have offered several suggestions on how to divide them into 10. Most people see the Ten Commandments as two natural groups. It is often stated that the first group deals with the relationships between people and God, while the second group deals with relationships among people.
The similarity in the form of the last short commandments (verses 13-16 and part of 17) suggests that they be grouped together as the last five. This requires fitting verses 2-12 or 3-12 into the first five. Some people do not count verse 2 as a commandment.
The Ten Commandments became important for both Judaism and Christianity, but in somewhat different ways. Judaism believes that God gave 613 commandments in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), of which these 10 are an essential part. Some interpreters tried to show that all 613 are hinted at in the 10. Other writers felt that all 613 were of equal importance. Christianity sees the Ten Commandments as basic principles that should govern human conduct.
