Often times Christians who oppose our return to Torah observance tell us that followers of YESHUA do not have to follow all the Torah but they do have to follow the 10 Commandments. The evangelical church will fight tenaciously for the 10 Commandments as seen in the battles taking place in the USA today. As much as the "Christian Church" claims to believe in the 10 Commandments they should admit that they truly only believe in following nine of them. The previous sentence was not written to be sarcastic or condemning. Read the following Scriptures and truly ask yourself if the Christian Church follows the commandment concerning the Sabbath.

Sh'mot (Exodus) 20:8-11 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of YHVH thy Elohim: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days YHVH made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore YHVH blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. D'vraim (Deuteronomy) 4:2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of YHVH your Elohim which I command you.

One cannot dispute that the Sabbath is the 7th day, not the 1st day, according to the 10 Commandments. Nor can one dispute that YHVH stated quite clearly that His commandments were not to be added to or taken away from. The Roman Catholic Church is quite up front in stating that it REPLACED the Sabbath of the Bible with Sun-day worship. The Roman Catholic Church is also up front in admitting that there is not one verse in the Bible that authorizes this change, as do many Christian scholars.

Question: Isn't dropping the 7th day Sabbath and replacing it with a Sun-day worship day adding to and taking away from the commandments of YHVH? Answer: YES! Despite the fact that many Christians claim that we need to follow only the 10 Commandments, this study is going to show you that if you believe in following "the 10 Commandments," you will in fact end up following the Torah. So let's get started.

Many people are unaware that the Jewish, Protestant and Roman Catholics versions of the 10 Commandments differ. The difference between the Protestant and Roman Catholic versions is fairly straightforward. You will have no trouble seeing through the falseness and deceptiveness of the Roman Catholic version. The difference between the Protestant and Jewish version is far more interesting.

Question #1: What are the differences between the Roman Catholic and Protestant versions of the 10 Commandments?

Question #2: What might be the reason for the differences?

Question #3: What are the differences between the Jewish and Protestant versions of the 10 Commandments? Hint: Everything in the Protestant version is contained in the Jewish version. The Jewish version includes a part of Exodus 20 that the Protestant version doesn't.

HOW MANY COMMANDMENTS ARE THERE: 2 - 10 - 613 - 1000 + ?

How many commandments do we have to follow? Some would say 2 based on the following:

Mattityahu (Matthew) 22:35-40 "Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (KJV)

Others of course say 10, based on the 10 Commandments. Within Judaism they would say 613 based on their view that there are 613 commandments in the Torah. On the other hand, the Dakes Bible lists over 1000 commandments in the Brit Chadasha (New Covenant).

Question #4: How many commandments are we to follow?

Question #5: From what section of Scripture does YESHUA quote in Matt. 22:35-40?

Matt 22:35-40 "Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (KJV)

Question #6: How would you explain the words of YESHUA in Matthew 22:35-40? What is He telling us concerning which commandments to follow? What does He mean when He says that all the law and the prophets "hang" on these two commandments?

ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS

Answer Question #1: The Roman Catholic Church has dropped the commandment against the making of graven images. In order to still have 10 commandments, the Roman Catholic Church split the 10th commandment not to covet thy neighbor's wife nor his goods into two commandments.

Answer Question #2: Roman Catholic Churches are filled with graven images. Practicing Roman Catholics often have images on their front lawns, in their homes, cars, etc. The command against making graven images was removed, thereby validating all those images but they still "needed" 10 so the 10th was split into two. (My comment: Some of you might have thought that the command against graven images would only concern idols used in false worship. The fact that the Roman Catholic Church removed the commandment suggests that they realized that this commandment not only dealt with pagan idols but even prohibited the making of images when worshipping "God" as well.)

Answer Question #3: The difference between the Jewish and Protestant versions of the 10 Commandments occurs at the beginning. The Protestant version begins with the command to have no other gods. The second commandment prevents the making of graven images and the third commandment prohibits the use of the name of YHVH in "vain."

