This saying did not originate with Jesus. In one form or another, it can be found in writings going back 500 years before Jesus' birth (e.g. Plato, Aristotle).
A similar statement is called the Silver Rule, which also goes back many centuries before Christ: "Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you."
Some have criticized the Silver Rule as too negative to be a guiding principle - it simply tells people what not to do. By doing nothing, a person could seem to fulfill the Silver Rule.
On the other hand, once could argue that Gandhi and Martin Luther King made good use of the Silver Rule. They counseled oppressed peoples to undertake non-violent disobedience, and not to repay violence with violence.
The Silver Rule is found in some of the ancient manuscripts of the Acts of the Apostles - just after 15:29. It is thought to be an addition inserted by an early copyist, and most editions of the Bible do not include it.
- Little Black Book, Diocese of Saginaw