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64-406: The Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as one would want to be treated by them. It is sometimes called an ethics of reciprocity, meaning that you should reciprocate to others how you would like them to treat you (not necessarily how they actually treat you). Various expressions of this rule can be found in the tenets of most religions and creeds through the ages. The maxim may appear as

128-465: A positive or negative injunction governing conduct: The term "Golden Rule", or "Golden law", began to be used widely in the early 17th century in Britain by Anglican theologians and preachers; the earliest known usage is that of Anglicans Charles Gibbon and Thomas Jackson in 1604. Possibly the earliest affirmation of the maxim of reciprocity, reflecting the ancient Egyptian goddess Ma'at , appears in

192-702: A Senior Fellow of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Jerusalem. He participated in the City of David Project archaeological excavations of biblical Jerusalem. In his work Who Wrote the Bible? , he provides an updated analysis of the documentary hypothesis . Friedman is of the view that the P Source of the Bible was composed during the time of Hezekiah . P for instance "emphasizes centralization of religion: one center, one altar, one Tabernacle, one place of sacrifice. Who

256-482: A clause in which they appear is additionally marked for ordinary negation. For example, in Russian , "I see nobody" is expressed as я никого́ не ви́жу ja nikovó nye vízhu , literally "I nobody not see" – the ordinary negating particle не nye ("not") is used in addition to the negative pronoun никого́ nikovó ("nobody"). Italian behaves in a similar way: Non ti vede nessuno , "nobody can see you", although Nessuno ti vede

320-497: A negative question, such as French si and Danish jo (these serve to contradict the negative statement suggested by the first speaker). Richard Elliott Friedman Richard Elliott Friedman (born May 5, 1946) is an American biblical scholar, theologian, and translator who currently serves as the Ann and Jay Davis Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia . Friedman

384-573: A proposition to its logical negation . This is done by replacing an assertion that something is the case with an assertion that it is not the case. In some cases, however, particularly when a particular modality is expressed, the semantic effect of negation may be somewhat different. For example, in English, the meaning of "you must not go" is not the exact negation of "you must go". The exact negation of this phrase would be expressed as "you don't have to go" or "you needn't go". The negation "must not" has

448-444: A stronger meaning (the effect is to apply the logical negation to the following infinitive rather than applying it to the full clause with must ). For more details and other similar cases, see the relevant sections of English modal verbs . Negation flips downward entailing and upward entailing statements within the scope of the negation. For example, changing "one could have seen anything" to "no one could have seen anything" changes

512-569: Is a great principle of the Torah." In 1935, Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits explained in his work "What is the Talmud?" that Leviticus 19:34 disallowed xenophobia by Jews. Israel's postal service quoted from the previous Leviticus verse when it commemorated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on a 1958 postage stamp . The Golden Rule was proclaimed by Jesus of Nazareth during his Sermon on

576-518: Is a woman. In contrast, the negative, in an English example such as "the police chief here is not a man", is stated as an assumption for people to believe. It is also widely believed that the affirmative is the unmarked base form from which the negative is produced, but this can be argued when coming from a pragmatic standpoint. Pragmatically, affirmatives can sometimes derive the pragmatically unmarked form, or, at times, create novel affirmative derivatives . Affirmation can also be compared to

640-635: Is also a possible clause with exactly the same meaning. In Russian, all of the elements ("not", "never", "nobody", "nowhere") would appear together in the sentence in their negative form. In Italian, a clause works much as in Russian, but non does not have to be there, and can be there only before the verb if it precedes all other negative elements: Tu non porti mai nessuno da nessuna parte . "Nobody ever brings you anything here", however, could be translated Nessuno qui ti porta mai niente or Qui non ti porta mai niente nessuno . In French, where simple negation

704-554: Is called polarity . This means that a clause, sentence, verb phrase, etc. may be said to have either affirmative or negative polarity (its polarity may be either affirmative or negative). Affirmative is typically the unmarked polarity, whereas a negative statement is marked in some way. Negative polarity can be indicated by negating words or particles such as the English not , or the Japanese affix - nai , or by other means, which reverses

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768-517: Is for you; I am not like you, who did not lend me,' it constitutes a grudge. Rashi concludes his commentary by quoting Rabbi Akiva on love of neighbor: 'This is a fundamental [all-inclusive] principle of the Torah. ' " Hillel the Elder ( c.  110 BCE – 10 CE) used this verse as a most important message of the Torah for his teachings. Once, he was challenged by a gentile who asked to be converted under

