Ethics in the Bible

Ethics is the branch of philosophy which examines the question of what actions are morally right or wrong and why. The Bible contains numerous prescriptions or laws and many narrative accounts of ethical relevance.

Ethics in the Hebrew Bible

Main article: 613 Mitzvot

See also: Eye for an eye

Prescriptive utterances (commandments) are found throughout, some related to inter-human relationships (the prohibition against murder) while others focus on issues of worship and ritual (e.g. the Day of Atonement festival).

Jewish tradition classically schematizes these prescriptions into 613 mitzvot ("commandments"), beginning with "Be fruitful and multiply" (God's command to all life) and continuing on to the seven laws of Noah (addressed to all humanity) and the several hundred laws which apply specifically to Jews (such as the kashrut dietary laws). Jewish tradition also records the aforementioned distinction between commandments that relate to man's interaction with fellow man (בין אדם לחבירו) and those that affect his relationship with God (בין אדם למקום). Many commandments are remarkable in their blending of the two roles. For example, observance of Shabbat is couched in terms of recognizing God's sovereignty and creation of the world, while also being presented as a social-justice measure to prevent overworking one's employees, slaves, and animals. As a result, the Bible consistently binds worship of the Divine to ethical actions and ethical actions with worship of the Divine.

An important element of Jewish Bible ethics is the Biblical command to "love thy neighbor as thyself". Later traditions recognized its prominence by claiming that all other commands are just means by which to accomplish this lofty goal.

The commands of the Jewish Bible appear in a particular context, namely that of an Iron Age Canaanite people. Thus, some commands, such as the prohibition of theft, are near-universal, while others, such as levirate marriage and the holding of slaves, record how to execute specific ancient practices. To understand the nature of these latter commands, a full understanding of the ancient practice is necessary. In particular, understanding the way it was practiced in neighboring and pre-Biblical societies allows one to grasp the novelty of the Bible's preferred method.

This method has enjoyed considerable attention in the realm of Biblical court law. Understanding the Iron Age legal context highlights the ethics inherent in Biblical legal theory. A quick survey of non-Israelite legal codes from the time produces the following patterns: punishment for mere economic crimes can be capital; punishment for murder can be a mere fine or economic recompense; a man's family can be punished for crimes he did; a high ranking ruler can pardon one subject from crimes he committed against another subject; executions were often highly symbolic, disrespectful, and unusual.

For example, certain forms of stealing were punishable by death, murder of certain individuals was punishable by supplying the injured party with new workers, if a man rapes, his wife is given over to the victim to be ravished, if a house collapses the builder is killed and his body is used in building the new home, etc.

The Jewish Bible adamantly opposes these popular Mesopotamian practices. In their stead, it claims that life has no set monetary value; it claims that no economic crime should ever be punished with death; it claims that man can never punish someone for crimes not his own (this injunction is often violated, however - the Book of Joshua contains dozens of examples); it demands justice before the law, regardless of political or financial status; and it sets very specific, non-theatrical forms of capital punishment, see List of capital crimes in the Torah for details. These elements of Biblical ethics are central to the modern conception of legal justice.

Several Biblical prescriptions may not correspond to modern notions of justice; this has been alleged in relation to concepts such as slavery (Lev. 25:44-46), intolerance of religious pluralism (Deut. 5:7, Deut. 7:2-5, 2 Corinthians 6:14) or of freedom of religion (Deut. 13:6-12), discrimination and racism (Lev. 21:17-23, Deut. 23:1-3), treatment of women, honor killing (Ex. 21:17, Leviticus 20:9, Ex. 32:27-29), genocide (Num. 31:15-18, 1 Sam. 15:3), religious wars, and capital punishment for sexual behavior like adultery and sodomy and for Sabbath breaking (Num. 15:32-36).

The Book of Proverbs recommends disciplining a child:

Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

—Proverbs 22:13-15

Ethics in the New Testament

See also: Christianity and slavery, Homosexuality and Christianity, Women in the Bible, Antisemitism in the New Testament, Biblical law in Christianity, and Christian ethics

Then Australian PM John Howard criticised a Sydney Baptist church for erecting a sign declaring that "Jesus Loves Osama", January 2007.

The nature and context of the books of the New Testament are seen by some as very different from that of the Hebrew Bible, which Christians call the Old Testament. The New Testament is intended to for a New Covenant, not records of time-honoured traditions. The main dispute of the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15), whether non-Jewish converts should be considered bound to the Old Testament laws, are addressed elsewhere in the New Testament, e.g. regarding dietary laws

"Don't you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can't defile him, because it doesn't go into his heart, but into his stomach, then into the latrine, thus making all foods clean?" (Mark 7:18)

See also Mark 7.

or regarding divorce

"I tell you that whoever puts away his wife, except for the cause of sexual immorality, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries her when she is put away commits adultery." (Matthew 5:31)

See also Mark 5.

