Daily Retreat 07/27/07
2007 Jul 27 Fri
Ex 20:1-17/ Ps 18(19):8. 9. 10. 11/ Mt 13:18-23
From today’s readings:“In those days: God delivered all these commandments.... Lord, You have the words of everlasting life.... Hear the parable of the sower....”
The Ten Commandments
There’s a simple mnemonic trick to remember where the Ten Commandments are found in Holy Scripture. Everyone knows that God gave the Decalogue through Moses, who, of course, was also the man God chose to lead His people out of the slavery of Egypt. That part of salvation history is recounted in the Book of Exodus, which is the second book of the Bible. Now, we’re looking for the Ten Commandments in the second book of the Bible, and 10 x 2 = 20, so by a happy coincidence, the Decalogue is found right there at the beginning of Chapter Twenty of the book of Exodus. Pretty simple, eh?
Another list of the Ten Commandments is found in Chapter Five of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Bible. At times, a bit of confusion arises because, although Jews, Catholics, and Protestants all agree that God gave His people these ten commandments, and although everyone agrees that those commandments are listed in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, there are slightly different approaches on how to number them.
The Jewish tradition considers Exodus 20:2 “I am the Lord, your God” by itself as the first commandment, whereas Protestants also include the next verse, “you shall not have other gods besides Me,” and Catholics count verses 2-6 all as part of the first commandment (this includes the prohibition against idols, which most Protestants count as a separate commandment). And while Jews and Protestants usually summarize the last commandment simply as “You shall not covet,” the Catholic delineation considers coveting property a separate commandment from coveting a spouse, and the order of these prohibitions follows the order in Deuteronomy, which lists “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” before “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house...” (you might have noticed that the reverse order of those two is found in Exodus).
Of course, there’s no excuse for bickering over how to order or count the commandments - all God cares about is that we take them to heart and obey His commandments!
Ex 20:1-17/ Ps 18(19):8. 9. 10. 11/ Mt 13:18-23
From today’s readings:“In those days: God delivered all these commandments.... Lord, You have the words of everlasting life.... Hear the parable of the sower....”
The Ten Commandments
There’s a simple mnemonic trick to remember where the Ten Commandments are found in Holy Scripture. Everyone knows that God gave the Decalogue through Moses, who, of course, was also the man God chose to lead His people out of the slavery of Egypt. That part of salvation history is recounted in the Book of Exodus, which is the second book of the Bible. Now, we’re looking for the Ten Commandments in the second book of the Bible, and 10 x 2 = 20, so by a happy coincidence, the Decalogue is found right there at the beginning of Chapter Twenty of the book of Exodus. Pretty simple, eh?
Another list of the Ten Commandments is found in Chapter Five of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Bible. At times, a bit of confusion arises because, although Jews, Catholics, and Protestants all agree that God gave His people these ten commandments, and although everyone agrees that those commandments are listed in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, there are slightly different approaches on how to number them.
The Jewish tradition considers Exodus 20:2 “I am the Lord, your God” by itself as the first commandment, whereas Protestants also include the next verse, “you shall not have other gods besides Me,” and Catholics count verses 2-6 all as part of the first commandment (this includes the prohibition against idols, which most Protestants count as a separate commandment). And while Jews and Protestants usually summarize the last commandment simply as “You shall not covet,” the Catholic delineation considers coveting property a separate commandment from coveting a spouse, and the order of these prohibitions follows the order in Deuteronomy, which lists “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” before “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house...” (you might have noticed that the reverse order of those two is found in Exodus).
Of course, there’s no excuse for bickering over how to order or count the commandments - all God cares about is that we take them to heart and obey His commandments!
posted by FrPitstick | 7/25/2007
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