The Ten Commandments

Social issues remain hot button political divides among American voters.  Political polling finds that many socially conservative Christians point to the Bible as their guide to social issues.  With the Ten Commandments often upheld as the cornerstone of American law by conservatives, this week I begin a series of maps looking at the legal and behavioral landscape defined by the Big 10.

Exodus 20 in the Old Testament (Parashat Yitro in the original Torah) lays out the 10 Commandments. Interestingly, I asked about a half dozen friends to name the 10 and none of them could.  Several threw in gluttony, sloth, and the Catholic Church's list of the 7 Deadly Sins.  Others were sure "Thou shalt not fornicate" had made the Top 10.  

Can you name the Ten Commandments?

In case you are a bit fuzzy on them, here they are (King James Version courtesy of BibleGateway.com):

Exodus 20

King James Version (KJV)

20 And God spake all these words, saying,

² I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
³ Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
⁴ Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
⁵ Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
⁶ And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
⁷ Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
⁸ Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
⁹ Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
¹⁰ But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
¹¹ For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
¹² Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
¹³ Thou shalt not kill.
¹⁴ Thou shalt not commit adultery.
¹⁵ Thou shalt not steal.
¹⁶ Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
¹⁷ Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.