Response:

Thanks for writing.

I am not sure to which church you are referring. The King James Version of the Bible lists the 10 commandments this way (I have marked the specific commandments):

1. ¶ And God spake all these words, saying,
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.
*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.

The King James translation is an accurate rendering of the Massoretic Hebrew text, which is the traditional text of the Old Testament. Every Bible version that I know of includes all these verses. The Catholic church, when listing the commandments apart from Scripture, lumps verses 4-6 in with verse 3, and therefore goes from, (1) "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" to (2) "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain". To come up with a tenth commandment, they then break verse 17 into two commandments, one promoting "chastity of heart", and one opposing greed. It seems pretty clear to me that breaking verse 17 into two different commandments, while lumping the obvious "thou shalt not" of verse 4 in with verse 3 is uncalled for. In addition, if God intended for verse 17 to deal with both chastity and greed, why does he start with greed (don't covet your neighbor's house), then go to chastity (don't covet your neighbor's wife), then go back to greed (manservant, maidservant, etc.)? My opinion, for what it is worth, is that Catholicism has historically told it's adherents that they can not understand the Scriptures for themselves, and therefore they should not study the Bible on their own, and should instead let the church tell them what truth is. (Remember, in the middle ages, the Catholic church stood against the Scriptures being translated into the vernacular of the people. Since only the priests knew Latin, the typical church goer had no idea what the Bible said, unless the priest told him.) Thus, by discouraging Catholics from reading the Bible, and by taking the "graven image " commandment out of the list, the typical Catholic never sees any mention of verses 4-6, and never calls into question all the images that are being prayed to, and all the statues that have candles burning in front of them, that are found in the average Roman Catholic church.

By Dr Mark Montgomery Ambassador Baptist Church 1926 Babcock Blvd Pittsburgh, PA 15209 (412)477-3210