Dear Mark,
I've been very disturbed and interested in this question of the two lists of the commandments in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. I've long been aware of this answer but I think it's insufficient; the real issue is what was the traditional numbering of the commandments before the time of Christ, e.g. in the time of Ezra or when Moses promulgated the ten words?
What was the numbering of the ten words in the time of Christ? Did he agree with us or with the Jews? Are we saying that it's a little known fact that the ancient Jews changed their numbering as an iconoclastic reaction against Catholicism in the first millennium? Or are we saying that we changed the numbering (and more important, the meaning) of the commandments because we were using icons as enculturation within the Greco-Roman world? And if we have changed the numbering and the meaning the obvious question comes up: does the church even have the power to change the meaning of scripture?
Yours in Christ,
Chris Otsuki
+JMJ+
Christopher:
There was no “traditional numbering” of the commandments before Christ. Chapter and verse are inventions of 14th Century Christians. The text of the commandments is exactly the same in Exodus and Deuteronomy and in Jewish and Christian bibles. The only difference is how they get split up by a chapter and verse system that postdates Jesus by over a thousand years.
Given that the Church preserves the text forbidding images and that the chapter and verse breaks postdate the iconoclast controversy by centuries, I just don't see the problem. The Church is not trying to “justify idolatry”. Idols are still forbidden. That is, creatures cannot be worshipped as gods. Jews were forbidden images because it was the destiny of that people to be turned from the likeness to the Reality. But when the Reality became flesh, everything changed.
Because of the Incarnation, the use of images is not idolatry and the second commandment, properly understood, does not forbid them. St. John Damascene's On the Divine Images is the essential argument here. Google it and you will see. The basic justification for images is that, in Christ, God has himself become an image (Hebrews 1:1-4). Images are, since the Incarnation, not objects of worship, but windows by which we look on God.
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
Editor's Note: To submit a faith question to Catholic Exchange, email faithquestions@catholicexchange.com. Please note that all email submitted to Catholic Exchange becomes the property of Catholic Exchange and may be published in this space. Published letters may be edited for length and clarity. Names and cities of letter writers may also be published. Email addresses of viewers will not normally be published.
