“Somebody changed the Ten Commandments?  Impossible!”

This might be your first reaction if you did not know this yet.  But, yes, someone, or I should say, some well known, world renowned, religious institution actually dared to change the Ten Commandments.  I won’t keep you in suspense.  It was the Roman Catholic church.  

No, please do not take my word for it but investigate it for yourself.  Go to the Vatican website, which is www.vatican.va and search for the words “ten commandments”.  One of the hits should be Catechism of the Catholic Church – The Ten Commandments.  Just in case they decide to change it, I have preserved the page here or here.

On this page you will see the Ten Commandments listed side-by-side.  In the first column it shows the Ten Commandments listed in Exodus 20:2-17.  In the second column it shows the Ten Commandments listed in Deuteronomy 5:6-21.  Of course, even though they are separated by paragraph, they do not number the commandments in these scriptures. 

Then, in the third column it shows the incorrect and  falsely numbered Ten Commandments according to “A Traditional Catechetical Formula”.  In other words, these are the Roman Catholic Ten Commandments according to their “Traditional Catechetical Formula” and not the exact  correct and accurate biblical Ten Commandments God entrusted to Moses.

Here are the several changes:

The first change is in the First Commandment where they change the language from “no other [lower case first letter] gods” to “strange [upper case first letter] Gods”.  The all lower case denotes idols, where the upper case denotes God Himself.  Why did they do this?  Well, this will become evident when we address the next change.

The second change is not actually a change but rather a blatant omission or in fact a deliberate deletion of the Second Commandment altogether.  See for yourself in the transcribed comparison below on this page.  The Second Commandment is gone.  Erased from existence.  Eliminated.  Annihilated.  An attempt to change biblical history?

But why would they do such a thing?  Don’t they claim to be charged with preserving the whole, inerrant word of God?  You would like to think so, right?  Well, simply because it was not convenient to have this commandment around that forbade the worshiping of idols such as statues of Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus, the crucifix, or saints that demanded worship or at least veneration (which is being a respecter of persons – a sin since God is not a respecter of persons).  It got in the way of the exercise of their dogma.

The Roman Catholic church buildings are full of them and always have been.  Many a Roman Catholic is encouraged to pray to these statues, to venerate them, to light candles to them and, yes, sometimes even to kiss them.

“But if they removed the Second Commandment, then how do they still end up with Ten Commandments?”

Ah, now you are asking questions that you are not allowed to ask the RC hierarchy and that are bound to get you in trouble if you push the issue.  Just be glad that they are not allowed to burn anyone at the stake anymore for heresy!

Count them yourself in the below side-by-side comparison and you will discover a very clever shell game.  As we mentioned above, you will see that they numbered only the “Traditional Catechetical Formula” and not the real biblical commandments.  Scroll down to the actual Tenth Commandment and you will notice that the “Traditional Catechetical Formula” numbers do not line up with the the scriptural commandments.

This is the third change where the original and scriptural Tenth Commandment states in full:

“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.”   Exodus 20:17

However, the “Traditional Catechetical Formula” splits this one commandment up into two separate commandments as follows:

9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.

Pretty clever, huh?  Abominable, really.  And since most people don’t really read their bible anyway, or dare to question RC authority, they never even noticed!  How convenient.

This alone should give anyone who confesses to be a Roman Catholic pause about what else the RC hierarchy is pulling the wool over their eyes with.

The fourth change is in the Fourth Commandment and which they claim is the third “Traditional Catechetical Formula” commandment, they change the word “sabbath” to LORD’s Day.  These are not the same.  The Sabbath is on Saturday.  The Lord’s Day is on Sunday.  

Yes, the tradition was changed to observe Sunday, the day of the Lord’s resurrection, for celebration instead of Saturday, the traditional Sabbath day, however even Jesus and the disciples after Jesus resurrection spoke of the Sabbath, as well as, of the Lord’s day.  

God never commanded that the Sabbath be switched from Saturday to Sunday.  There is therefore no justification to change the Fourth Commandment to LORD’s Day instead of Sabbath.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

PART THREE
LIFE IN CHRIST

SECTION TWO
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Exodus 20 2-17	Deuteronomy 5:6-21	A Traditional Catechetical Formula
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.	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	1. I am the LORD your God: you shall not have strange 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; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.	. . .
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.	You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain . . .	2. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.	Observe the sabbath day, to keep it holy . . .	3. Remember to keep holy the LORD’S Day.
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you.	Honor your father and your mother . . .	4. Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not kill.	You shall not kill.	5. You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.	Neither shall you commit adultery.	6. You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.	Neither shall you steal.	7. You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.	Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.	8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.	Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife . . . You shall not desire. . .     anything that is your neighbor’s.	9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
		10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.

• Changes are emphasized for comparison by underlining them.

Vatican source: Catechism of the Catholic Church – The Ten Commandments 

In case of removal: https://web.archive.org/web/20210331085013/http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/command.htm

Now that you know what to look for, you should be able to instantly recognize the fake from the real.  Compare these two stone engraved images of the Ten Commandments and see if you notice the difference.

The Roman Catholic “Traditional Catechetical Formula” Ten Commandments:

The traditional biblical Ten Commandments:

PS: It is scriptural that that Moses received 2 tables of stone.  Tradition has it that the first table contained 4 commandments which were the commandments towards God and the second table contained the last 6 commandments which were the commandments towards man.  In the picture above you can clearly see that the RC tradition has moved the number 5 commandment towards man “Thou shalt not kill.” into the number 4 position and onto the first table of stone adding it to the the commandments towards God.  Yes, this is speculation because scripture does not confirm which commandments were on which table of stone but it is an interesting observation nonetheless that the RC institutional tradition would dare to change the commandments at all.   

Additional articles: 

• QUESTIONS FOR CATHOLICS
• WHO WANTS TO GO TO PURGATORY?
• THE FALL OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
•  

Franciscus M. Dartee

Grow in Faith | Walk in Power

 

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