|
by
Doug Ward |
One of the most challenging teachings of Jesus is his
directive to "love your enemies." It appears in the Sermon on the
Mount, in Matthew 5:43-44:
"You have heard it was said, `You shall love your
neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies ... ."
Here
Jesus builds upon the instruction of the Torah and wisdom literature from the
Hebrew Scriptures. Kind treatment of one's enemies is implied in Exodus 23:4-5,
Job 31:29, and Proverbs 25:21-22.
However,
the source of the saying, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your
enemy" is harder to identify. "You shall love your neighbor as
yourself" is familiar from Lev 19:18, but there is no biblical command to
"hate your enemy." There is also no such teaching in rabbinic
tradition. For centuries, in fact, it remained unclear who had said "hate
your enemy."
Things
changed with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Since the publication of
the Qumran Community Rule (1QS) in 1951, much more information has been
available about the source and rationale of the saying to which Jesus referred
in Matt 5:43. Studying this information can help us put our Master's teaching
in context.
|
Hating
the Sons of Darkness |
The Community Rule (also known as the Manual of Discipline), which
dates from around 100 B.C., regulated the life of a Jewish sect at Qumran.
According to Dr. Marvin Wilson, "The people of Qumran had withdrawn to the
wilderness to await the end of the age. They were the `sons of light,'
equipping themselves through intense discipline, rituals of purity, and
scriptural study to overcome their enemy, the `sons of darkness.' "1
The Community Rule begins by saying that members of the community should be
taught to seek God and obey Moses and the Prophets so that "they may love
all the sons of light, each according to his lot in God's design, and hate all
the sons of darkness, each according to his guilt in God's vengeance."
The
Community Rule and other documents from Qumran give more details about what it
meant to love those within the community and hate those outside of it. In
particular, members of the sect were to show mutual love by correcting other
members if they noticed them going astray. In this way, the holiness of the
community would be preserved and members would not harbor hateful thoughts or
develop grudges against one another. The sect's practice of mutual correction
and rebuke was based on Lev. 19:17-18, which says, "You shall not hate
your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor,
lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a
grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as
yourself."2
The
Qumran sect noted that the instructions in Lev 19:17-18 are directed toward
"your brother", "the sons of your people," and "your
neighbor." For them, brethren and neighbors were members of their own
community. On the other hand, community members were not to correct or rebuke
outsiders, including fellow Jews whom they saw as apostate. Harboring hatred in
one's heart toward outsiders was permitted. Chapter 9 of the Community Rule specifies
that the leader of the community "shall not rebuke the men of the Pit nor
dispute with them." Later in the chapter comes the declaration,
"Everlasting hatred in a spirit of secrecy for the men of perdition!"
The
sectarians arrived at their narrow interpretation of Lev 19:17-18 by comparing
these verses with Nahum 1:2, which states that "the Lord takes vengeance
on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies."3
While it is wrong to hate or practice revenge against a brother, they reasoned,
hatred against an enemy is endorsed by God's example, which they were called to
follow (Lev 19:2).
|
Learning
from Jesus and History |
The Qumran texts shed light on the teachings of Jesus. The
statement "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy" in Matt
5:43 turns out to be a good summary of the sectarian interpretation of Lev
19:17-18. Given the Qumran use of Nahum 1:2 in applying Lev 19, we can see why
Jesus grounds his instruction of love toward enemies in the character and
example of God (v. 45). Rather than practicing vengeance, which is God's sole
prerogative (Deut 32:35; Rom 12:19) exercised as a last resort, those who truly
seek to follow God's example should imitate their Creator in bestowing love to
all. Moreover, the sectarians' restrictive application of "your
neighbor" to members of their own community gives evidence of the
confusion on this subject that Jesus addresses in the Parable of the Good
Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).
While
the "hate your enemy" saying was prevalent enough for Jesus to
confront and correct, it was a sectarian error and not the predominant teaching
of first-century Judaism. Christians historically have often caused bitterness
and hindered the cause of the gospel by using Matt 5:43 as a weapon to
disparage all of Judaism. Ironically, such misapplication of Matt 5:43 stands
in direct disobedience to verses 44-48. In commenting on this irony, Rabbi
Joseph H. Hertz, chief rabbi of the United Kingdom from 1913 to 1946, remarked,
"It is Christian teachers who rarely preached, and still more rarely practised, love of those whom they branded as
`enemies.'"4 Since we
would not want our faith to be identified with aberrant doctrines held by
fringe groups, we should be sure to follow the golden rule (Matt 7:12) and the
rabbinic instruction to "judge everyone favorably" (Pirke Avot 1:6).
1Our Father Abraham:
Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith, Eerdmans,
1989, p. 119.
2Dr. James L. Kugel discusses the application of Lev 19:17-18 at Qumran
on pages 227-240 of his book In Potiphar's House: The Interpretive Life of Biblical Texts, HarperSanFrancisco, 1990.
3See In
Potiphar's House, p. 231.
4The
Pentateuch and Haftorahs, Second Edition, Soncino, London, 1973, comments on Exod
23:4-5. Thanks are due to Rob Wilson for pointing out this reference.
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