that reminds me, Robert Graves elaborates very well about the ten commandments (p.470-472): "The Ten Commandments, which are among the latest additions to the Pentateuch, are designed as glosses on the same mystery. The oddness of their choice seems to have struck Jesus when he quoted the 'Love thy God' and 'Love thy neighbour' commandments, from elsewhere in the Pentateuch, as transcending them in spiritual value. But it is a more carefully considered choice than appears at first sight. The Commandments, which are really eight, not ten, to match the numbers of letters in the Name, fall into two groups: one of three "Thou shalts' concerned with the True Creation, and the other of five 'Thou shalt nots' concerned with the False Creation: each group is prefaced by a warning. The order is purposely 'pied', as one would expect. The first group corresponds with the letters of the Tetragrammaton, and the warning preface is therefore III: 'Thou shalt not take God's name in vain.' V: 'Honour thy father and thy mother.' i.e. J H: Life and the Brightness. IV: 'Observe the Sabbath Day. i.e. W: Peace. I: 'Thou shalt worship me alone.' i.e. H: Light. The second group corresponds with the powers of the five planets excluded from the Name and the warning preface is therefore II: 'Thou shalt not make nor adore the simulacrum of any star, creature, or marine monster.' X: 'Thou shalt not bewitch.' (The Moon, as the Goddess of Enchantment) VI:'Thou shalt not kill.' (Mars as the God of War.) VIII: 'Thou shalt not steal.' (Mercury, as the God of Thieves, who had stolen man from God.) IX: 'Thou shalt not bear false witness.' (Juppiter as the false god before whom oaths were sworn.) VII: 'Thou shalt not commit adultery.' (Venus as the Goddess of profane love.) The eight Commandments are enlarged to a decalogue apparently because the series which it superseded, and which is to be found in Exodus, XXXIV, 14-26, was a decalogue too. In Talmudic tradition this new Decalogue was carved on two tables of sappur (lapis lazuli); and in Isaiah, LIV, 12, the gates of the ideal Jerusalem were of'fire-stones' (pyropes or fire-garnets). So the poetic formula is: Light was myfirst Jay of Creation, Peace after labour is my seventh day, Life and the Glory are my day of days. I carved my Law on tables of sapphirus, Jerusalem shines with mypyrope gates, Four Cherubs fetch me amber from the north. Acacia yields her timber for my ark, Pomegranate sanctifies my priestly hem, My hyssop sprinkles blood at every door. Holy, Holy, Holy is my name. This mystical god differed not only from the Babylonian Bel or Marduk but from Ormazd, the Supreme God of the Persian Zoroastrians, with whom some Jewish syncretists identified him, in having separated himself from the erroneous material universe to live securely cloistered in his abstract city of light. Ormazd was a sort of three-bodied Geryon, the usual Aryan male trinity that first married the Triple Goddess, then dispossessed her and went about clothed in her three colours—white, red and dark blue, like the heifer calf in Suidas's riddle, performing her ancient functions. Thus Ormazd appeared in priestly white to create (or recreate) the world; in warrior red to combat evil; in husbandman's dark blue to 'bring forth fecundity'."* *I love Robert Graves however i must disagree with Robert on the interpretation of the White, Red, and Blue colours. Those are the colours of Egypt: White is the Upper Egypt where the desert and Nubian gold is, Red is the Lower Egypt with its rich red soil from the Nile delta, and Blue is the War Crown of Egypt. https://www.facebook.com/notes/alexander-braun/the-ten-commandments-by-robert-graves-the-white-goddess/10153124157080442 http://72.52.202.216/~fenderse/The-White-Goddess.pdf __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ "Some Protestants accuse the Catholic Church of having dropped one of the 10 Commandments. "You're idolators! You worship statues! And because you do, your Church dropped the commandment against graven images!" The truth, of course, is that the Catholic Church did not and could not change the Ten Commandments. Latin Catholics and Protestants simply list them differently. It is incredible that such a pernicious lie could be so easily spread and believed, especially since the truth could easily be determined by just looking into the matter. But the rumor lives. Now, below are the ways in which Protestants and Roman Catholics enumerate the Commandments: Most common Protestant listing: Thou shalt have no other gods before me Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy Honour thy father and thy mother Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour Thou shalt not covet Latin Catholic listing: Thou shalt not have other gods besides Me Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain Remember to keep holy the Lord’s day Honor thy father and thy mother Thou shalt not murder Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods So what the heck? What did happen to the