Magus55

I define murder as the unlawful killing of another human with malice.

BioBeing

The bibles at bible.gospelcom.net mainly seem to say "You shall not murder" (Exodus 20:13).

However, the NASB has a footnote to Genesis 9:6 that sounds like killing in general is bad:
While the English Standard Version has a footnote:
Sounds to me like it means both random killing and premeditated murder.


And then, of course, the skeptics view on killing in the bible.

Bill Snedden

IMO, that would be too narrow. It wouldn't seem to cover all cases where the killer is psychopathic nor would it cover all crimes of passion.

Generally, "murder" is defined as unlawful or unjustified killing (which, of course, renders the 6th commandment a meaningless tautology). It is especially easy to qualify a killing as murder if there is malice present, but the absence of malice does not render a killing justified.

Regards,

Bill Snedden

my dog earl

What about the commandment to love thy neighbour? Can someone love on command? My Fundies say its not the "love" that we associate with family and our kids but more of a "respect" for thine neighbour. Is it love or what?

trillian

The commandments themselves give a clue as to the meaning- that it must mean an unjustfied killing.
This is because if you break some of the commandments, the punishment is that you should be killed (ala children stoned for not honoring f&m).