832-570: Is made negative by the addition of a particle , meaning "not". This may be added before the verb phrase, as with the Spanish no : Other examples of negating particles preceding the verb phrase include Italian non , Russian не nye and Polish nie (they can also be found in constructed languages : ne in Esperanto and non in Interlingua ). In some other languages the negating particle follows

896-468: Is more common to repeat the verb or another part of the predicate, with or without negation accordingly. Complications sometimes arise in the case of responses to negative statements or questions; in some cases the response that confirms a negative statement is the negative particle (as in English: "You're not going out? No."), but in some languages this is reversed. Some languages have a distinct form to answer

960-527: Is more difficult for the brain to process as it works in opposition to affirmation. If affirmation and negation were missing from language people would only be able to communicate through possibilities. The recent Reusing Inhibition for Negation (RIN) hypothesis states that there is a specific inhibitory control mechanism (one that is reused) that is needed when trying to understand negation in sentences. Affirmations or positive polarity items (PPIs) are expressions that are rejected by negation, usually escaping

1024-442: Is not here already and (2 NEG ) I am not a moral person. (2) In Dagaare , there are verbal suffixes , such as -ng , that serve as an affirmation or an emphasis to a verbal action. These verbal suffixes are also known as a focus particle or a factitive marker. There are also cases of the identifying pronoun na developing into an affirmative marker. na is reanalyzed into a clause final particle simultaneously with

1088-408: Is performed using ne ... pas (see above), specialized negatives appear in combination with the first particle ( ne ), but pas is omitted: In Ancient Greek , a simple negative (οὐ ou "not" or μή mḗ "not (modal)") following another simple or compound negative (e.g. οὐδείς oudeís "nobody") results in an affirmation, whereas a compound negative following a simple or compound negative strengthens

1152-451: Is present, then dummy auxiliary do ( does , did ) is normally introduced – see do -support . For example, but that wording is considered archaic and is rarely used. It is much more common to use the dummy auxiliary to render Different rules apply in subjunctive , imperative and non-finite clauses. For more details see English grammar § Negation . (In Middle English , the particle not could follow any verb, e.g. "I see not

1216-609: Is realized depends on the grammar of the language in question. English generally places not before the negated element, as in "I witnessed not a debate , but a war." There are also negating affixes, such as the English prefixes non- , un- , in- , etc. Such elements are called privatives . There also exist elements which carry a specialized negative meaning, including pronouns such as nobody , none and nothing , determiners such as no (as in "no apples"), and adverbs such as never , no longer and nowhere . Although such elements themselves have negative force, in some languages

1280-458: Is the affirmative, or positive particle, and no is the negation, or negative particle. Affirmation and negation are a crucial building blocks for language. The presence of negation is the absence of affirmation, where affirmation functions individually. There are three main aspects to the concept of affirmation and negation; Cognitive , psychological and philosophical ( Schopenhauers theory or Nietzschean affirmation ). Negation in English

1344-471: Is written in the law? What do you read there?" He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live." The passage in the book of Luke then continues with Jesus answering the question, "Who is my neighbor?", by telling

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1408-796: The New Testament quote Jesus of Nazareth espousing the positive form of the Golden rule: "In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets." Do to others as you would have them do to you. A similar passage, a parallel to the Great Commandment , is to be found later in the Gospel of Luke . An expert in the law stood up to test him [Jesus]. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What

1472-618: The Talmud Jeremiah was already seen as the author of the Books of Kings . In his view this part of the Bible must be seen as one major theological history, which centers on the covenant between the Jews and Yahweh promising eternal prosperity for Israel but demanding that they should worship only Yahweh. In a long cycle of infidelity-defeat-repentance-forgiveness the Jewish history is written. According to him,

1536-631: The Caananite god El , and the two gods became one and the same in Israelite religious mentality. This group of migrants would later form the Tribe of Levi . Friedman argues this was vital for the formation of monotheism. One piece of evidence Friedman uses for his hypothesis is the Egyptian names that the biblical Levites have. Names like Moses , Aaron , Phineas, and more may have Egyptian origins. Friedman also notes

1600-608: The Exodus involved only a few thousand people, who left Egypt during the reign of either Pharaoh Ramesses II or his son, Pharaoh Merneptah . This group later merged with the Israelites, introducing the cult of Yahweh in Caanan, together with the idea of monotheism / monolatry , possibly inspired by the religious reforms of Pharaoh Akhenaten . Once in Israel, Yahweh's cult supplanted the cult of

