Infogalactic says, “The Golden Rule or ethic of reciprocity is a moral maxim or principle of altruism found in
nearly every human culture and religion,” whether in its positive or negative form. From this ubiquity, one might
reasonably conclude that the principle is inherently logical, intuitive or fundamental
to human society; perhaps all of these.
Thus when the Lord Jesus laid out his own version in the Sermon on the Mount, it seems unlikely his audience had never heard this
particular ethical statement — or at least something very much like it — before. History suggests it was a familiar concept.
