With all the hullabaloo over the Federal Marriage Amendment and the President's secret trip to Iraq (not to mention important gatherings of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Episcopal Church USA), we've overlooked
an interesting development in Louisiana.
The Louisiana state legislature is considering a bill (SB 476) which would allow for the posting of various foundational, historical documents - including the Ten Commandments - in public buildings around the state. The legislature is grappling with how to frame the new law to comply with the Supreme Court's two decisions regarding public displays of the Ten Commandments in 2005.
As if that weren't tricky enough, then this happened:
A House panel decided Tuesday to do a little editing on the Ten Commandments.
It turns out that there are different versions of the Ten Commandments. There is the the Jewish version, which begins with "I am the Lord you God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery."
This Commandment is entirely missing from most Christian texts - perhaps because it seems too insular and perhaps because it is not phrased in the imperative (the original Hebrew text speaks literally of ten "words," not ten commandments). In any event, that omission causes the Jewish Second Commandment (You shall have no other Gods before me) to more or less become the Christian First, with the necessary numerical adjustments continuing down the line.
The differences get stickier as we proceed, because the Christian versions themselves part company almost immediately. In many Protestant renditions, including the one I found on a "support Judge Moore" web page, the Second Commandment is You shall not make for yourself a carved image... you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. This prohibition against "graven images," is included in the Jewish Second Commandment, but it is not found anywhere in the version used in the standard Catholic catechism. (They fill the space by splitting the erstwhile Tenth Commandment in two).
Steven Lubet,
The Ten Commandments in Alabama, 15 Const. Commentary 471 (1998).
Back in Louisiana, the fact that there are different versions of the Commandments came as news to the legislators.
"We are not adding any commandments, are we?" quipped Rep. Billy Montgomery, D-Haughton, as the panel finished its editing.
In the end, the committee selected the Protestant version, and made some edits.
The committee didn't settle on the version to include but did amend the more Protestant-oriented version in the bill after a civil-rights lobbyist noted some disparities.
"It says `murder' rather than `kill,'" said Michael Malec, noting the Sixth Commandment, which commonly reads "Thou shalt not kill."
"We can change that," replied Rep. Peppi Bruneau, R-New Orleans, who handled the bill for its absent author, Sen. James David Cain, R-Dry Creek.
While the committee was at it, Bruneau said it might as well change the spelling of "honor" in the Fifth Commandment -- "Honor thy father and thy mother" -- which in the bill was spelled "honour."
The only witness to testify at the hearing was Mr. Malec, a lobbyist for the
Louisiana chapter of the ACLU. Kinda funny, isn't it?
The House committee, after its edits, sent the bill to the full House, which approved it on June 15 by a vote of 94-0. If the bill is approved by the Louisiana Senate, the following edited version of the Ten Commandments will take its place along with the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, and Article I through IV of the Northwest Ordinance.
The Ten Commandments, as extracted from the Bible, Exodus Chapter 20, which reads as follows:
I. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven idol.
III. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy GOD in vain.
IV. Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.
V. Honour thy father and thy mother.
VI. Thou shalt not commit murder.
VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
VIII. Thou shalt not steal.
IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
X. Thou shalt not covet.
If the Ten Commandments are so foundational to the formation of the United States - which is what the Louisiana legislature has said - why is it that we can't agree on what those Commandments actually are, and we have to edit together a version?