The Ten Commandments: Catholic List, Meaning and Bible Verses
The Ten Commandments are ten moral laws that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai, recorded in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. They are the moral heart of the Bible, and for thousands of years they have shaped how Jews and Christians understand right and wrong. This article gives the Catholic list of the Ten Commandments in order, shows where they appear in the Bible, explains who wrote them on the stone tablets, and answers a question many people ask: why do Catholics and Protestants number the commandments differently, and did the Catholic Church change them?
The Catholic Church lists the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, beginning with worshiping God alone and ending with two commands against coveting. Catholics and Protestants use the same Bible verses but divide them differently, so their numbering differs. No commandment has been removed or changed.
For what each commandment means, see What Does Each of the Ten Commandments Mean?, and for what Jesus taught about them, see Do Christians Still Have to Keep the Ten Commandments?
What Are the Ten Commandments in the Catholic Church?
The Ten Commandments are ten basic moral laws that God gave to the people of Israel after freeing them from slavery in Egypt. The Catholic Church teaches that they are not just ancient rules for one nation. They express the moral law that applies to every person, and they show what it looks like in practice to love God and love your neighbor.
The Church also calls the Ten Commandments the Decalogue. Catholics learn them in a short, easy-to-memorize form, but the full text comes from the Bible, in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. The Catechism of the Catholic Church organizes its whole teaching on Christian moral life around them.
What Are the Ten Commandments in Order?
The Catholic Ten Commandments begin with worshiping God alone and end with not coveting your neighbor's goods. Here is the traditional list, in the short form used in catechism classes:
- I am the Lord your God: you shall not have strange gods before me.
- You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
- Remember to keep holy the Lord's Day.
- Honor your father and your mother.
- You shall not kill.
- You shall not commit adultery.
- You shall not steal.
- You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
- You shall not covet your neighbor's goods.
This short form is a summary, like the chapter titles of a book. Each commandment is longer in the Bible, and the Church teaches from the full biblical text.
Why Are They Called the Ten Commandments?
They are called the Ten Commandments because the Bible itself calls them "the ten commandments" (Exodus 34:28, RSV-2CE; Deuteronomy 4:13; 10:4).
The Bible says there are ten, but it does not number them. The passage in Exodus contains more than ten separate instructions, so different traditions have grouped them in slightly different ways to arrive at ten. This is why Catholics, Protestants and Jews number them differently, which is explained below.
Where Are the Ten Commandments in the Bible?
The Ten Commandments appear twice in the Bible: in Exodus 20:1–17 and in Deuteronomy 5:6–21. The two versions are almost identical. They differ mainly in the reason given for the Sabbath and in the wording of the last commandment about coveting.
Where Are the Ten Commandments in Exodus?
The Ten Commandments are in Exodus 20:1–17, where God speaks them to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai, about three months after they left Egypt (Exodus 19:1). The setting matters. God begins by saying who he is and what he has done: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (Exodus 20:2). The commandments come after the rescue, not before it. God does not say, "Obey these rules and I will save you." He says, "I have saved you; now live as free people."
In Exodus, the Sabbath commandment is based on creation: God made the world in six days and rested on the seventh (Exodus 20:11).
Where Are the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy?
The Ten Commandments appear again in Deuteronomy 5:6–21, where Moses repeats them to the Israelites about forty years later, just before they enter the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 1:3; 5:1–3).
Two differences stand out. First, the Sabbath commandment is based on the escape from Egypt rather than creation: Israel is to remember that they were once slaves and that God set them free (Deuteronomy 5:15). Second, the final commandment separates coveting a neighbor's wife from desiring a neighbor's house and other property, and it lists the wife first (Deuteronomy 5:21). This detail is important for the Catholic numbering.
Why Are the Ten Commandments Listed Twice in the Bible?
The Ten Commandments are listed twice because Moses repeated them to a new generation of Israelites before they entered the Promised Land. The generation who heard the commandments at Sinai had died in the wilderness, so Moses renewed the covenant with their children and repeated God's law.
The two versions do not contradict each other. They present the same commandments with different reasons for keeping the Sabbath, and both reasons are true: God is the Creator (Exodus), and God is the Rescuer (Deuteronomy). The repetition shows how central these commandments were to Israel's life.
