One of the interesting things about the Bible, is that while I believe it's Divinely inspired, it was, indeed, written by humans. It's also interpreted by humans, and I'm one of them, so this is my interpretation. You have a point about what Jesus listed as the commandments, but you didn't point out that the whole passage in both Matthew and Mark were questions about how to gain eternal life. After Jesus lists the commandments (or the questioner lists them for Him), the questioner says "but I did all that", and Jesus tells him that really to be a disciple and gain eternal life, one has to give up everything. That theme runs throughout all four Gospels: that what we have on Earth is nothing compared to the reality of our relationship with God, and unless we truly accept that life is temporal and "dust in the wind", and the only "reality" is Love (remember God is Love), we won't be truly able to live in full relationship with God. Whew! Back to your question about the number of commandments: in Luke 10:25-28, the questioner asks Jesus the same "eternal life" thing and the answer is "love God with all your heart, mind, etc." There's another part where Jesus says "love others as I have loved you" (sorry, don't have the exact passage). I like that one better, because when we have to love others as we love ourselves, well, sometimes we don't love ourselves very much, but I'm convinced that He loves all of us! Therefore, don't be too tough on the Christian church leaders (at least all of them). The Bible itself isn't really clear all of the time. Here's my tip: the "how" of something is interesting, but not really important. For example, "how" many days to create the heavens and earth, etc. "How" did the walls of Jerico tumble"? "How" was Jesus concieved? The really important questions are "why" questions. "Why" did Jesus come among us? "Why do those religious leaders teach what they teach? Is it to frighten you into submission, as in "You'll go to hell if you're not a true believer", or is an attempt to pass on the Truth of God's ever steadfast love for us all?