The purpose of this research is to examine the commandment Thou shalt not kill, from the book of Exodus in the Old Testament of the Bible. The plan of the research will be to set forth the background, context, and basis for the emergence of the commandment, not only in biblical times but also in the modern period, and then to discuss the manner in which the action of killing has been justified, notably with reference to the death of Robert Kennedy.
The commandment not to kill appears at the midpoint of the decalogue, after commandments that describe how the Jews who followed Moses out of Egypt are to conceptualize God and relate to their superiors, notably God and their parents. This commandment describes how they are to relate to their fellow human beings. The commandments are described as the "'law': the moral, civil and ritual legislation by which [the Jews] were to become a holy people, in whom the promise of a Savior for all mankind would be fulfilled." Although it is unambiguous on its face, the biblical evidence of the Jews' experience before, during, and after the receipt of the commandment not to kill is that it is either violated in a sinful way or sidestepped in a way that is, apparently, not sinful in the eyes of God, but in both cases resulting in killing. The evidence of biblical and nonbiblical history informed by Exodus is also, from time to time, that killers find rationale for killing in the name of God. How, then, should the ethics of the commandment be understood?
In the background of the commandment is not only the flight from the Pharaoh in Egypt but also the tradition of the Israelite patriarchs, as if the codification of Jewish law in the decalogue is meant to seal and complete in a formal, bonded way, i.e., make more tangible, the covenant given by God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel) of the promised land. Indeed, by the end of the fifth book of the Pentateuch, the Jews enter Canaan, although withou...