Is the Ninth Commandment sexist?

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How would you respond to the charge that the Ninth Commandment is clearly outdated, having originated in a patriarchal era which only viewed things from a male perspective? Shouldn’t coveting thy neighbour’s husband also be forbidden? Do the Ten Commandments need an update?
 
ClemtheCatholic said:
How would you respond to the charge that the Ninth Commandment is clearly outdated, having originated in a patriarchal era which only viewed things from a male perspective? Shouldn’t coveting thy neighbour’s husband also be forbidden? Do the Ten Commandments need an update?
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I love this question! 😃

Yet I think the 9th commandment is binding both ways, just as “thou shall not kill” also forbids abusing someone’s body. In the Catholic tradition, the literal meaning of the Commandments is incomplete. I think the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a good place to turn for the Church’s complete interpretation of each commandment.

vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a9.htm
 
ClemtheCatholic said:
How would you respond to the charge that the Ninth Commandment is clearly outdated, having originated in a patriarchal era which only viewed things from a male perspective? Shouldn’t coveting thy neighbour’s husband also be forbidden? Do the Ten Commandments need an update?
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I would respond that the person does not actually understand the 9th commandment at all.
 
People looking for loopholes or trying to say that things are incorrect are often very disappointed when they actually study.
 
Crusaderbear said:
Probably just start reading it as thy neighbors spouse…
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^This. It’s easy enough to do. Do people really need to have things spelled out exactly for them? It’s pretty clear what behavior the commandment was getting at, and also very easy to understand the adaptation to a non-patriarchal modern era.
 
So are we conceding that the Commandments do in fact need an update? I’m not trying to be provocative here, but it genuinely seems to me that the wording of the Ninth Commandment is probably due to it being given in a time period where sexism was more pervasive. I realise God works in stages, but then the question that presents itself is why should we continue to use the Ninth Commandment in its sexist form? Should the Church adapt it to say spouse rather than wife?

I did find this comment very helpful (thanks CrystalMayner):
In the Catholic tradition, the literal meaning of the Commandments is incomplete.
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The question that presents itself to me is rather, if people generally understand the inclusive meaning of the Commandment as originally written, then why is it necessary to change the wording just to conform to modern language mores? What is gained?

Fighting sexism to me, or any other -ism, involves picking one’s battles. This to me is so minor it is not worth bothering about, as nothing of substance is gained by changing it.
 
Thou Shalt Not Steal.

Cheating and fraud are forbidden by the Commandment. Withholding a servant’s wages is forbidden. But the Commandment does not actually say: Thou Shalt Not Steal, and Thou Shalt Not Cheat Nor Commit Fraud, and Thou Shalt Not Withhold Thy Servant’s Wage. We just understand that fraud, cheating and unfair withholding of payment count as theft.

Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery.

And thou shalt not lust after thy neighbor’s spouse but we don’t add that to the wording of the Commandment. We just teach that it’s included in the meaning.

Thou Shalt Not Cover They Neighbor’s Wife.

Nor her husband. That’s already clear to those willing to see it.
 
All the manner in which the Ten Commandments are written proves is that God speaks the truth, not political correctness.
 
ClemtheCatholic said:
So are we conceding that the Commandments do in fact need an update? I’m not trying to be provocative here, but it genuinely seems to me that the wording of the Ninth Commandment is probably due to it being given in a time period where sexism was more pervasive.
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No, it doesn’t need to be updated. It does come from a different time. It comes from when common sense was more pervasive.
 
Look at it this way, if God was strictly speaking to man - and not woman - giving him these specific commandments that will guide his conscious and actions, then that could mean he saw man as the weaker of the two sexes.

sigh “Gotta give man his guidelines … seems to never get it right without me having to spell it out for him. Moses, yo! I’ll need you for a bit. Tell your people you’ll be away for about 40 days. Tell 'em to wait at the foot of the mountain.”

Of course this is all said half-jokingly.
 
Of course it’s sexist.

Against men!

Because it assumes that only men lust, whereas women have no problem with this.

As a man, I’m so utterly offended at this!!!
 
ClemtheCatholic said:
How would you respond to the charge that the Ninth Commandment is clearly outdated, having originated in a patriarchal era which only viewed things from a male perspective? Shouldn’t coveting thy neighbour’s husband also be forbidden? Do the Ten Commandments need an update?
Click to expand...
Critical thinking is your friend.
 
“Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery” applies, clearly, to either a man or a woman.
“Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Wife” clearly applies to a man.
These two Commandments are pretty much the same thing, and “Adultery” covers both. I’ve always wondered, then, why there were two which practically mean the same thing.
 
Crown_of_Stars said:
“Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery” applies, clearly, to either a man or a woman.
“Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Wife” clearly applies to a man.
These two Commandments are pretty much the same thing, and “Adultery” covers both. I’ve always wondered, then, why there were two which practically mean the same thing.
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I’ve read somewhere that the Commandments did not originally have numbers attached to them. That was done centuries later by the descendants of the generation that received the Commandments.
 
ClemtheCatholic said:
How would you respond to the charge that the Ninth Commandment is clearly outdated, having originated in a patriarchal era which only viewed things from a male perspective? Shouldn’t coveting thy neighbour’s husband also be forbidden? Do the Ten Commandments need an update?
Click to expand...
The Catechism explains that adultery of the spouse is a grave sin: this applies to either sex. This has been doctrine since the time of Christ and was doctrine in Jewish society as well, although culturally, it is accurate that it would have been much easier for a woman to be condemned for adultery than a man. Human justice is imperfect, especially concerning members of society that are more vulnerable. In the most radical sense, the unborn, but anybody who has less influence in society, which women in the ancient world had little of.

The book of Exodus was written in an ancient Mesopotamian society and men were the default holders and progenitors of civil and religious law. The texts were written by men and to be read by men, though it was exceedingly more common to be learned orally.
 
Adultery in Biblical Judaism is defined as a male sexually taking what is not his to take: another man’s wife or betrothed. If the woman is not married, he is not committing adultery.

The female is the property of either her father or her husband.

So yes, it would seem to be sexist. But that was a different time and culture. I don’t know when the Church changed the interpretation of the original commandment.
 
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