Joseph’s brothers

One can also lie by action, as in the Old Testament the brothers of Joseph did when they sold him as a slave to some merchants.  You remember how they took his coat, the coat of many colours, and soaked it in goat’s blood and took it to their father and said, ”This we have found; see now whether it is your son’s robe or not”.  And their father Jacob recognised it and said, “It is my son’s robe!  A wild animal has devoured him; Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces” (NRSV, Genesis 37).  That was an acted lie.  So it would be an acted lie if someone put a stolen purse in someone else’s pocket so that the other person would be accused of the theft.