The Texas legislature has passed a bill requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom in the state. With Gov. Greg Abbott (R) poised to sign it, the law’s Republican backers are ecstatic.

"Nothing is more deep-rooted in the fabric of our American tradition of education than the Ten Commandments,” said State Rep. Candy Noble (R), a lead sponsor of the bill.

She should have devoted more attention to arithmetic.

Although titled “An Act relating to the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms,” the law’s mandatory language, with no changes or additions permitted, actually includes 11 commandments (or even 12, depending on what counts), without numbering them.

I believe I know why.

The Ten Commandments are found twice in the Bible, first in Exodus and later in Deuteronomy. Both describe Moses’s receipt of the covenant at Mt. Sinai. The Exodus version comprises 17 verses; it is a bit shorter in Deuteronomy, at 16 verses.

Neither iteration provides directions for organizing the text into 10 laws, abridged to fit on a 16” by 20” poster, as commanded by the Texas statute.

There is no........

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