This may be true, but it doesn't matter, because Christ was
deriving this moral law from the Old Testament, specifically the
book of Levitcus, which was written a thousand or more years before
Christ. The passage in which Jesus cites this is Matthew 7:12, as
well as Luke 6:31. This is the passage in Matthew: "Therefore,
whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is
the Law and the Prophets." The phrase the "Law and the Prophets"
echoes Matthew 5:17 (Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or
the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill). This
so-called "Golden Rule" is the practical application of Leviticus
19:18, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Leviticus is one
of the books of the Law written by Moses, hence Jesus' statement
that it fulfills the Law and the Prophets. Actually, no, Confucius
did not espouse "The Golden Rule." What Confucius said was, "What
is loathsome to thee, do not to another." Jesus was the first
moralist/ethicist/religious to express the "Golden Rule" in the
positive: And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to
them likewise." (Luke 6:28-31. King James Version) However, I doubt
it matters who said it first because, as has been observed, there
is no such thing as a truly original moralist. People know right
from wrong. The uniqueness of Christ is NOT in His teachings,
beautiful and sublime though they are. Christ's uniqueness is in
WHO HE IS. C.S. Lewis said it best: "I am trying here to prevent
anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about
Him [Jesus]: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher,
but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we
must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would
not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a
level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would
be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man
was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.
You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as
a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But
let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a
great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not
intend to." No.. Confucius wrote the rule which says " DO NOT do
unto others, which you DO NOT want others to do unto you." �All
things, therefore, that you want men to do to you, you also must
likewise do to them.��Matthew 7:12. THOSE words were spoken nearly
two thousand years ago by Jesus Christ in his famous Sermon on the
Mount. In the centuries since, much has been said and written about
that simple statement. Among other things, it has been extolled as
�the very essence of Scripture,� �a summary of the Christian�s duty
to his neighbour,� and �a fundamental ethical principle.� So
well-known has it become that it is often referred to as the Golden
Rule. The idea of the Golden Rule, however, is by no means confined
to the so-called Christian world. Judaism, Buddhism, and Greek
philosophy all expounded this ethical maxim in one form or another.
Well-known, especially to people in the Far East, is a statement by
Confucius, who is venerated in the Orient as the greatest sage and
teacher. In The Analects, the third of the Confucian Four Books, we
find the thought expressed three times. Twice, in answer to queries
from students, Confucius stated: �What you do not want done to you,
do not do to others.� On another occasion, when his pupil Zigong
boasted �What I do not want others to do to me, I also do not want
to do to them,� the teacher responded with this sobering rejoinder,
�Yes, but this you are not yet able to do.� Reading these words,
one can see that Confucius� statement is a negative version of what
Jesus later said. The obvious difference is that the Golden Rule
stated by Jesus requires positive actions of doing good to others.
There may be some merit in negative statements, such as that of
Confucius: �Do not do to others what you would not want them to do
to you.� But of how much greater value is Jesus� positive statement
of the Golden Rule: �All things, therefore, that you want men to do
to you, you also must likewise do to them�! See the Related Link
for "confusian saying #11" to the bottom for the answer. Unto him
that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other" (Luke vi,
29). Five hundred years before the time of Christ Confucius taught
"What you do not like when done to yourself do not to others."
Centuries before the Christian era Pittacus, Thales, Sextus,
Isocrates and Aristotle taught the same.
