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A Jewish friend once explained a similar thing about “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.” Raised Christian, I was always taught it was bro
by eloisius 5y ago
A Jewish friend once explained a similar thing about “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.” Raised Christian, I was always taught it was broadly “do not lie,” but apparently it was more specific about not perjuring yourself in a court of law.
- 542458 5y agoI don’t think there is good evidence for what you described on a theological basis (I also do not believe that what you described is a very common interpretation). The word translated as “murder” is “retzach”. Conveniently, the book of Numbers talks about “retzach” quite a bit, and it’s described as killing (including accidentally) outside of warfare. It is not distinguished by race or religion, and although there are a number of justified causes for retzach, none are as broad as “all non-Jews”. There’s a sort of precedent to “shalt not kill” in Genesis 9:6 as part of God’s covenant with Noah, and it’s very clear that it’s a prohibition to the murder of any human regardless of race or creed: “ Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” The old Jewish law contains a number of explicit protections for non-Jews, so it would seem very inconsistent if murder of non-Jews was viewed as not contrary to the law.