Thus it would appear that there were discussions on this subject among the rabbis of the Talmud, and that while there were those who advocated the “lie of necessity,” as a matter of personal gain or as a means of good to others, there were those who stood firmly against any form of the lie, or any falsity, as in itself at variance with the very nature of God, and with the plain duty of God’s children.

Among the Christian Fathers it was much the same as among the Jewish rabbis, in discussions over this question.  The one unvarying standard was recognized, by the clearest thinkers, as binding on all for always; yet there were individuals inclined to find a reason for exceptions in the practical application of this standard.  The phase of the question that immediately presented itself to the early Christians was, whether it were allowable for a man to deny to a pagan enemy that he was a Christian, or that one whom he held dear was a Christian, when the speaking of the truth would cost him his life, or cost the life of one whom he loved.

There were those who held that the duty to speak the truth was merely a social obligation, and that when a man showed himself as an enemy of God and of his fellows, he shut himself out from the pale of this social obligation; moreover, that when such a man could be deterred from crime, and at the same time a Christian’s life could be preserved, by the telling of an untruth, a falsehood would be justifiable.  If the lie were told in private under such circumstances, it was by such persons considered different from a public denial of one’s faith.  But, on the other hand, the great body of Christians, in the apostolic age, and in the age early following, acted on the conviction that a lie is a sin per se, and that no emergency could make a lie a necessity.  And it was in fidelity to this conviction that the roll of Christian martyrs was so gloriously extended.

Justin Martyr, whose Apologies in behalf of the Christians are the earliest extant, speaks for the best of the class he represents when he says:  “It is in our power, when we are examined, to deny that we are Christians; but we would not live by telling a lie."[1] And again:  “When we are examined, we make no denial, because we are not conscious of any evil, but count it impious not to speak the truth in all things, which also we know is pleasing to God."[2] There was no thought in such a mind as Justin Martyr’s, or in the minds of his fellow-martyrs, that any life was worth saving at the cost of a lie in God’s sight.

[Footnote 1:  First Apology, Chapter 8.]

[Footnote 2:  Second Apology, Chapter 4.]