The central teachings of Jesus are presented in the synoptic Sermon on the Mount, notably the "golden rule" and the prescription to "love your enemies" and "turn the other cheek".

"You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'"(Matthew 5:43)

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."(Matthew 5:44)

See also Ministry of Jesus.

However, according to critics, numerous passages seem to contradict this teaching: Matt. 23:17,25-33, Luke 11:40, Matt. 11:20-24, Luke 10:13-15, Luke 19:27, Matt. 26:24, John 8:44, Acts 13:7-11, 1 Tim 1;20, Gal. 1:8, 2 Cor. 6:14-15, 1 Cor. 5:5,13.

See also But to bring a sword and Antinomianism in the New Testament.

Others dispute this. Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, an Orthodox Jewish writer, in his essay titled "The Virtue of Hate" writes

“

... Is an utterly evil man — Hitler, Stalin, Osama bin Laden — deserving of a theist's love? I could never stomach such a notion.... The danger inherent in hatred is that it must be very limited, directed only at the most evil and unrepentant. We who hate must be wary... lest we become like those we are taught to despise... The message is that hate allows us to keep our guard up, to protect us. When we are facing those who seek nothing but our destruction, our hate reminds us who we are dealing with. When hate is appropriate, then it is not only virtuous, but essential...

”

Asked by one of the Pharisees which is the greatest commandment in the law (Matthew 22:36), Jesus names as the central commandment of his teaching the practice of love (agape) both towards God and one's fellow men:

"'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"

This reply was, in context, conservative. Jesus' first commandment is actually the second line of the Shema, a passage from the Torah that priests recited in the Temple, and that other Jews recited in their prayers, twice a day; the Pharisees considered this to be the most important principle in Judaism. Jesus' second commandment (known as the Great Commandment of the Hebrew Bible) echoes the principle of Hillel, one of the most important Pharisees in the decades prior to Jesus' birth. In short, Jesus answers the Pharisee by quoting the two most important Pharisaic principles.

Elsewhere in the New Testament (for example, the "Farewell Discourses" of John 14 through 16) Jesus elaborates on what has become known the commandment of love, repeated and elaborated upon in the epistles of Paul (1 Corinthians 13 etc.), see also The Law of Christ and The New Commandment.

The Jewish Encyclopedia article on Gentile: Gentiles May Not Be Taught the Torah notes the following reconciliation: "R. Emden, in a remarkable apology for Christianity contained in his appendix to "Seder 'Olam," gives it as his opinion that the original intention of Jesus, and especially of Paul, was to convert only the Gentiles to the seven moral laws of Noah and to let the Jews follow the Mosaic law — which explains the apparent contradictions in the New Testament regarding the laws of Moses and the Sabbath."

See also Paul of Tarsus and his relationship with Judaism.

Theological issues

Euthyphro Dilemma

Main articles: Euthyphro Dilemma and Divine command theory

A central problem in religiously motivated ethics is the apparent tautology inherent in the concept that what is commanded by God is morally right. This line of reasoning is introduced most famously in Plato's dialogue Euthyphro, which asks whether something is right because the gods love it, or whether the gods love it because it is right.

Moral relativism

Main articles: Antinomianism and Biblical law in Christianity

See also: Argument from inconsistent revelations

The predominant Christian view is that Jesus mediates a New Covenant relationship between God and his followers and abolished some Mosaic Laws, according to the New Testament (Hebrews 10:15-18; Gal 3:23-25; 2 Cor 3:7-17; Eph 2:15; Heb 8:13, Rom 7:6 etc.). From a Jewish perspective however, the Torah was given to the Jewish people and B'nei Noah as an eternal covenant (for example Exo 31:16-17, Exo 12:14-17, Mal 3:6-7) and will never be replaced or added to (for example Deut 4:2, 13:1). There are differences of opinion as to how the new covenant affects the validity of biblical law. The differences are mainly as a result of attempts to attempts to harmonize biblical statements to the effect that the biblical law is eternal (Exodus 31:16-17, 12:14-17) with New Testament statements that suggest that it does not now apply at all, or at least does not fully apply. Most biblical scholars admit the issue of the Law can be confusing and the topic of Paul and the Law is still frequently debated among New Testament scholars (for example, see New Perspective on Paul, Pauline Christianity); hence the various views.

God's benevolence

Further information: Theodicy

A central issue in monotheist ethics is the problem of evil, the apparent contradiction between a benevolent, all-powerful God and the existence of evil and hell (see Problem of Hell).

Theodicy seeks to explain why we may simultaneously affirm God's goodness, and the presence of evil in the world.

