10 commandments vs Bible

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I am wondering why the Catholic 10 Commandments seem to go out of their way to exclude Exodus 20:4. This seems to be quite important to God based on how frequently it is brought up in the Old Testament. Can anyone explain this to me?
 
10 Commandments vs Bible >>which is the title topic>> confuses me sorry.
Respectfully the 10 Commandments are in the Bible repeated 2 times in the OT and again in NT are they not?
Within Jesus teaching, preaching on and having questions put to Jesus on the Ten Commandments? Jesus even stating, as written.
If one wants to enter the Kingdom obey the Commandments?
So how can !0 Commandments vs Bible?? confused sorry, respectfully toward. Peace:)
 
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We don’t exclude it. Idolatry is put under the first commandment as opposed to its own. Protestants generally list it as its own, after the first commandment.
 
Jimmy Akin wrote a good article that explains the differences in the numbering of the 10 Commandments:

http://jimmyakin.com/the-division-of-the-ten-commandments

The whole thing in a nutshell is that there are simply more than 10 imperative statements in the Decalogue. Thus, some of them are necessarily grouped together in order to keep the number at 10. And different groups have grouped them together differently. It’s not that anyone is leaving something out. Idolatry is a natural corollary for not having any other gods but the one, true God. So it is grouped with that one.

Look at the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 2129–2132). It doesn’t leave it out. It positions it under the 1st Commandment.
 
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Hi Fauken, I am looking at the first commandment and I don’t see it there. Am I looking at the wrong commandments? Where does it say what is said in Exodus 20:4?

Also, I’m not interested in comparing the Catholic 10 Commandments to the Protestant 10 Commandments, I am interested in comparing them to the Holy Bible.
 
What I mean by that is that what we consider to be idolatrous would be violations of Exodus 20:2-3. If the Lord is your God, the only God, it naturally follows that you don’t worship what isn’t Him – which includes idols.

EDIT: @Joe_5859’s is also a good explanation. The commandments that you shall not worship other gods or idols are grouped together. Both commandments are very similar and complimentary.
 
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Like I said to Fauken, I’m not interested in comparing the Catholic 10 Commandments to the Protestant 10 Commandments, I am interested in comparing them to the Holy Bible. And while you say it is listed under the first commandment, I don’t see it there. Where does it say words to the effect of “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth”?
 
See this chart in the Catechism.

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/command.htm

The usual form used in Catholic catechesis is just that, a catechetical form. It is not meant to be a direct quote from the Bible. In any event, the prohibition against worshipping idols is simply an extension of the first commandment’s directive to only worship God (Only worship Me = Don’t worship other stuff; it says the same thing).
 
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But it does not mean the same thing. He is saying “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth”.

The first commandment ignores the next part of His instructions. If you are saying that it is implied, sure, maybe it is, but that does not answer my question as to why the commandment leaves it to implication when so much of the Old Testament specifically talks about this.
 
Yes, it naturally follows that you don’t worship what isn’t Him, but why exclude it? Why exclude “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above”?
 
Why is it not enough to have it grouped with the first?

EDIT: Yes, idolatry is an issue covered in the Old Testament. But must it be listed by name when the real issue is worshipping something that is not and cannot be God?
 
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It is not enough because the Catholic Church directly violates the commandment “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above”.
 
No we do not. It is unfortunately a common misconception. We do not worship idols as if they are God. We do not treat them like they are God.
 
So, you are saying that you “make for yourselves carved images and likenesses of things in heaven above”, but you just don’t worship them?
 
We don’t worship them. A way to describe them could be like photographs. They help us picture things more easily. For example, say I am meditating upon Christ’s crucifixion and how I would react to it. Wouldn’t it be easier to imagine being at the crucifixion if there is a statue of Christ on the cross in front of me?

EDIT: Out of curiosity, what’s your opinion of Numbers 21:7-9?
 
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So, you are justifying the violation the commandment listed in Exodus 20:4?
 
jason2 said:
Like I said to Fauken, I’m not interested in comparing the Catholic 10 Commandments to the Protestant 10 Commandments, I am interested in comparing them to the Holy Bible. And while you say it is listed under the first commandment, I don’t see it there. Where does it say words to the effect of “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth”?
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The problem is that it’s explicitly said that there are 10 commandments (Deuteronomy 10:4), but there about 13 imperatives. Some way had to be found to compress the 13 imperatives into 10 “commandments.”

What you call the “Catholic” version is used by Roman Catholics and Lutherans, and is called the Augustinian enumeration, and compresses the prohibitions against polylatry and idolatry into one “commandment” and keeps the prohibitions against covetousness against wife and goods as two separate ones.

The so-called “Protestant” enumeration is not Protestant at all; it’s the Greek enumeration and is used by the Orthodox churches. It splits the prohibitions against polylatry and idolatry into two separate commandments and fuses the prohibitions on covetousness.

Catholics do not “omit” the prohibition on idolatry. The differences are purely practical. Catholics accept the full texts of the Commandments, but the enumeration is not something divinely inspired. It’s purely a practical question because some way had to be found to squeeze 13 imperatives into 10 commandments.
 
The commandments in the catechetical formula are simplified from the Biblical text to help with memorization. The Catholic Catechism is clear that idolatry is a sin against the First Commandment (see CCC 2112 to 2114).

The prohibition you quote is not against simply making them, but in making them for adoration (now you are leaving out some of God’s word, which follows the part you quote).

In fact, God commands carved images to be made on multiple occasions, for example:

Exo. 25:19 Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. 20 The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.

Num. 21:8 And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”
 
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So the statues of Mary, as an example, do not violate “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above”?

A statue of Mary IS a carved image and likeness of something in heaven above. Sorry, this is black and white and you lose credibility with an answer like that.
 
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