Numbers one and two in the Protestant version are joined together in the Jewish version. Combined they make up the 2nd Commandment. So what is the 1st Commandment in the Jewish version? Whereas the Protestant version begins in Exodus 20:3 the Jewish version begins in verse 2 which reads:

Exo 20:2 I am YHVH thy Elohim, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

I remember my first reaction when I read that this verse was the 1st Commandment of the 10 Commandments in the Jewish version. I couldn't figure out what the "commandment" was in this verse. You might be wondering the same thing. How is Exodus 20:2 a commandment? This will be the very first thing that we deal with in the section on the 1st Commandment.

Answer Question #4:

So is it 2, 10, 613 or 1000+ commandments that we are to follow? The answer is YES. What does that mean? Are we supposed to follow 2 commandments or 10 commandments or 613 commandments or 1000 commandments? YES to all of them! How is that possible? Our answer will be found in the answers to questions 5 and 6.

Answer Question #5:

Matt 22:35-40 "Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (KJV) in Matthew 22 YESHUA quotes from D'varim (Deuteronomy) 6:5 when He says "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." He then quotes from Vayikra (Leviticus) 19:18 when he says "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." He is quoting from the Torah. These aren't new commandments that He is suddenly creating. In fact, He cannot create "NEW" commandments. If He did He would be violating D'varim (Deuteronomy) 4:2 which we have already looked at, as well as several other Scriptures. If He violated any Torah commandment it would be a sin and He could not be the Messiah.

The section of Scripture which YHVH quotes from in D'varim 6:5 is an extremely important passage. It is called the SH'MA in Judaism. It begins in verse 4 and reads as follows:

D'varim (Deut) 6:4-5 "Hear, O Israel: YHVH our Elohim is one YHVH: And thou shalt love YHVH thy Elohim with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." (KJV)

To a practicing Jew this is the most important commandment in the Bible and they are correct. YESHUA confirms that TRUTH in Mattityahu 22. We are going to find out that the words "YHVH our Elohim is one YHVH" explain why the Jewish version of the 10 Commandments begins with Sh'mot (Exo) 20:2 "I am YHVH thy Elohim." Every morning and evening orthodox Jews recite the Sh'ma. If at all possible it is the last thing that they want to utter before they meet YHVH, their Maker.

Answer Question #6: So what is YESHUA saying in Mattityahu 22:35-40? Is He telling us that we only have two commandments to follow? Answer: YES and NO! What He is telling us is that when we fulfill the 1000+ in the New Testament they are all part of the 613 in the Torah. When we fulfill the 613 in the Torah we will be fulfilling the 10 Commandments and when we fulfill the 10 Commandments we will be fulfilling the 2 greatest commandments.

Reversing the process it would go like this. We need to fulfill the 2 greatest commandments. How do we do that, by fulfilling the 10 Commandments. How do we fulfill the 10 Commandments? By fulfilling the Torah, the 613 commandments. How do we fulfill the 613 commandments in the Torah? By fulfilling the 1000 + commandments in the Brit Chadasha (New Covenant).

Note that YESHUA says that "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." What does that mean? The word for "hang" in Greek is Strong's 2910 kremannumi. Thayer's Lexicon gives us these meanings:

1) to hang up, to suspend

2) to be suspended, to hang

a) used of one hanging on a cross

b) used of the Law and the Prophets, they are summed up or based on two precepts.

YESHUA is not getting rid of the Torah, which by the way would violate His own words in Mattityahu 5:17-19, but stating that all of the commandments in the Law or Torah and all the commandments in the Prophets (the rest of the (TaNaK) are summarized by these two "greatest" commandments. If you want to fulfill these two commandments, fufill the commands in the TaNaK (Torah and the Prophets) or what Christians call the Old Testament. That sure doesn't sound like what you hear and are taught from the pulpits within Christianity but it is the Truth. As Sherlock Holmes might say, and that my dear Watson, is why YHVH has you in the Messianic campJ

Article material by: Pastor Doug Trudell www.mnsi.net/~eaglesnm