Who Wrote the Ten Commandments on the Stone Tablets?
The Bible says God himself wrote them. Exodus describes the first tablets as "written with the finger of God" (Exodus 31:18) and says "the writing was the writing of God" (Exodus 32:16).
When Moses came down the mountain and found the people worshiping a golden calf, he broke those tablets (Exodus 32:19). God then told Moses to cut two new tablets and said he would write on them the same words (Exodus 34:1). Exodus 34:28 is less clear about who did the writing on the second set, since "he wrote" could refer to Moses or to God. Deuteronomy 10:1–4 settles the question: God wrote the ten commandments on the second tablets, just as he had on the first. Moses then placed them in the Ark of the Covenant (Deuteronomy 10:5).
Why Are the Catholic Ten Commandments Different From the Protestant Ten Commandments?
The Catholic and Protestant Ten Commandments differ only in how the same Bible verses are divided and numbered. The commandments themselves are identical. Because the Bible does not number them, Christians have used two main systems.
The Catholic Church follows the division taught by St. Augustine, one of the great teachers of the early Church. Lutheran churches use the same division. The Orthodox churches and most other Protestant churches use a slightly different one. Jewish tradition uses a third.
The table below shows how each tradition counts the same Bible verses.
| Content of the verses | Catholic and Lutheran | Orthodox and most Protestant | Jewish tradition |
|---|---|---|---|
| "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt" (Exodus 20:2) | Part of 1st | Introduction to the commandments | 1st |
| No other gods (Exodus 20:3) | 1st | 1st | 2nd |
| No carved images to worship (Exodus 20:4–6) | Part of 1st | 2nd | Part of 2nd |
| Do not take God's name in vain | 2nd | 3rd | 3rd |
| Keep the Sabbath holy | 3rd | 4th | 4th |
| Honor your father and mother | 4th | 5th | 5th |
| You shall not kill | 5th | 6th | 6th |
| You shall not commit adultery | 6th | 7th | 7th |
| You shall not steal | 7th | 8th | 8th |
| You shall not bear false witness | 8th | 9th | 9th |
| Do not covet your neighbor's wife | 9th | Part of 10th | Part of 10th |
| Do not covet your neighbor's goods | 10th | Part of 10th | Part of 10th |
Every tradition includes all the same words. Nothing is added or left out. The only question is where to draw the lines between them.
Did the Catholic Church Change the Ten Commandments?
No. The full text of the Ten Commandments is printed in every Catholic Bible, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes the complete text of Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 side by side, including the verses about images.
What Catholics memorize is a shortened form, designed to help people learn the commandments by heart. The short form shortens every long commandment, not just one. For example, the full Sabbath commandment in Exodus runs for four verses (Exodus 20:8–11), but the short form is a single line.
It is fair to acknowledge one point that critics raise. Because the short form leaves out the words about carved images, some Catholics are not aware those words are in the first commandment. The answer is not to change the numbering but to teach the full text, which is exactly what the Catechism does.
Did the Catholic Church Remove the Second Commandment?
No. This claim usually assumes that the Protestant numbering is the original one and that Catholics deleted the command against images to justify statues in churches. The historical facts do not support this.
First, the Bible does not number the commandments, so there is no "original" numbering to depart from. Second, the Catholic numbering goes back to St. Augustine in the early centuries of the Church, long before the Reformation. Third, Jewish tradition, which has no interest in defending Catholic statues, also places "no other gods" and "no carved images" together in a single commandment. Fourth, Martin Luther and the Lutheran churches kept the same numbering as Catholics.
The command against images was not removed. Catholics read it as part of the first commandment, because it explains what "no other gods" means in practice: do not make an idol and worship it.
What Does the Bible Say About Graven Images?
The Bible forbids making images in order to worship them, but it does not forbid all images. A "graven image" is a carved figure. Exodus 20:4–5 forbids making an image "or any likeness of anything" and then says why: "you shall not bow down to them or serve them." The purpose of the command is to forbid worshiping images as gods.
