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"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour" is the ninth (respectively the eighth according to the Catholic and Lutheran count〔"Counting the Ten Commandments" in Bible Study Magazine ()〕) of the Ten Commandments,〔Exodus 20:1-21, Deuteronomy 5:1-23, Ten Commandments, New Bible Dictionary, Second Edition, Tyndale House, 1982 pp. 1174-1175〕 which are widely understood as moral imperatives by legal scholars, Jewish scholars, Catholic scholars, and Post-Reformation scholars.〔How Judges Think, Richard A. Posner, Harvard University Press, 2008, p. 322; ‘’Ten Commandments,’’ New Bible Dictionary, Second Edition, Tyndale House, 1982 pp. 1174-1175; The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, 1988, p. 117; Renewal theology: systematic theology from a charismatic perspective, J. Rodman Williams, 1996 p.240; Making moral decisions: a Christian approach to personal and social ethics, Paul T. Jersild, 1991, p. 24〕 The book of Exodus describes the Ten Commandments as being spoken by God, inscribed on two stone tablets by the finger of God, broken by Moses, and rewritten on replacements stones by the . The command against false testimony is seen as a natural consequence of the command to “love your neighbor as yourself.” This moral prescription flows from the command for holy people to bear witness to their deity. Offenses against the truth express by word or deed a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness: they are fundamental infidelities to God and, in this sense, they undermine the foundations of covenant with God. ==Ancient understanding== The Hebrew Bible contains a number prohibitions of false witness, lying, spreading false reports, etc.〔Exodus 20:16, Deuteronomy 5:20, Exodus 23:1-2, Proverbs 19:5, Isaiah 29:20-22〕 A charge was established only on the evidence of two or three witnesses. In cases where false testimony was suspected, the judges were to make a thorough investigation, and if false testimony were proven, the false witness was to receive the punishment he had intended to bring on the person falsely accused.〔Deuteronomy 19:17-19〕 For example, since murder was a capital crime, giving false testimony in a murder case was subject to the death penalty. Those eager to receive or listen to false testimony were also subject to punishment.〔Proverbs 21:28〕 False witness is among the six things God hates, king Solomon says. False testimony is among the things that defile a person, Jesus says. The witness who hid what he had seen or what he knew bore his iniquity; if he realized his guilt, he had to confess his sin, brought to the Lord a female lamb or goat from the flock (or two turtledoves or two pigeons, or a tenth of an ephah of fine flour) for a sin offering as his compensation for the sin he committed. The lying witness is a deceitful man, who mocks at justice. He is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow. ″A false witness will not go unpunished.″ king Solomon says. ″A false witness will perish″ if he does not repent. 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 ) and the customs that Moses delivered to us."(Stephen said what Jesus had said namely He had come to fulfil the Law of Moses and the Prophets) And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw Stephen′ s face was like the face of an angel. Many testified falsely against Jesus, but their statements did not agree. At last two witnesses said they had heard Him saying He would destroy that temple and in three days built another, not made with hands, (He really had meant the resurrection of His body, as a temple of the Holy Spirit, destroyed by others but raise it up by Him〔). Yet even about this their testimony did not agree. The narrative in 1 Kings 21 describes a case of false testimony. King Ahab of Israel tried to convince Naboth the Jezreelite to sell him the vineyard Naboth owned adjacent to the king’s palace. Ahab wanted the land to use as a vegetable garden, but Naboth refused to sell or trade the property to Ahab saying, “The forbid that I should give up to you what I have inherited from my fathers!”〔1 Kings 21:4 (JPS)〕 Ahab’s wife Jezebel then conspired to obtain the vineyard by writing letters in Ahab’s name to the elders and nobles in Naboth’s town instructing them to have two scoundrels bear false witness claiming that Naboth has cursed both God and the king. After Naboth was subsequently stoned to death, Ahab seized possession of Naboth’s vineyard. The text describes the as very angry with Ahab, and the prophet Elijah pronounces judgment on both Ahab and Jezebel.〔1 Kings 21:20-23〕 The narrative in 2 Samuel 1 also contains a narrative which is often interpreted as false testimony.〔Commentary on 2 Samuel 1, The NIV Study Bible. 1995. Barker, Kenneth, Burdick, Donald; Stek, John; Wessel, Walter; Youngblood, Ronald, eds. Zondervan. Grand Rapids, MI, USA〕 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.〔1 Samuel 31〕 However, 2 Samuel tells of an Amalekite, who was probably on Mount Gilboa to strip the dead of their possessions, appearing to David with Saul’s crown and royal arm band and giving testimony that he had himself killed king Saul. David immediately ordered that the Amalekite be put to death, saying, "Your blood be on your head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, 'I have killed the ’s anointed.'"〔2 Samuel 1:16 ESV〕 The truth of the Amalekite’s testimony did not need to be determined for the sentence to be carried out: either the Amalekite had killed King Saul, or he had given false testimony to David regarding Saul’s death. Both crimes were seen as equally deserving of the death penalty. The ancient understanding of false testimony not only includes testifying with false words, but also failing to come forward with relevant testimony in response to a public charge. “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.”〔Leviticus 5:1 NIV〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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