Why do Catholics have a different version of the Ten Commandments than some Protestants?
For instance, they split up the first commandment, and make the ninth and tenth commandments one; we split up the do not covet into the ninth and tenth commandments. A dogmatic Evangelical friend of mine claims that we combined their first two into our first in order to justify our idolatry. One would have to be dogmatic to sustain that, because the evidence just isnt there to support it. Tough as it may be for your friends theory, Im afraid the truth is a lot more mundane than another alleged Catholic plot. The Commandments are enumerated in the Book of Exodus and in the Book of Deuteronomy (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 2056). Deuteronomy is a later text than Exodus, and displays a more developed moral sense by dedicating a separate commandment with regard to a mans wife (Deut. 5:21). Property follows separately (Deut. 5:22), instead of including the wife as part of the husbands property, as Exodus does (Exod. 20:17). St Augustine, and many Latin Fathers of the Church, accepte
