There are [[Alleged Bible contradictions|two versions]], generally similar but somewhat different in wording: [[Exodus]] 20:2-17<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exodus%2020:2-17&version=9 Exodus 20:2-17 (KJV)]</ref> and [[Deuteronomy]] 5:6-21<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=deuteronomy%205:6-21;&version=9; Deuteronomy 5:6-21 (KJV)]</ref>. The version in Deuteronomy adds the detail of Moses saying that [[Yahweh|God]] "delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God." (KJV)
The Bible itself refers to there being "''ten'' commandments" in Exodus 34:28<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exodus%2034:10-28;&version=9; Exodus 34:10-28 (KJV)]</ref> and Deuteronomy 4:13,<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=deuteronomy%204:13;&version=9; Deuteronomy 4:13 (KJV)]</ref>, but it is not clear how to parcel out the fifteen or sixteen verses into ten commandments, and different religious groups have done this in different ways.
The Protestant Ten Commandments, stressing their opposition to statues, contain "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image" as the 2nd commandment. The Catholic Ten Commandments omit this, shifting the Commandments up while splitting "Thou shalt not covet" into "...thy neighbor's wife" (9th) and "...thy neighbor's goods" (10th).<ref>An atheistic website provides a comparison among faiths with respect to the Ten Commandments, and many sources: http://www.positiveatheism.org/crt/whichcom.htm</ref>
''The Ten Commandments'' is also the title of a famous 1956 motion picture, produced and directed by [[Cecil B. DeMille]] and starring [[Charlton Heston]] as Moses. It tells the story of Moses essentially as told in the Book of Exodus, with a few changes.
As publicity for the film, and in conjunction with a project of the [[Fraternal Order of Eagles]], Paramount helped finance the placement of hundreds of stone tablets engraved with the Ten Commandments. These were placed at courthouse squares, at city halls and in public parks, and became a controversy, particularly in recent years, as to whether they violate the separation of Church and State<ref>''Ten Commandments Monoliths'', from the [March 2002 issue of ''Eagle Magazine'' http://www.foe.com/tencommandments/mar_2002_ten_commandments.html]</ref>
==Notes==