Some Jews, Christians, and Muslims say that God is not exclusively good, but transcends all opposites(cf Isaiah 45:7); or cannot be described. Thus, to call him "good" is as inadequate as to call him "evil" (see mysticism). Descartes in his Meditations considers, but rejects, the possibility that God is an evil demon ("dystheism").

The Bible contains numerous examples seemingly unethical acts of God.

• In the Book of Exodus, God deliberately "hardened Pharaoh's heart", making him even more unwilling to free the Hebrew slaves (Exo 4:21, Rom 9:17-21).
• Genocidal commands of God in Deuteronomy, such as the call to eradicate all the Canaanite tribes including children and infants (Deut 20:16-17). According to the Bible, this was to fulfill God's covenant to Israel, the "promised land" to his chosen people.(Deuteronomy 7:1-25)
• God ordering the Israelites to undertake punitive military raids against other tribes. This happened, for instance, to the Midianites of Moab, who had enticed some Israelites into worshipping local gods (Numbers 25:1-18). The entire tribe was exterminated, except for the young virgin girls; who were kept by the Israelites as slaves (Numbers 31:1-54). In 1 Samuel 15:3, God orders the Israelites to "attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys."
• In the Book of Job, God allows Satan to plague His loyal servant Job with devastating tragedies leaving all his children dead and himself poor. The nature of Divine justice becomes the theme of the entire book.
• Sending evil spirits to people (1 Samuel 18:10, Judges 9:23).
• Punishing the innocent for the sins of other people (Isa 14:21, Deut 23:2, Hosea 13:16).

Criticism

Simon Blackburn states that the "Bible can be read as giving us a carte blanche for harsh attitudes to children, the mentally handicapped, animals, the environment, the divorced, unbelievers, people with various sexual habits, and elderly women". Elizabeth Anderson, a Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, states that "the Bible contains both good and evil teachings", and it is "morally inconsistent". Bertrand Russell stated that, "It seems to me that the people who have held to it [the Christian religion] have been for the most part extremely wicked....I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world."

The Hebrew Bible

Elizabeth Anderson criticizes commands God gave to men in the Old Testament, such as: kill adulterers, homosexuals, and "people who work on the Sabbath" (Leviticus 20:10; Leviticus 20:13; Exodus 35:2, respectively); to commit ethnic cleansing (Exodus 34:11-14, Leviticus 26:7-9); commit genocide (Numbers 21: 2-3, Numbers 21:33–35, Deuteronomy 2:26–35, and Joshua 1–12); and other mass killings. Anderson considers the Bible to permit slavery, the beating of slaves, the rape of female captives in wartime, polygamy (for men), the killing of prisoners, and child sacrifice. She also provides a number of examples to illustrate what she considers "God's moral character": "Routinely punishes people for the sins of others ... punishes all mothers by condemning them to painful childbirth", punishes four generations of descendants of those who worship other Gods, kills 24,000 Israelites because some of them sinned (Numbers 25:1–9), kills 70,000 Israelites for the sin of David in 2 Samuel 24:10–15, and "sends two bears out of the woods to tear forty-two children to pieces" because they called someone names in 2 Kings 2:23–24. Blackburn provides examples of Old Testament moral criticisms such as the phrase in Exodus 22:18 that has "helped to burn alive tens or hundreds of thousands of women in Europe and America": "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," and notes that the Old Testament God apparently has "no problems with a slave-owning society", considers birth control a crime punishable by death, and "is keen on child abuse". Additional examples that are questioned today are: the prohibition on touching women during their "period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev. 15:19–24)", the apparent approval of selling daughters into slavery (Exodus 21:7), and the obligation to put to death someone working on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:2).

The New Testament

Anderson criticizes what she terms morally repugnant lessons of the New Testament. She claims that "Jesus tells us his mission is to make family members hate one another, so that they shall love him more than their kin (Matt 10:35-37)", that "Disciples must hate their parents, siblings, wives, and children (Luke 14:26)", and that Peter and Paul elevate men over their wives "who must obey their husbands as gods" (1 Corinthians 11:3, 14:34-5, Eph. 5:22-24, Col. 3:18, 1 Tim. 2: 11-2, 1 Pet. 3:1). Anderson states that the Gospel of John implies that "infants and anyone who never had the opportunity to hear about Christ are damned [to hell], through no fault of their own".

Blackburn criticizes what he terms morally suspect themes of the New Testament. He notes some "moral quirks" of Jesus: that he could be "sectarian" (Matt 10:5–6), racist (Matt 15:26 and Mark 7:27), and placed no value on animal life (Luke 8: 27–33).

See also

• Brotherly love (philosophy)
• Christian anarchism
• Criticism of the Bible
• Ethics