Ten Commandments Catholic Version: List and Meaning

Here are the Ten Commandments in the traditional form Catholics learn in catechism:

I am the Lord your God: you shall not have strange gods before me.
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that the first three commandments concern love of God and the other seven concern love of neighbor (CCC 2067). Below you will find why the Catholic numbering looks different from many Protestant lists, what each commandment asks of us, the full Bible text, and the five precepts of the Church.

Why the Catholic numbering is different

The Bible does not number the commandments, so Christians have divided the same text in different ways. The Catechism says it “follows the division of the Commandments established by St. Augustine, which has become traditional in the Catholic Church,” and notes that this is also the Lutheran division (CCC 2066).

Commandment	Catholic and Lutheran	Orthodox and most Protestant
No other gods	1	1
No graven images	Included in 1	2
The Lord’s name in vain	2	3
The Sabbath / Lord’s Day	3	4
Honor father and mother	4	5
Do not kill	5	6
Do not commit adultery	6	7
Do not steal	7	8
Do not bear false witness	8	9
Do not covet your neighbor’s wife	9	10 (one commandment against all coveting)
Do not covet your neighbor’s goods	10	Included in 10

Do Catholics leave out the commandment about images? No. The prohibition of graven images is part of the first commandment in the Catholic division, and the Catechism treats it there (CCC 2129–2132). What it forbids is idolatry, worshiping a created thing as God. Honoring an image of Christ or a saint is not idolatry, because the honor passes to the person it represents (CCC 2132).

What each commandment means

No.	Commandment	It requires	It forbids
1	Worship God alone	Faith, hope and love of God; prayer and worship	Idolatry, superstition, magic, sacrilege, atheism
2	Honor God’s name	Reverence for God’s name and for holy things; keeping vows and oaths	Blasphemy, false oaths, cursing with God’s name
3	Keep the Lord’s Day holy	Mass on Sundays and holy days; rest and time for God and family	Missing Mass without serious reason; needless work that prevents rest
4	Honor your parents	Respect, gratitude and care for parents; just authority and good citizenship	Disrespect, neglect of elderly parents, abuse of authority
5	Do not kill	Respect for every human life and health, from conception to natural death	Murder, abortion, euthanasia, suicide, hatred, scandal
6	Do not commit adultery	Chastity and faithfulness in marriage	Adultery, lust, fornication, pornography
7	Do not steal	Justice, honesty, care for the poor and for creation	Theft, fraud, unjust wages, waste
8	Do not bear false witness	Truthfulness and respect for others’ good name	Lies, perjury, detraction, calumny
9	Do not covet your neighbor’s wife	Purity of heart, modesty	Lustful desires
10	Do not covet your neighbor’s goods	Contentment and generosity	Greed, envy

The Catechism devotes a full article to each commandment (CCC 2083–2557). For a personal review before Confession, use our examination of conscience, which follows the commandments one by one.

The Ten Commandments in the Bible (Exodus 20)

God gave the commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. They appear twice in Scripture, in Exodus 20:2–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21. Here is the Exodus text in the Douay-Rheims translation, with verse numbers:

2 I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth.
5 Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me:
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain.
8 Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy works.
10 But on the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work on it, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy beast, nor the stranger that is within thy gates.
11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, and rested on the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.
12 Honour thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest be longlived upon the land which the Lord thy God will give thee.
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house: neither shalt thou desire his wife, nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his.

Jesus and the commandments

When a rich young man asked Jesus what he must do to have eternal life, Jesus answered, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments,” and listed several of them (Matthew 19:17–19). He summed up the whole law in two great commandments: to love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37–40).

The Church teaches that the commandments still bind Christians. “They are fundamentally immutable, and they oblige always and everywhere. No one can dispense from them” (CCC 2072). Jesus did not abolish them; he fulfilled them and showed their deepest meaning, as in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:17–48).

The five precepts of the Church

Besides the Ten Commandments, the Church gives five precepts, the minimum a Catholic must do to grow in love of God and neighbor. The Compendium of the Catechism lists them (no. 432):

Attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation, and avoid work and activities that would prevent keeping those days holy.
Confess your sins at least once a year in the sacrament of Reconciliation.
Receive Holy Communion at least during the Easter season.
Observe the days of fasting and abstinence set by the Church.
Help to provide for the material needs of the Church, each according to their ability.

For dates, see our guides to the holy days of obligation and Ash Wednesday, the first day of fasting and abstinence each year.

How to teach the Ten Commandments to children

Start with the two great commandments. Love God; love your neighbor. Then show how the first three commandments belong to the first, and the other seven to the second.
Use the two tablets. Draw two stone tablets, with three commandments on one and seven on the other, as the Catechism describes (CCC 2067).
Say each one positively. “Do not steal” also means “be honest and share.” “Do not kill” also means “protect life and be kind.”
Use the children’s examination of conscience before First Confession: examination of conscience for children.

Frequently asked questions

Are the Ten Commandments the same for Catholics and Protestants?

The text is the same; only the numbering differs, as shown in the table above.

Where are the Ten Commandments in the Bible?

In Exodus 20:2–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21.

Is breaking a commandment always a mortal sin?

No. A mortal sin requires grave matter, full knowledge and deliberate consent. Many sins against the commandments are venial. See mortal and venial sin.

Why does the third commandment say “Lord’s Day” and not “Sabbath”?

The Sabbath was the seventh day. Christians keep holy Sunday, the day of Christ’s Resurrection, which fulfills the Sabbath (CCC 2175).

Related guides

Texts and sources

Exodus 20:2–17; Deuteronomy 5:6–21; Matthew 5:17–48, 19:16–19, 22:37–40, Douay-Rheims Bible (drbo.org).
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2052–2074 (the Ten Commandments), 2042–2043 (the precepts of the Church).
Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2005), 432.
A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, No. 3 (Baltimore Catechism, 1891), Lessons 29–36, public domain.