Tell no lies?

It came as a great shock to me last week to realize that the Bible doesn't actually command us never to lie. No really, it doesn't.

The commandment that I thought said it, is actually "do not bear false witness" which isn't quite the same thing. There is also something in Leviticus and Deuteronomy about having honest weights and measures - but again this is about lying for advantage and cheating others. It doesn't seem to apply to giving an honest opinion about a new haircut.

There is of course plenty about the virtue of telling the truth, but that also isn't quite the same as an absolute ban on lying. In particular, in the story of Moses (and in a few other places in the Bible) people are blessed and commended by God for their actions - which include telling lies. The example we studied on Sunday was the midwives to the Hebrews, when Pharaoh commanded them to kill the Hebrew babies and they replied that the Hebrew women give birth too quickly for them to get there in time (Exodus Ch1). The very next verse is that they were blessed by God. They lied - they were blessed by God.

 There was a little bit of discussion about whether or not this was actually a lie - maybe it was true that they were not attending the births in time in order to avoid carrying out Pharaoh's orders? I do not think this can be true. As someone who attends births myself, I would never consider not attending or "running slowly" when called to a delivery - two lives are potentially on the line. Professional neglect which almost certainly would involve loss of life at some point? I find it harder to believe that God would bless that action, than that God would bless women who lied to protect Hebrew babies and took their own lives into their hands in doing so.

I also think their reply to Pharaoh when asked to "please explain" was brilliant - effectively it was to tell him: that's secret women's business, don't mess with the experts in this area. He could not possibly catch them out lying about how women birth!

I also note that there are other instances in the Bible of people lying for higher purposes and apparently being blessed by it - Rahab springs to mind. In real life there is Corrie ten Boom who lied many times to Nazi enforcers in order to protect Jews. I am sure Bonhoeffer would not have let a few lies stand in his way either.

 Interesting. I had always assumed that God was a Kantian "absolute principles" ethicist, but perhaps it isn't as black and white as that...