The Ten Commandments and US Law: 9th Commandment

9^th Commandment

Quote from the Bible 

16. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

My interpretation what it means

As a law, this meant that a person may not commit perjury.  A lot of folks modify the Commandment to mean a person shall not lie anytime.  Really, it was perjury, lying under oath.  Don’t do it.

How it relates to US Law

Huh, look at that: We do have laws against lying under oath.

Commentary

How much the Ninth Commandment influenced our laws in this regard I’m not sure.  Even atheistic regimes have or had laws against lying to the government.  I highly doubt they used the Ten Commandments as a template.  So this third of nine Commandments (so far) does have related laws in the US Constitution or the Federal Laws.  There is precedence in other law systems as well, though.   I might have to research this a bit more, but I’m leaning toward thinking this is a case of a stopped clock being right twice (thrice?) a day.  We have one Commandment left.  I wonder how well it will measure up.  Six of the nine so far have not.  Three are iffy.