As Jesus is the cornerstone upon which the Church is built, so are his teachings the unifying cornerstone of Christian doctrine.

Counting 10 Commandments

Most people don’t realize that there are at least four different ways of counting the ten commandments from Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. Eastern Orthodox and Protestant reckonings are similar, except that Orthodox Christians count the prologue in with the first commandment. Jews separate out the prologue as the first word or commandment. Catholics and Jews both combine the ban on other gods and idolatry into one commandment. Catholics then divide the ban on coveting into two. We must also remember that these passages do not use the term Ten Commandments, but the words. Even other places where our translation reads Ten Commandments, the original language is just the ten words. However we count them, they are wonderful principles which would go a long way to solving any society’s problems. Politics largely discounts these remarkable solutions to fixing our country.

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