The Golden Rule

 
The Golden Rule - a rule that we were taught at a very young age, a rule that I used in my classroom to explain behavior to my students, a rule that pretty much sets the right tone for how we should live, and a rule that can be found in the Bible!  In fact, it appears several times in the Bible:


Leviticus 19:18  "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Leviticus 19:34  "The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself."

Tobit 4:15  "And what you hate, do not do to anyone."

Sirach 31:15  "Judge your neighbor's feelings by your own, and in every matter be thoughtful."

Matthew 7:12  "In everything, do unto others as you would have them do to you."

Luke 6:31  "Do to others as you would have them do to you."

I wondered who started calling it the golden rule?  The best I could find was that it was named by an unknown person or persons about 1640 - the KJV Bible from where it originated was published in 1611.  It was first called the the golden law and later shifted to rule.  It is also known as the ethic of reciprocity because it describes a reciprocal relationship between you and your neighbor.  But it has been around a lot longer than that, dating as far back as Ancient Babylon!
 

The golden rule is so named from its teaching from Jesus in the first century.  However, Christianity is not the only religion to promote this rule!  According to Wikipedia, this ethical rule has its roots in a wide range of world cultures, and is a standard way that different cultures use to resolve conflicts.  It has a long history, and a great number of prominent religious figures and philosophers have restated its reciprocal, "two-way" nature in various ways.

Ancient Babylon (1780 BCE) had the Code of Hammurabi - you know, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".  Maybe this is not the most positive of reciprocity but it was a start!  Ancient China did better when Confucius taught "Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself."

From ancient times to present day, cultures and most religions have this basic belief restated in as many different ways as there are cultures and religions.  The "Declaration Toward a Global Ethic^" from the Parliament of the World's Religions in 1993 proclaimed the Golden Rule as the common principle for many religions.

I just know that it is the best rule of thumb to guide us in our daily interactions with others!  Let's keep paying it forward - best way, teach our kids and practice it ourselves!