Ethical Values In The Old Testament RELIGION 205 DR. FRANK JOHNSON 18 NOVEMBER 1996 ETHICAL VALUES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT How we live our lives is governed by ethics. Ethics is “human moral conduct according to principles of what is good or right to do.” Our ethical values today descend primarily from a Christian ethic in which “a truly ethical decision, we are told, must be spontaneous, undirected, free - the individual's unfettered and uncoerced response to each new decision-demanding situation.” The ethical values of today, especially Christian ethics, borrow and carry forward the Hebrew ethics of the past. Yet it is hardly fair to explain Old Testament