Isn't the first commandment different from catholic to Protestants to jews? I know there's some wonkiness in there, somewhere.

I think they divvy them up differently, in terms of where the number breaks come.

I should know this but I don't: Are the "10 Commandments" ever referred to as such in the Old or New Testaments?

I should know this but I don't: Are the "10 Commandments" ever referred to as such in the Old or New Testaments?

I think it started as The Ten Suggestions.

Thanks to biblegateway.com:

Exodus 34:28 (New International Version)
28 Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant-the Ten Commandments.

It's different in Judaism. The first commandment is "I am the lord your god who brought you out of the land of Egypt" (i'm a little unclear in what way that's a commandment) and the ones about coveting property and wives are just one. I believe they appear twice in Exodus (guessing on the book, but it's an informed guess) in slightly different forms. We had a whole class on this in Intro to Judaism.

This is freaky. They just found the camera of a couple who were killed by the tsunami. There are a bunch of pictures of the wave approaching and hitting the shore. [link]

eta: Go to the "gallery" near the bottom of the page to see the pictures.

I do remember opening Exodus as a teenager, trying to find the Ten Commandments, and finding pages and pages of commandments with no idea which ones were the ten. I may have accidentally flipped ahead too many pages and ended up in Leviticus; but the upshot was, lots of commandments, too few line-breaks.

That's because there's no commandment requiring editing.

lots of commandments, too few line-breaks.

There are 613 in total. The 10 are just the ones that would fit on the first couple of tablets.

I think it started as The Ten Suggestions.

Are you saying they weren't so much rules, as guidelines?

Leviticus was my favourite book, until I discovered the Song of Solomon.

I have no headache. I have the edges of the headache, and the wonkies, but really? No headache is the most important thing.

What confuses me about the term "First Commandment" is that if you are looking in the Old Testament (if you are Christian), you would assume that means the first of the ten**. But in the New Testament, Jesus says the first commandment is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart...and the second is love your neighbor as yourself." (I think this is the same thing -t is referring to - at least the same words although maybe not from the same exact place in the scripture since Jews don't use the New Testament.)

** which is this:

I am the lord your god who brought you out of the land of Egypt

you shall have no other gods before me

ETA: And before the biblical pedants strike, I see now that according to the New Testament, Jesus refers to the greatest commandment, not the first, so never mind....