the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Filipino Cebuano Bible
Mateo 5:43
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from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Thou: Matthew 19:19, Matthew 22:39, Matthew 22:40, Leviticus 19:18, Mark 12:31-34, Luke 10:27-29, Romans 13:8-10, Galatians 5:13, Galatians 5:14, James 2:8
and hate: Exodus 17:14-16, Deuteronomy 23:6, Deuteronomy 25:17, Psalms 41:10, Psalms 139:21, Psalms 139:22
Reciprocal: Leviticus 19:34 - General Deuteronomy 4:2 - General Job 31:30 - have Malachi 2:9 - but Matthew 5:21 - it Luke 6:27 - Love Luke 10:29 - And Luke 10:34 - went Galatians 6:10 - do good 1 John 2:7 - but
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Ye have heard that it hath been said,.... By, or to them of old time. This law has been delivered to them,
thou shalt love thy neighbour, with this appendage to it, or false gloss upon it,
and hate thine enemy; for the first of these only is the law of Moses, Leviticus 19:18, the other is the addition, or wrong interpretation of the Scribes and Pharisees: wherefore the Jew o has no reason to charge Christ, or the Evangelist, with a false testimony, as he does, because the latter is no where written in the law, nor in the prophets: nor does Christ say it is; he only observes, that it had been traditionally handed down to them from the ancients, by the masters of the traditions of the elders, that the law of loving the neighbour was so to be understood as to allow, and even enjoin, hatred of enemies: in proof of which, take the following instances p.
"When one man sins against another, he may not hate him in his heart, and be silent, as is said of the wicked; Absalom spoke not with Amnon: but it is commanded to make it known to him, and to say to him, why hast thou done to me so and so? As it is said, "rebuking, thou shalt rebuke thy neighbour"; and if he returns, and desires him to pardon him, he shall not be implacable and cruel; but if he reproves him many times, and he does not receive his reproof, nor turn from his sin, then מותר לשנאותו, "it is lawful to hate him".''
Again, they say q,
"Every disciple of a wise man, שאינו נוקם ונוטר כנחש, "who does not revenge, and keep as a serpent"; that is, as the gloss explains it, "enmity in his heart", as a serpent, is no disciple of a wise man.''
And so Maimonides r, one of their better sort of writers, says;
"A disciple of a wise man, or a scholar, whom a man despises and reproaches publicly, it is forbidden him to forgive him, because of his honour; and if he forgives him, he is to be punished, for this is a contempt of the law; but "he must revenge, and keep the thing as a serpent", until the other asks pardon of him, and then he may forgive him.''
Thus they bred their scholars in hatred and malice against their enemies. This arises from a mistaken sense of the word "neighbour", which they understood only of a friend; and concluded, that if a friend was to be loved, an enemy was to be hated; not the Gentiles only, but anyone, among themselves, which could come under that name.
o R. Isaac Chizuk Emunah, par. 2. c. 11. p. 402. p Moses Kotsensis Mitzvot Tora precept. neg. 5. Vid. Maimon. Hilchot Rotseach, c. 13. sect. 14. q T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 22. 2. & 23. 1. r Maimon. Hilch. Talmud Tora, c. 7. sect. 13.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy - The command to love our neighbor was a law of God, Leviticus 19:18. That we must therefore hate our enemy was an inference drawn from it by the Jews. They supposed that if we loved the one, we must of course hate the other. They were total strangers to that great, special law of religion which requires us to love both. A neighbor is literally one that lives near to us; then, one who is near to us by acts of kindness and friendship. This is its meaning here. See also Luke 10:36.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse 43. Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. — Instead of πλησιαν neighbour, the Codex Graevii, a MS. of the eleventh century, reads φιλον friend. Thou shalt love thy friend, and hate thine enemy. This was certainly the meaning which the Jews put on it: for neighbour, with them, implied those of the Jewish race, and all others were, considered by them as natural enemies. Besides, it is evident that πλησιον, among the Hellenistic Jews, meant friend merely: Christ uses it precisely in this sense in Luke 10:36, in answer to the question asked by a certain lawyer, Matthew 5:29. Who of the three was neighbour (πλησιον friend) to him who fell among the thieves? He who showed him mercy; i.e. he who acted the friendly part. In Hebrew, רע rea, signifies friend, which word is translated πλησιον by the LXX. in more than one hundred places. Among the Greeks it was a very comprehensive term, and signified every man, not even an enemy excepted, as Raphelius, on this verse, has shown from Polybius. The Jews thought themselves authorized to kill any Jew who apostatized; and, though they could not do injury to the Gentiles, in whose country they sojourned, yet they were bound to suffer them to perish, if they saw them in danger of death. Hear their own words: "A Jew sees a Gentile fall into the sea, let him by no means lift him out; for it is written, Thou shalt not rise up against the blood of thy neighbour: - but this is not thy neighbour." Maimon. This shows that by neighbour they understood a Jew; one who was of the same blood and religion with themselves.