A Missouri Senate committee approved legislation to place the Ten Commandments in public-school classrooms, but not before rewriting the Scriptures to conform with conservative political ideology, said Brian Kaylor, a Baptist minister and leader of a clergy coalition opposed to the measure.
As proposed, Senate Bill 594 removes a neighbor’s “ox” and “ass” from things not to be coveted, and replaces them instead with “cattle nor anything else that is thy neighbor’s.”
“I don’t know if the sponsor of the bill was trying to say it’s OK to covet your neighbors’ donkeys, or just wanted to censor the word ‘ass’ out of the Bible,” said Kaylor, editor and chief of Word&Way, a Baptist news publication based in Jefferson City, Mo.
Going a step further, the already redacted Decalogue presented in the bill was further reworded during a recent Senate Education Committee hearing to read, “Thou shalt not murder” instead of “Thou shalt not kill,” Kaylor said after attending the session.
Brian Kaylor
“Apparently, they wanted to make sure that the state can still kill people through capital punishment and not be condemned by the Ten Commandments posters they want to have displayed in all public schools,” he said.
In the Hebrew of Exodus 20, where the Ten Commandments are found, the word ratsach is variously translated into English as “murder” or “kill.” According to Strong’s Lexicon, the Hebrew word “is used in the context of intentional, premeditated killing, as well as manslaughter. The term is often associated with the violation of the sanctity of life, which is a fundamental principle in biblical law.”
Only 37% of the words in the King James Version of the commandments are used in Missouri’s “primarily Protestant version,” Kaylor said. “And the sponsor of the Missouri bill didn’t even know where the language came from.”
The rewriting of the Ten Commandments in the Missouri bill is especially disturbing because the censorship is being conducted along ideological rather than religious lines, Kaylor said. “That’s what makes it gross. It’s not being done for theological reasons, its being done for political reasons including editing a text they claim is sacred to justify their political policy positions.”
Another example is found in the rewriting of the opening statement of the Scripture to remove a reference to slavery.
“The opening statement in the bill, ‘I am the Lord thy God,’ ends right there with a period. In the biblical text there is no period there, but it continues with, ‘who brought you out of slavery in Egypt,’” Kaylor said.
He believes conservatives don’t want to be reminded that God is against slavery: “Removing that statement about slavery is the most significant edit and shows lawmakers are just willy nilly rewriting the text because they don’t like the translation.”
A Ten Commandments display on the grounds of the Missouri Capitol.
If enacted as approved by the committee last month, SB-594 would require the placement of 11-by-14-inch posters or framed copies of the Decalogue in state public classrooms beginning Jan. 1, 2026.
But close to 200 ministers have signed a letter urging the legislature to reject the bill as a violation of the religious freedom guaranteed in both the U.S. and Missouri constitutions.
“That freedom involves respecting the rights of individuals, parents and faith communities to make decisions about the teaching of sacred texts that inform our religious understandings and practices,” the letter says. “Bills mandating the display of the Ten Commandments demean that freedom.”
Religious education is the right and responsibility of parents, clergy and houses of worship, not of the state and its political officials, the letter continues. “The government oversteps its authority when it dictates an official state-approved version of any religious text. Our faith communities exist to help individuals and families live according to their beliefs. We do not need or want government officials interfering with and usurping this sacred role.”
The language of the proposed Missouri translation is also problematic because the wording of the Ten Commandments varies across the religious traditions that embrace it.
“In attempting to reconcile and cobble together these varying interpretations, the text of the display mandated by these bills manages to produce a hodgepodge of Scripture that includes 12, not 10, commandments and fails to reflect the beliefs of many Christian and Jewish communities,” the letter explains.
In fact, the wording in the bill cannot be found in any recognized translation.
Christians should be concerned because the Legislature has undertaken to alter holy Scripture, Kaylor added. “This bill is bad in so many ways, but perhaps the worst part of it is lawmakers rewriting the Bible. We do not need a Missouri General Assembly version of the Bible.”
The Missouri bill is based on a template introduced in Texas, where it failed in 2023 but has been reintroduced this year. Similar bills have been introduced in at least 15 statehouses around the country. Louisiana enacted similarly worded legislation in 2024, but its enactment has been delayed due to federal litigation.
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