Responsibility for each other--by Linden Malki

The first question that Cain, the first murderer, asked God: Am I my brother's keeper?  The answer from God: your brother's blood calls out from the ground.  Now God could have zapped Cain, but He didn't--He exiled him.

When God was faced with a world full of evil, He told one righteous man, Noah, how to save himself and his family.  When the time came to re-establish human society, God told Noah that people are responsible for each other's lives: For each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.  Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed, for in the image of God has God made mankind. (Genesis 9:5b-6)  To this day, Jewish tradition includes this in the covenant God made with Noah that  all human beings are called to honor.

Critics of religion often make a big deal about the amount of violence in the Bible, and in the history of the church. One thing about the Bible is that it is realistic about the nature of mankind, and God has made us with the capacity of both great good and great evil.  Yes, He could have made us incapable of evil, but that would have eliminated our appreciation of good as well. Yes, He did pass judgment on people in cases of deliberate and evil "religious" practices, and He did call upon some of His followers to execute the judgment.  We notice, however, that when this happens, we need to recognize that these practices were evil, and the judgments were specific, and limited to a particular time and place.  Yes, even people claiming to be followers of God have done horrific things, and that is something for which they will be held accountable.  It is interesting that most of the critics will judge believers for our shortcomings, but usually admit that there is validity to the laws they claim to not believe in the source of.

Bible scholars, Jewish and Christian, tell us that the commandment given to Moses is  "You shall not murder". The earliest translations into English were done at a time that "murder" and "kill" had the same meaning, and the Hebrew word used is restricted to a deliberate killing, not an accidental or

judicious death. We know that this is the case also because the continuation of the teaching of Moses in Exodus 21-23 describes the necessity of judgment  and its limitations. The law requires at least two witnesses in serious cases--but appropriate authorities are expected to enforce the law, and to be fair with it. We are responsible for each other! We are responsible to respect each others' lives, health, well-being, property, relationships, and to honor those who are responsible for us.