statues

The Catholic listing of the 10 commandments is taken from the Hebrew texts and includes as one commandment worshiping graven images and idolatry. Many protestants list this first commandment into two distinct commandments regarding strange gods and graven images. This falls into the error of taking texts out of context and creating a pretext which distorts the original intention. Five chapters after the ten commandments, God instructs Moses to carve angels that would sit on top of the Ark of the Covenant. Clearly the prohibition was against the idolatry of worshiping images and not in carving them. To make up for this expansion of the first commandment into two, protestants contract the coveting of another's spouse (lust) and coveting another's goods into one commandment. This would reduce spouses to mere property. There are clearly two very different sins with vastly different gravity.