1664-601: The Golden Rule: "That nature alone is good which refrains from doing to another whatsoever is not good for itself." Dadisten-I-dinik, 94,5, and "Whatever is disagreeable to yourself do not do unto others." Shayast-na-Shayast 13:29 Seneca the Younger ( c.  4 BCE – 65 CE), a practitioner of Stoicism ( c.  300 BCE – 200 CE), expressed a hierarchical variation of the Golden Rule in his Letter 47 , an essay regarding

1728-520: The L ORD . According to John J. Collins of Yale Divinity School , most modern scholars, with Richard Elliott Friedman as a prominent exception, view the command as applicable to fellow Israelites. Rashi commented what constitutes revenge and grudge, using the example of two men. One man would not lend the other his ax, then the next day, the same man asks the other for his ax. If the second man should say, " 'I will not lend it to you, just as you did not lend to me,' it constitutes revenge; if 'Here it

1792-663: The Mount and described by him as the second great commandment. The common English phrasing is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". Various applications of the Golden Rule are stated positively numerous times in the Old Testament : "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD." Or, in Leviticus 19:34: "The alien who resides with you shall be to you as

1856-492: The United Nations since 4 January 2002. Creating the poster "took five years of research that included consultations with experts in each of the 13 faith groups." (See also the section on Global Ethic. ) A rule of reciprocal altruism was stated positively in a well-known Torah verse (Hebrew: ואהבת לרעך כמוך ‎): You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your kinsfolk. Love your neighbor as yourself: I am

1920-410: The ancient epic of India, there is a discourse in which sage Brihaspati tells the king Yudhishthira the following about dharma , a philosophical understanding of values and actions that lend good order to life: One should never do something to others that one would regard as an injury to one's own self. In brief, this is dharma. Anything else is succumbing to desire. The Mahābhārata is usually dated to

1984-615: The children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the L ORD . This Torah verse represents one of several versions of the Golden Rule , which itself appears in various forms, positive and negative. It is the earliest written version of that concept in a positive form. At the turn of the era, the Jewish rabbis were discussing the scope of the meaning of Leviticus 19:18 and 19:34 extensively: The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in

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2048-452: The condition that the Torah be explained to him while he stood on one foot. Hillel accepted him as a candidate for conversion to Judaism but, drawing on Leviticus 19:18, briefed the man: What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn. Hillel recognized brotherly love as the fundamental principle of Jewish ethics. Rabbi Akiva agreed, while Simeon ben Azzai suggested that

2112-413: The denominalisation of the clausal subject which brings the result of na as a clause nominalising particle which can again be reanalyzed as a positive, future, marker. This clause final particle is known to only be used to mark assertiveness in positive clauses because it is not seen co-occurring with negative markers. Simple grammatical negation of a clause, in principle, has the effect of converting

2176-487: The dependents of the verb; for example in some Slavic languages , such as Polish , the case of a direct object often changes from accusative to genitive when the verb is negated. Negation can be applied not just to whole verb phrases, clauses or sentences, but also to specific elements (such as adjectives and noun phrases ) within sentences. This contrast is usually labeled sentential negation versus constituent negation . Ways in which this constituent negation

2240-399: The evolutionary character of God's creation: Why was only a single specimen of man created first? To teach us that he who destroys a single soul destroys a whole world and that he who saves a single soul saves a whole world; furthermore, so no race or class may claim a nobler ancestry, saying, "Our father was born first"; and, finally, to give testimony to the greatness of the Lord, who caused

2304-551: The faculty of the University of Georgia's Religion Department, where he is currently the Ann and Jay Davis Professor of Jewish Studies. Friedman teaches courses in Hebrew, Bible, and Jewish Studies. He is a winner of numerous awards and honors, including American Council of Learned Societies Fellow. He was a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford ; and

2368-457: The first particle is often omitted: Je sais pas . Similar use of two negating particles can also be found in Afrikaans : Hy kan nie Afrikaans praat nie ("He cannot speak Afrikaans"). In English, negation is achieved by adding not after the verb. As a practical matter, Modern English typically uses a copula verb (a form of be ) or an auxiliary verb with not . If no other auxiliary verb

2432-572: The golden rule in the Epistle to the Romans : Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Affirmation and negation The grammatical category associated with affirmatives and negatives

2496-478: The history first ended with King Josiah as the ultimate god-fearing king and was later rewritten after the fall of the kingdom in 586 BE, putting the blame on the evil done under Manasseh, writing "No king ever arose like Josiah. ... But Yahweh did not turn back from his great fury which burned against Judah over all the things in which Manasseh had angered him" (2 Kings 23:25–26). In his 2017 book The Exodus: How It Happened and Why It Matters , Friedman argues that