The rest of the Bible shows that God did not forbid all images. In the same book, God commanded Moses to make two golden cherubim (angel figures) for the lid of the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:18–20). God also told Moses to make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole so the people could look at it and be healed (Numbers 21:8–9). Solomon's Temple was decorated with carved cherubim, palm trees and flowers (1 Kings 6:23–29).
The Bible also shows how an image can become an idol. Centuries later, the Israelites began burning incense to that same bronze serpent, and King Hezekiah destroyed it (2 Kings 18:4). The object was the same; what changed was that people had started to worship it.
Catholic teaching follows this distinction. Worship belongs to God alone. Statues and icons of Christ, Mary and the saints are honored the way a family honors photographs of loved ones: the respect goes to the person represented, not to the wood or paint. The Church also points to the Incarnation. In the Old Testament, Israel saw no form of God (Deuteronomy 4:15), so any image of God would have been invented. In Jesus, God became visible. Paul calls Christ "the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15).
Why Do Catholics Combine Idolatry With the First Commandment?
Catholics combine idolatry with the first commandment because "no other gods" and "no idols" are two sides of the same command. Having other gods is the inner act of putting something in God's place. Making and bowing down to an idol is the outward form of that same act. Both are about who receives worship.
The text itself supports reading them together. The warning in Exodus 20:5, "you shall not bow down to them or serve them," refers back to the "other gods" as well as the images. God's reason, "for I the LORD your God am a jealous God," applies to both. Jealousy here means God's rightful claim on his people's whole love, the way a faithful husband is rightly jealous for his wife's faithfulness.
Why Do Catholics Separate Coveting Into the Ninth and Tenth Commandments?
Catholics separate coveting into two commandments because Deuteronomy 5:21 treats coveting a neighbor's wife and desiring a neighbor's property as separate commands. It lists the neighbor's wife first, on her own, and then begins a new sentence about the house, fields, servants, animals and possessions. The English translation reflects this as well: it says you shall not "covet" your neighbor's wife, and then, separately, that you shall not "desire" your neighbor's house.
There is also a good moral reason. A wife is a person, not property. Desiring another person's spouse and desiring their car are very different kinds of wrong. Separating them recognizes that difference. The Catechism explains that the ninth commandment concerns sexual desire and the tenth concerns greed for possessions.
It is fair to note that Exodus 20:17 lists the house before the wife and joins them in one sentence, which is why other traditions keep them together as one commandment. Both readings take the text seriously. The Catholic reading follows the version in Deuteronomy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are the Ten Commandments the same in Catholic and Protestant Bibles? Yes. Catholic and Protestant Bibles contain the same text of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. The only differences are in the English wording chosen by each translation. For example, some translations say "You shall not kill" and others say "You shall not murder." Catholic Bibles contain a few additional Old Testament books, but these do not affect the Ten Commandments.
Where are the original stone tablets today? No one knows. The Bible says the tablets were kept in the Ark of the Covenant (Deuteronomy 10:5; 1 Kings 8:9), which was placed in Solomon's Temple. The Ark disappears from the biblical record, and it was most likely lost or destroyed when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and burned the Temple (2 Kings 25:8–9). A tradition recorded in 2 Maccabees 2:4–8 says the prophet Jeremiah hid the Ark in a cave. No reliable evidence of its location has ever been found.
What was kept inside the Ark of the Covenant? The Ark of the Covenant held the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 10:5). It was a wooden chest covered in gold, made at God's command (Exodus 25:10–16). The letter to the Hebrews says it also held a golden jar of manna and Aaron's staff that had budded (Hebrews 9:4). By the time Solomon placed the Ark in the Temple, the Bible says it held only the two stone tablets (1 Kings 8:9).
What is an easy way to remember the Catholic Ten Commandments? Remember the pattern of three and seven. The first three commandments are about God: put him first, honor his name and keep his day holy. The next seven are about other people. They move outward from the family (parents) to life, marriage, property and truth, and then back inward to the heart, with the last two commandments guarding our desires for another person's spouse and another person's goods.
Note on External Links: External links were checked and accessible when this article was published. Their content and availability may change over time and are outside the control of ChristianityInfo.com.
This article is the first of three on the Ten Commandments. The other two, on the meaning of each commandment and on what Jesus taught about them, are listed below in Explore Other Articles.
