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Which Ten
Commandments?
A
Reprintable, Royalty-Free Handbill
by Cliff Walker and Jyoti Shankar
One of the best-kept secrets in the
discussions on the Ten Commandments concerns the fact that (according to the
story) Moses smashed the first set of tables in a fit of anger, because the
Israelites chose to worship the golden calf. (That this would happen or would be
told casts doubt on the whole Exodus tale, but we will not cover that
here.)
As the tale goes, Moses smashed the
tables of stone, and God said he'd make a new set of tables containing "the
words that were on the first" (Ex. 34:1). However, as we see on the second page,
the second Ten Commandments in no way resemble the first set. To popularize this
knowledge is to knock the wind out of this entire move to place "The" Ten
Commandments in our schools.
Positive Atheism encourages
readers to print out and distribute the PDF file of the two
center pages of our July, 1999, issue, and distribute it far and wide. (If
you don't have Adobe Acrobat, you can download it for free. If you don't use
Acrobat, the contents are reproduced in HTML 2.0 below.) Although we know
that the main premise of theism is flawed, many Americans haven't thought much
on these things. Thus, to show biblical discrepancies can, with many people, go
further than any discussion of the main premises of theism.
A discrepancy not mentioned is that
between the original Ten Commandments of Exodus 20 and the recap listed in
Deuteronomy 5. Exodus 20 requires keeping the Sabbath because "in six days the
Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the
seventh day." But in Deuteronomy, Jews must "remember that thou wast 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." Nothing is said about God resting after the six
days it took to create the universe.
Which Ten Commandments?
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Protestant |
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Catholic |
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Hebrew |
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1. Thou shalt have no other
gods before me.
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1. I am the Lord thy God.
Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.
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1. I am the Lord thy God, who
brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
slavery.
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2. Thou shalt not make unto
thee any graven image, 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: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor
serve them: 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; And showing mercy unto thousands
of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
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2. Thou shalt not take the
name of the Lord thy God in vain.
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2. Thou shalt have no other
gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any
manner of 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; Thou shalt not
bow down unto them, nor serve them; 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; And showing mercy unto the
thousandth generation of them that love Me and keep My
commandments.
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3. Thou shalt not take the
name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless
that taketh his name in vain.
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3. Remember thou keep the
Sabbath Day.
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3. Thou shalt not take the
name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless
that taketh His name in vain.
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4. Remember the sabbath day,
to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the
seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou
shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy
manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that
is within thy gates: 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.
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4. Honor thy Father and thy
Mother.
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4. Remember the sabbath day
to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work. But the
seventh day is the sabbath in honour of the Lord thy God; on it thou shalt
not do any work, neither thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy
manservant nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is
within thy gates; For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth,
the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore
the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed
it.
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5. Honor thy father and thy
mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee.
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5. Thou shalt not
kill.
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5. Honour thy father and thy
mother; in order that thy days may be prolonged upon the land which the
Lord thy God giveth thee.
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6. Thou shalt not
kill.
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6. Thou shalt not commit
adultery.
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6. Thou shalt not
kill.
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7. Thou shalt not commit
adultery.
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7. Thou shalt not
steal.
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7. Thou shalt not commit
adultery.
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8. Thou shalt not
steal.
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8. Thou shalt not bear false
witness against thy neighbor.
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8. Thou shalt not
steal.
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9. Thou shalt not bear false
witness against thy neighbor.
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9. Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbour's wife.
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9. Thou shalt not bear false
witness against thy neighbor.
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10. Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his
manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing
that is thy neighbor's.
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10. Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbour's goods.
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10. 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.
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King James
Bible, issued by the American Bible
Society.
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Catholic
Catechism by Peter Cardinal Gasparri, "published with Ecclesiastical
approval" and bearing the imprimatur of Patrick Cardinal Hayes,
Archbishop, New York. P. J. Kenedy & Sons,
1932.
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Bloch
Publishing Company, New York,
1922.
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Which Ten Commandments?
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First Tables of Stone (Ex. 20)
("which Moses didst
break")
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Second Tables of Stone (Ex. 34)
("the words that
were on the first")
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1. 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.
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1. Thou shalt worship no
other god (For the Lord is a jealous god).
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2. You shall not make for
yourself a graven image. You shall not bow down to them or serve
them.
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2. Thou shalt make thee no
molten gods.
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3. You shall not take the
name of the Lord your God in vain.
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3. The feast of unleavened
bread shalt thou keep in the month when the ear is on the
corn.
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4. Remember the sabbath day,
to keep it holy.
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4. All the first-born are
mine.
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5. Honor your father and your
mother.
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5. Six days shalt thou work,
but on the seventh thou shalt rest.
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6. You shall not
kill.
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6. Thou shalt observe the
feast of weeks, even of the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the
feast of ingathering at the year's end.
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7. You shall not commit
adultery.
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7. Thou shalt not offer the
blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread.
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8. You shall not
steal.
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8. The fat of my feast shall
not remain all night until the morning.
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9. You shall not bear false
witness against your neighbor.
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9. The first of the first
fruits of thy ground thou shalt bring unto the house of the Lord thy
God.
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10. You shall not
covet.
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10. Thou shalt not seethe a
kid in its mother's milk.
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Adapted from
Microsoft Bookshelf 98
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K. Budde, History
of Ancient Hebrew
Literature
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Ten Punishments
(Let's post these in the
schoolroom!)
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1. Ex. 22:20: He that
sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly
destroyed.
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2. Lev. 24:16: And he that
blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to
death.
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3. Ex. 31:15: Whosoever doeth
any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to
death.
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4. Ex. 21:15: He that smiteth
his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to
death.
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5. Ex. 21:17: He that curseth
his father or his mother, shall surely be put to
death.
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6. Ex. 22:19: Whosoever lieth
with a beast shall surely be put to death.
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7. Lev. 20:13: If a man lie
with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an
abomination: they shall surely be put to death.
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8. Lev. 20:10: And the man
that committeth adultery with another man's wife, the adulterer and the
adulteress shall be put to death.
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9. Mark 16:16: He that
believeth not, shall be damned.
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10. Mal. 2:1-4: And now, O ye
priests, this commandment is for you. If you will not hear, and if ye will
not lay it to heart to give glory to my name, ... behold, I will corrupt
your seed, and spread dung upon your faces.
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Compiled by
Jyoti Shankar,
Bubbles Online
Magazine.
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Taken From: http://www.positiveatheism.org/crt/whichcom.htm
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