The Ten Myths About the Ten Commandments

I. The Ten Commandments have commonly been displayed in public places throughout U.S. history.
Many of the public Ten Commandments displays can be traced all the way back to.50 years ago. That's when Cecil B. DeMille, seeking to promote his 1956 "Ten Commandments" film, teamed up with the Fraternal Order of Eagles, a men's service organization, to donate Ten Commandments monuments, with the text of the commandments, to be displayed on municipal grounds across the country.

II. The Bible tells a clear story about how Moses got the Ten Commandments.
You may think you know the story, but in the Old Testament, there are multiple versions of the story of God giving the law to the people of Israel including Exodus, chapter 20, chapter 24, and chapter 34, and Deuteronomy, chapter 5. And they don't agree on all the details.

III. According to the Bible, God revealed the Ten Commandments to Moses, who took them down and revealed them to the Israelites.
Several of the Bible accounts put the Israelites much more directly into the scene. Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 say that all of the Israelites present at Mt. Sinai heard God speaking the commandments directly to them. Ex 20:18 says "And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, and when the people saw [it], they removed, and stood afar off." In Exodus 20:22, God tells Moses that he should convey to the Israelites, "You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven." Traditional Judaism teaches that every Jew was present at Mt. Sinai and received the commandments from God.

IV. Everyone at least agrees about the number: there were ten of them.
In two of the versions (Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5), there is no mention of a particular number of commandments, and God's instructions can be divided or tallied differently, depending upon how they are translated. If you add up the imperative statements listed in the different translations, you get more than ten--some scholars cite 14 separate rules in the versions in Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21, others come up with 20 or more distinct commandments. But in Exodus 34:28, the text says: "Moses was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant-the Ten Commandments." In Deuteronomy 4:13, the text says: "And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone."

V. Jesus proclaimed the Ten Commandments, too.
Jesus taught respect for much of Jewish law but when asked which commandments to obey, he says, " `You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. Also, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Matthew 19:17-19, New Revised Standard Version. A parallel telling of the Six Commandments exchange is found in Mark 10:17-23.) This led writer Gregg Easterbrook to propose posting the Six Commandments as a sensible compromise.

For many Christians, one of the most important crystallizations of Jesus' teachings came in response to a question about which is the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:36-40). In that text, a man asked Jesus, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" and Jesus responded, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

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