The hazards of being raised Lutheran

[mrissa]

I was reading karentraviss's Crossing the Line, and the last line of a chapter was, "'Get up, Commander,' he said. 'I'm fully prepared to break the Sixth Commandment.'" And I went, "WooHOOOOO!" And then: "Oh. That Sixth Commandment. Darn."

So the necessary background for those of you who don't have it: when people talk about the Ten Commandments, it's not like the Bible sits down and says, "Number One: X. Number Two: Y." The numbering is up to the monkeys. It's really the Approximately Ten Commandments. In some traditions, idolatry and worship get more attention, while in others, covetousness does. So for someone who was raised, say, Lutheran like me, the Sixth Commandment is, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." But for someone who was raised, say, Calvinist like markgritter, the Sixth Commandment is, "Thou shalt not murder." Which is, y'know, exciting and all that, but not nearly the plot twist that the other would have been.

Sigh.

Comments

[supergee.livejournal.com]

I was close. This is what Wikipedia says:

Although the Ten Commandments in the Douay Rheims Bible and King James Version of the Bible are the most well-known in the English-speaking world, they do not conform to today's usage: "Thou shalt not kill" instead of "You shall not murder."

Different groups have divided the commandments in different ways. For instance, Catholics and Lutherans see the first six verses as part of the same command prohibiting the worship of pagan gods, while Protestants (except Lutherans) separate all six verses into two different commands (one being "no other gods" and the other being "no graven images"). The initial reference to Egyptian bondage is important enough to Jews that it forms a separate commandment. Catholics and Lutherans separate the two kinds of coveting (namely, of goods and of the flesh), while Protestants (but not Lutherans) and Jews group them together.

A very similar, but not completely identical, list of commandments is found in Deuteronomy 5:1-22. Reference to each of the commandments and the consequences for not following them as a part of Hebrew Law are found throughout this book. In the New Testament book of Matthew 19 and elsewhere, Jesus refers to the commandments, but condenses them into two general commands: love God and love other people.

So Lutherans and Catholics agree about 2 commandments on coveting, and I was out of date about only Jewish bibles saying "murder" instead of "kill."

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Lutherans are certainly Protestant enough to count as Protestants.