Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour

"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" (Biblical Hebrew: לֹא תַעֲנֶה בְרֵעֲךָ עֵד שָׁקֶר, romanized: Lōʾ t̲aʿăneh b̲ərēʿăk̲ā ʿēd̲ šāqer) (Exodus 20:16) is one of the Ten Commandments,[1][2] widely understood as moral imperatives in Judaism and Christianity.

[22][23] The 1 Samuel narrative had described Saul as killing himself by falling on his own sword after having been wounded by the Philistines on Mount Gilboa and being in a situation with no hope of victory or escape.

"If a person sins because he does not speak up when he hears a public charge to testify regarding something he has seen or learned about, he will be held responsible.

[28] In Sefer Hachinuch, one who fails to testify when one is aware of evidence is compared to one who stands idly by the blood of one's neighbor.

[32] The New Testament narrative also describes several occasions where people testify falsely against Jesus and his disciples.

Stephen used the occasion of his trial to remind the Sanhedrin of the Old Testament testimony of rebellion, idolatry, and persecution of the prophets that culminated in the murder of Jesus.

[35][36][37] The New Testament depicts the Apostles as being appointed as true witnesses to the ministry and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In Romans 13:9, Paul lists a number of the ten commandments which can be summed up in the saying "You shall love your neighbor as yourself".

[42] Some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia came upon Stephen and seized him and brought him before the council and set up false witnesses against him.

These false witnesses said: "This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place (Temple of Jerusalem) and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place (Stephen said that the temple of Jesus′ body had been destroyed by others but raise it up by Him in three days, according with what Jesus had said [43]) and the customs that Moses delivered to us.

Slander and gossip are equally evil, and the initial speaker is responsible for any further damage caused as the report is spread.

Unless there is a compelling reason to speak ill of someone, as is the case of protect oneself or others against harm, it is not permissible even if the account be true.

"(1 John 1:6)[50] To keep "a clear conscience toward God and toward men"(Acts 24:16), Christians must follow Christ's example "to bear witness to the truth.

Christian witness to the Gospel and the obligations that flow from it are an act of justice that establishes the truth or makes it known.

[51] Christ's disciples have "put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

[52] Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause unjust injury.

[53] Not only are gossip and slander held to be covered by the commandment against false witness, Catholic teaching also holds that "every word or attitude is forbidden which by flattery, adulation, or complaisance encourages and confirms another in malicious acts and perverse conduct.

The deliberate intention of leading a neighbor into error by saying things contrary to the truth constitutes a failure in justice and charity.

The culpability is greater when the intention of deceiving entails the risk of deadly consequences for those who are led astray.

Luther also asserted that this command extends to the spiritual jurisdiction and prohibited slander against preachers and Christians by calling them heretics, apostates, seditious, wicked, etc.

Thirdly, he described the commandment against false witness to prohibit the public judgment and reproof of his neighbor.

)[57] Over and above our own body, spouse, and temporal possessions, we have yet another treasure, namely, honor and good report [the illustrious testimony of an upright and unsullied name and reputation], with which we cannot dispense.

And in the first place, we take the plainest meaning of this commandment according to the words (Thou shalt not bear false witness), as pertaining to the public courts of justice, where a poor innocent man is accused and oppressed by false witnesses in order to be punished in his body, property, or honor.Slanderers are not content with knowing a thing, but "proceed to assume jurisdiction, and when they know a slight offense of another, carry it into every corner, and are delighted and tickled that they can stir up another's displeasure [baseness], as swine roll themselves in the dirt and root in it with the snout."

Luther describes this as meddling with the judgment and office of God, and pronouncing sentence and punishment with the most severe verdict.

Ah, I cannot prove it publicly, and hence I might be silenced and turned away in a harsh manner [incur the penalty of a false accusation].

By malignant or vicious detraction, we sin against our neighbor's good name: by lying, sometimes even by casting a slur upon him, we injure him in his estate.

For we must always recur to the consideration, that for each kind of transgression one species is set forth by way of example, that to it the others may be referred, and that the species chiefly selected, is that in which the turpitude of the transgression is most apparent.Calvin asserted that God's intent in the prohibition of false witness extended "more generally to calumny and sinister insinuations by which our neighbors are unjustly aggrieved.

But if we turn our eye to the Lawgiver, whose just authority extends over the ears and the mind, as well as the tongue, we cannot fail to perceive that eagerness to listen to slander, and an unbecoming proneness to censorious judgements are here forbidden.Matthew Henry taught that the prohibition against false witness concerns our own and our neighbor's good name.

Bearing false witness against him, laying to his charge things that he knows not, either judicially, upon oath (by which the third commandment, and the sixth and eighth, as well as this, are broken), or extrajudicially, in common converse, slandering, backbiting, tale-bearing, aggravating what is done amiss and making it worse than it is, and any way endeavouring to raise our own reputation upon the ruin of our neighbour's.

In a broader sense, the Eighth Commandment can be understood as a prohibition against any dishonest conduct (Leviticus 19: 11).