For thousands of years, people believed that the second law of the Ten Commandments of God requires people to have one Supreme Being. However, the phrase "before me" has been causing great debates between Biblical scholars worldwide.

According to Haaretz, the experts argued that the original meaning of the second rule in the Ten Commandments may be different from how modern people perceive it nowadays. Foremost, the tablet was given to Moses on Mt. Sinai, around 1400 BCE.

Now, Biblical scholars theorize that the commandment is actually an indication of a hierarchy. In fact, in Exodus 12:12, one phrase says "against all the gods of Egypt." It noted that the plagues happened not only as a war against the pharaoh but against other gods.

Thus, the Biblical writers at that time were not denying the existence of other gods under the rule of one Supreme Being. For one, inscriptions from all over Israel during the Iron Age bear the name of "Asherah", which means the wife of a god. With this in mind, an 8th-century tomb in Khirbet el Qom has a prayer engraved on it that read: "YHWH and Asherah." The complaints of the Bible writers are good indications that polytheistic worship by the Israelites persisted long after the legendary escape from Egypt and the Supreme Being only wants to be prioritized.

Meanwhile, per NPR, Catholics in Hyattsville, Maryland have built an "intentional" community of like-minded believers. Reportedly, a parish there embraced the very orthodoxy other congregations have abandoned. St. Jerome Catholic Church and the St. Jerome Academy have seen a drastic growth in believers over the past few years because of this.

This is actually really good considering that America is experiencing a decline in church attendance. Well, the influx is caused by the parish's reputation as a haven for "conservative" Catholics seeking to live among others who share their values. Therefore, the idea of a misinterpreted second commandment may never work here.