Authenticity and the 9th – Part I

Have you ever been triangulated? Have ever watched a court witness being cross-examined to determine his or her integrity? Have you ever been a victim of racism? Or expressed a biased thought against someone else?

All these questions are related to the 9th Commandment in the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, which reads “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” We think that the 9th Commandment has to do only with lying, and there is a relationship. But nowhere do any of the Ten Commandments say, “Thou shalt not lie.” As with each of the commandments, a much broader principle is being laid out in the 9th.

Honesty is a difficult thing to master. Kids are taught almost from Day One not to lie; it doesn’t come naturally. Our cultural icons are shrouded with stories of their veracity, making them civic lessons in truthfulness. Every American knows the tale of young George Washington chopping down the cherry tree, then telling his dad, “I cannot tell a lie.” Yet even the most conscientious of adults struggle with, When is it appropriate to withhold or pass on information?

The Scriptures have much to say about honesty and lying and the priceless value of earning a reputation for integrity. The 9th Commandment is concerned with a particular form of honesty – how we present our neighbor to others. Don’t give a false impression about your neighbor, it is saying. The vocabulary here sounds a legal note. “Don’t give a false witness.” Obviously this covers no lying on the witness stand.

Back in Moses’ day when the Ten Commandments were established as the cornerstone of Hebrew society, legal proceedings were achieved less in a formal court like we have today than with a couple of neighbors bringing grievances against each other to a tribal leader. There were no scientific procedures for verifying a testimony such as with a polygraph or DNA test. The weight of the evidence rested on the word of an individual. A leader had to sort out the inevitable “he said, she said” tangle.

Thus the Biblical injunction that verification should be done in the presence of two or three witnesses, not just one. Like observing with two eyes instead of one, two or three witnesses provide perspective. No two people see, remember or interpret everything exactly alike. Hearing the story or the impression from more than one person increases the likelihood that a true picture will immerge.

A judge or leader has the responsibility to sort out the evidence presented by the witnesses – and the truthfulness of the witness given. On such integrity rests the whole fabric of social order.

So the weight of testimony falls heavily on the known character of the witness. Has this person ever told a lie or done something like this before? Has he or she ever done anything which puts his or her integrity in question? How trustworthy is this person?

Some of the most famous trials in history – actual or fictional – revolve around these questions of truthful witness. Think of the book “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the Salem Witch Hunt, Senator Joe McCarthy’s anticommunist crusade, President Nixon’s famous tapes, President Clinton’s impeachment proceedings, or the cross-accusations of the Televangelists in the 1980s. They all boil down to who is telling the truth or not – and about whom.

To the question “Who is my neighbor” in the Gospels, Jesus turns the challenge on its head. Don’t ask, Who is my neighbor? Ask, Who am I neighbor to?

As we will see in this series of postings, the implications of the 9th are far greater than “I cannot tell a lie.” They include the much broader concern, Can I be trusted with my neighbor’s reputation?