The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments are often pictured as a list of prohibitions carved in stone. Read where they actually appear in the Bible, they are something warmer: the terms of a friendship. God speaks them to a people he has just set free, and they describe how free people live with God and with one another. The Church calls them the Decalogue, from the Greek for "ten words" (CCC 2056).

Given after the rescue, not before

The Commandments appear twice in Scripture, in Exodus 20:2–17 and again in Deuteronomy 5:6–21. In both places they open not with an order but with a reminder:

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

— Exodus 20:2

The order matters. God does not say "keep these rules and I will save you". He has already saved Israel from slavery, and only then does he show them how to live as his people (CCC 2057). The Commandments take their full meaning within the covenant, the binding bond of love God makes with Israel at Sinai (CCC 2060–2063). Keeping them is a grateful response to a rescue, not a way of earning one. Jesus confirms them: when a young man asks what he must do to have eternal life, Jesus points him first to the Commandments (Matthew 19:16–19; CCC 2052–2053).

Why the numbering differs

The biblical text does not number its own commands, so Christians and Jews have divided the same verses in slightly different ways. The Catholic Church follows the division made by St Augustine, which the Lutheran tradition also uses (CCC 2066). In it, the prohibition of other gods and of carved images forms one commandment, and the coveting of a neighbour's wife and of a neighbour's goods form two. Orthodox and Reformed Christians, following the division used by the Greek Fathers, count images as a separate second commandment and join the two kinds of coveting into one tenth. In Jewish tradition, the opening words "I am the LORD your God" are counted as the first of the ten words.

None of this changes the content. Every tradition keeps every verse; the difference is only where the lines are drawn. Deuteronomy, which lists the neighbour's wife on her own before his house and goods, is one reason Augustine's division reads naturally (Deuteronomy 5:21).

The ten, in the Catholic numbering

Each commandment names a sin to avoid, but each also protects a good worth loving. The Catechism takes them one by one (CCC 2083–2557).

1. I am the LORD your God: you shall not have strange gods before me. Give God the first place: worship, trust and love him above everything, and let nothing created become an idol (CCC 2084–2141).
2. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain. Treat God's name, and every holy thing, with reverence; keep your oaths and promises (CCC 2142–2167).
3. Remember to keep holy the LORD's Day. For Christians this is Sunday, the day of the Resurrection: a day for Mass, rest, family and works of mercy (CCC 2168–2195).
4. Honour your father and your mother. Love and respect within the family, and right relations with all legitimate authority, flow from here (CCC 2197–2257).
5. You shall not kill. Every human life is sacred from conception to natural death; this commandment also guards health, peace and the dignity of the body (CCC 2258–2330).
6. You shall not commit adultery. Sexuality is a gift ordered to faithful love and new life; chastity is its freedom (CCC 2331–2400).
7. You shall not steal. Respect what belongs to others, work honestly, and remember that the goods of the earth are meant for everyone, especially the poor (CCC 2401–2463).
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour. Live in the truth: no lies, slander or gossip that damages a reputation (CCC 2464–2513).
9. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife. Purity begins in the heart, with how we look at others (CCC 2514–2533).
10. You shall not covet your neighbour's goods. Freedom from envy and greed; the heart's poverty that trusts God (CCC 2534–2557).

The first three concern love of God; the other seven concern love of neighbour. The Catechism notes that the ten belong together: to break one is to wound the whole (CCC 2069).

Two commandments that hold all ten

When a lawyer asked Jesus which commandment was the greatest, he answered by joining two verses of the Law (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18):

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

— Matthew 22:37–39

He added that the whole Law and the prophets hang on these two (Matthew 22:40). The Church reads the Decalogue in that light: the Ten Commandments spell out what the love of God and the love of neighbour look like in daily life (CCC 2055). They are the floor of love, not its ceiling.

Living with the Commandments

A good way to begin is to use them as a mirror. Many Catholics prepare for confession by walking through the ten, asking not only "what did I do wrong?" but "what good did I fail to love?" Read slowly, the list becomes a portrait of a free and generous life. And the Church is honest that we cannot live it by willpower alone: God's grace, given above all in the sacraments, makes it possible (CCC 2074, 2082).

Going deeper

• The Beatitudes: how Jesus fulfils the Law from the heart.
• Conscience: how we apply the Commandments to real decisions.
• Reconciliation: where we bring what we have failed to keep.
• Read next in the Catechism: CCC 2052–2082, the introduction to the Ten Commandments.