2560-402: The horse.") In some languages, like Welsh , verbs have special inflections to be used in negative clauses. (In some language families, this may lead to reference to a negative mood .) An example is Japanese, which conjugates verbs in the negative after adding the suffix -nai (indicating negation), e.g. taberu ("eat") and tabe nai ("do not eat"). It could be argued that English has joined

2624-412: The land of Egypt: I the L ORD am your God. Commentators interpret that this applies to foreigners (e.g. Samaritans ), proselytes ('strangers who reside with you') and Jews. On the verse, "Love your fellow as yourself", the classic commentator Rashi quotes from Torat Kohanim , an early Midrashic text regarding the famous dictum of Rabbi Akiva: "Love your fellow as yourself – Rabbi Akiva says this

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2688-403: The meaning of the predicate . The process of converting affirmative to negative is called negation – the grammatical rules for negation vary from language to language, and a given language may have multiple methods of negation. Affirmative and negative responses (specifically, though not exclusively, to questions) are often expressed using particles or words such as yes and no , where yes

2752-518: The meaning of the last word from "anything" to "nothing". In some cases, by way of irony , an affirmative statement may be intended to have the meaning of the corresponding negative, or vice versa. For examples see antiphrasis and sarcasm . For the use of double negations or similar as understatements ("not unappealing", "not bad", etc.) see litotes . Languages have a variety of grammatical rules for converting affirmative verb phrases or clauses into negative ones. In many languages, an affirmative

2816-562: The native, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God." According to John J. Collins of Yale Divinity School , neither Jewish sources or the New Testament ever claim that the commandment to love one's neighbors is applicable to all mankind, though some expansion can also be seen beyond its original context in the Hebrew Bible . The law only applies to an in-group, whether it be Israelites, Jews, or early Christians. Two passages in

2880-462: The native-born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God." These two examples are given in the Septuagint as follows: "And thy hand shall not avenge thee; and thou shalt not be angry with the children of thy people; and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; I am the Lord." and "The stranger that comes to you shall be among you as

2944-807: The negation marker ta can be used to indicate polarity and mood: For example, the negation marker ba can be used as a non-future, or present tense, negative marker: Various signed and manual languages are known to negate via headshake. Special affirmative and negative words (particles) are often found in responses to questions, and sometimes to other assertions by way of agreement or disagreement. In English, these are yes and no respectively, in French oui, si and non , in Danish ja , jo and nej , in Spanish sí and no and so on. Not all languages make such common use of particles of this type; in some (such as Welsh) it

3008-570: The negation: In Dagaare, negation is marked specifically by pre-verb particles, where only four, out of the nearly 24 pre-verb particles, are designated as negation markers. The four negation markers are ba , kʊ̀ŋ , ta , and tɔ́ɔ́ . To signal negation, as well as other semantic relation, these negation particles combine with different aspects of the verb. These pre-verb negatory particles can also be used to convey tense , mood , aspect , and polarity (negation), and in some cases can be used to convey more than one of these features. For example,

3072-414: The notion of assertiveness. Affirmation can be indicated with the following words in English: some, certainly , already, and would rather. Two examples of affirmation include (1) John is here already and (2) I am a moral person. These two sentences are truth statements, and serve as a representation of affirmation in English. The negated versions can be formed as the statements (1 NEG ) John

3136-470: The parable of the Good Samaritan , which John Wesley interprets as meaning that "your neighbor" is anyone in need. Jesus' teaching goes beyond the negative formulation of not doing what one would not like done to themselves, to the positive formulation of actively doing good to another that, if the situations were reversed, one would desire that the other would do for them. This formulation, as indicated in

3200-542: The parable of the Good Samaritan, emphasizes the needs for positive action that brings benefit to another, not simply restraining oneself from negative activities that hurt another. In one passage of the New Testament , Paul the Apostle refers to the golden rule, restating Jesus' second commandment: For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." St. Paul also comments on

3264-587: The period between 400 BCE and 400 CE. In Chapter 32 in the Book of Virtue of the Tirukkuṛaḷ ( c.  1st century BCE to 5th century CE ), Valluvar says: Do not do to others what you know has hurt yourself. Why does one hurt others knowing what it is to be hurt? Furthermore, in verse 312, Valluvar says that it is the determination or code of the spotless (virtuous) not to do evil, even in return, to those who have cherished enmity and done them evil. According to him,

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3328-618: The power to save people from snakebite. Who was the king who smashed the Nehushtan? Hezekiah." Friedman has also proposed that the prophet Jeremiah , working together with his scribe Baruch , was also the person that is the D-source, the Deuteronomist, who wrote/rewrote the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. In his book Who wrote the Bible? he gave supporting evidence pointing towards this identification and also notes that in

