What they say has been added to the Ninth Commandment.
What they say has been added to the Ninth Commandment.
§ 80. To the Ninth Commandment, concerning not bearing false witness [Exod. 20:16], they say that the following has been added: “Every falsehood, even one that proceeds from levity, has been forbidden in the New Testament” (p. 205).
We respond. The words of this command are taken from the order of judgments that was established by God, yet a rejection of all lying is included in general under the name of one specific kind. The exegesis of Moses and the prophets makes this clear. “You destroy those who speak lies” (Ps. 5:[6]). “The mouth that lies destroys the soul” (Wisdom 1:11). “Do not tell a lie against your brother. Be not willing to use any lie” (Ecclus. 7:[12–]13). “Do not speak against the truth in any matter” (Ecclus. 4:[29]).
** “You shall not take up the report of a false lie” (Exod. 23:1). “Keep far from false speech” (Exod. 23:7). “Let not a man tell lies against his neighbor” (Lev. 19:11). “He who speaks the truth in his heart will dwell on this holy hill” (Ps. 15:2). Verse 3 [of that psalm speaks] against slanderers and calumniators. **
The falsehood that arises solely from the lust for lying conflicts with the truth even if it appears to cause no harm to a neighbor. Therefore it must be prohibited by divine Law. Augustine (De mend. ac cons.): “If lies have no one to deceive, then they lie to themselves. And those who lie from levity achieve this: that no one trusts them when they speak the truth.”