commandment about graven images in the Catholic listing? Did the Church just "drop" a commandment? Um, no. The Old Testament was around long before the time of the Apostles, and the Decalogue, which is found in three different places in the Bible (Exodus 20 and Exodous 34 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21), has not been changed by the Catholic Church. Chapter and verse divisions are a medieval invention, however, and numbering systems of the Ten Words (Commandments), the manner in which they are grouped, and the "short-hand" used for them, vary among various religious groups. Exodus 20 is the version most often referred to when one speaks of the Ten Commandments, so it will be our reference point here. Here's how the relevant portion of Exodus 20 reads: 2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. 4 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. 5 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; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 7 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. 8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 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: 11 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. 12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. 13 Thou shalt not kill. 1 14 Thou shalt not commit adultery. 15 Thou shalt not steal. 16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 17 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. So we have 16 verses and Ten Commandments (this we know because of Exodus 34:28 and Deuteronomy 4:13 which speak of the "Ten Words" of God). How to group these verses and Commands? Here's how different groups have handled this: Verses Grouped Together Counted as Commandment # Jewish Latin Catholic, Lutheran Eastern Catholic, Orthodox, Most Protestant 1 2 (commandment to believe) 3, 4, 5, 6 3 2 3, 4, 5, 6 7 4, 5, 6 3 7 8, 9, 10, 11 7 4 8, 9, 10, 11 12 8, 9, 10, 11 5 12 13 12 6 13 14 13 7 14 15 14 8 15 16 15 9 16 17a (commandment against lust) 16 10 17 17b (commandment against greed) 17 When the Commandments are listed, they are often listed in short-hand form, such that, for ex., verses 8, 9, 10 and 11 concerning the Sabbath become simply "Remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy." Because Latin Catholics group 3, 4, 5 and 6 together as all pertaining to the concept "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me," we are accused of having "dropped" the commandment against idols. That Eastern Catholics list the Commandments differently never enters the equation for people who think this way; they are simply against those they probably call the "Romish popers" and that's that (I hope it doesn't bother them that Jews would accuse them of totally forgetting the First Commandment, or that Latin Catholics could accuse some Protestants of skipping lightly over the commandments against lust. And why don't the Protestants who have a problem with our numbering system go after the Lutherans for the same thing, anyway?). Bottom line: chapter and verse numbering in the Bible came about in the Middle Ages the Catholic Church (which includes Eastern Catholics, too) has two different numbering systems for the Commandments given, one agreeing with the most common Protestant enumeration; the Latin Church's numbering is the most common in the Catholic Church and is the one referred to by Protestants who, ignoring Eastern Catholic Churches, accuse the Catholic Church of having dropped a Commandment; no Commandment has been dropped, in any case, but the Latin Church's shorthand for the Commandments looks different than the typical Protestant version because of how the Commandments are grouped; everyone knows how to find Exodus 20 in the Bible, anyway -- even us stoopid Latin Catholics; and we don't care how they are grouped together; we only care that they are understood and obeyed -- not because we are under the Old Testament Moral and Ceremonial Law with its legalism and non-salvific ritual (we aren't!), but because we are to obey God as children of the New Covenant, whose moral law includes the Two Great Commandments (to love God and to love our neighbor) which surpass the Decalogue, and whose Sacraments surpass empty ritual, being media of grace. Footnote: 1 The Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate (the official Scripture of the Church), and the original Douay-Reims phrase the Fifth Word as "Thou shalt not murder"; later Douay-Reims versions, such as the Challoner, and the King James Bible, etc., phrase it as "Thou shalt not kill." "Thou shalt not murder," however, is the original intent and the meaning of the earliest texts. Catholics, of course, have 2,000 years of Church teaching and the Magisterium to interpret Scripture, and the meaning of the Fifth Commandment is that one is not to take innocent life. It doesn't entail pacifism, ignoring the needs of self-defense and justice, worrying about squashing bugs, etc." http://www.fisheaters.com/10commandments.html