3392-564: The priests and the Levites. Who was the king who formalized the divisions between priests and Levites? King Hezekiah." Chronicles reported explicitly: Friedman wrote that the "Aaronid priesthood that produced P had opponents, Levites who saw Moses and not Aaron as their model. What was the most blatant reminder of Moses' power that was visible in Judah? The bronze serpent ' Nehushtan '. According to tradition, stated explicitly in E, Moses had made it. It had

3456-451: The principle of love must have its foundation in Genesis chapter 1, which teaches that all men are the offspring of Adam, who was made in the image of God. According to Jewish rabbinic literature , the first man Adam represents the unity of mankind . This is echoed in the modern preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . It is also taught that Adam is last in order according to

3520-434: The proper punishment to those who have done evil is to put them to shame by showing them kindness, in return and to forget both the evil and the good done on both sides (verse 314). The Golden Rule in its prohibitive (negative) form was a common principle in ancient Greek philosophy . Examples of the general concept include: The Pahlavi Texts of Zoroastrianism ( c.  300 BCE – 1000 CE) were an early source for

3584-525: The ranks of these languages, since negation requires the use of an auxiliary verb and a distinct syntax in most cases; the form of the basic verb can change on negation, as in "he sings " vs. "he doesn't sing ". Zwicky and Pullum have shown that n't is an inflectional suffix, not a clitic or a derivational suffix. Complex rules for negation also apply in Finnish ; see Finnish grammar § Negation of verbs . In some languages negation may also affect

3648-411: The scope of negation. PPIs in the literature have been associated with speaker oriented adverbs , as well as expressions similar to some , already , and would rather . Affirmative sentences work in opposition to negations. The affirmative, in an English example such as "the police chief here is a woman", declares a simple fact, in this case, it is a fact regarding the police chief and asserts that she

3712-706: The similarities of the Tabernacle with the Battle Tent of Ramesses II. Friedman mentions the Torah’s Levite sources often refer to a commandment to treat stranger in your land well, for “you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” The name Yahweh, according to Friedman, was probably inspired by the Shasu deity Yhw, whose presence is attested by two Egyptian texts from the time of Pharaohs Amenhotep III (14th century BCE) and Ramesses II (13th century BCE). Friedman also hypothesizes

3776-468: The story of " The Eloquent Peasant ", which dates to the Middle Kingdom ( c.  2040–1650 BCE ): "Now this is the command: Do to the doer to make him do." This proverb embodies the do ut des principle. A Late Period ( c.  664–323 BCE ) papyrus contains an early negative affirmation of the Golden Rule: "That which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another." In Mahābhārata ,

3840-456: The treatment of slaves: "Treat your inferior as you would wish your superior to treat you." According to Simon Blackburn , the Golden Rule "can be found in some form in almost every ethical tradition". A multi-faith poster showing the Golden Rule in sacred writings from 13 faith traditions (designed by Paul McKenna of Scarboro Missions, 2000) has been on permanent display at the Headquarters of

3904-554: The verb or verb phrase, as in Dutch : Particles following the verb in this way include not in archaic and dialectal English ("you remember not"), nicht in German ( ich schlafe nicht , "I am not sleeping"), and inte in Swedish ( han hoppade inte , "he did not jump"). In French , particles are added both before the verb phrase ( ne ) and after the verb ( pas ): However, in colloquial French

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3968-476: The wonderful diversity of mankind to emanate from one type. And why was Adam created last of all beings? To teach him humility; for if he be overbearing, let him remember that the little fly preceded him in the order of creation. The Jewish Publication Society's edition of Leviticus states: Thou shalt not hate thy brother, in thy heart; thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbour, and not bear sin because of him. Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against

4032-690: Was born in Rochester, New York . He attended the University of Miami (BA, 1968), the Jewish Theological Seminary (MHL, 1971), and Harvard University (Th.M. in Hebrew Bible, 1974; Th.D. in Hebrew Bible and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1978). He was the Katzin Professor of Jewish Civilization: Hebrew Bible; Near Eastern Languages and Literature at the University of California, San Diego , from 1994 until 2006, whereupon he joined

4096-498: Was the king who began centralization? King Hezekiah." According to Friedman, and others who follow the theories of Julius Wellhausen regarding the formation of Israel's religion, P is the work of the Aaronid priesthood. They are the priests in authority at the central altar – not Moses, not Korah, nor any other Levites . Only those descended from Aaron can be priests. Friedman then went on to say "P always speaks of two distinct groups,

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