Today, most cultures retain a distinction between lying in general (which is discouraged under most, but not all, circumstances) versus perjury (which is always unlawful under criminal law and liable to punishment). Similarly, historically in Jewish tradition, a distinction was made between lying in general and bearing false witness (perjury) specifically. On the one hand, bearing false witness (perjury) was always prohibited according to the decalogue's commandment against bearing false witness, yet on the other, lying in general was acknowledged to be, in certain circumstances "permissible or even commendable" when it was a white lie, and it was done while not under oath, and it was not "harmful to someone else".[6]