Roy Blizzard III © 2011
As an ordained minister and a Hebrew, Greek etc. student of the Bible, holder of a MRE, as well as the son of a PhD in Hebrew studies and minister, I am well aware of many of the errors spread in the name of Christianity, especially the Old Testament ones that the so called pacifist movement so loves to spread, “thou shall not kill” and Jesus’ New Testament words “Love your enemies”.
Even if one is familiar with Hebrew it can be difficult to trace the real roots behind these Words and if you only know Greek you are at a real disadvantage and will probably never know what the truth is unless someone like me were to tell you.
You may or may not be aware that the Old Testament passage of Exodus 20:13, “thou shall not kill” actually is translated as “thou shall not commit premeditated murder”. There has been several good articles about this. However, I have never seen anyone write about what I am going to share with you now except for my father and I, as most Christians probably don’t know enough to find where to look for it.
In Matthew 5, where Jesus is speaking on the mount, he is giving a perfectly good Jewish sermon, saying nothing new, but just commenting on Jewish law. But when you read it in Greek and then English, if you know Jewish Law, you are immediately thrown off when you come to the statement to “love your enemies” as this does not make good Jewish sense as they had a teaching that said that if a man were to come to kill you, you should rise up and kill him first as your righteous character and that of your family is worth more than the unrighteous character of the evil one coming to destroy you.
So then, why does Jesus say to “love your enemy”? Is he stating some new law that we were unaware of? No, for to do so would have been to make God out to be changeable.
When I was taking Classical Greek at the University of Texas in 1986, this perplexed me so I started researching it. It took me several days to find out the answer. In the Liddell and Scott Greek English Lexicon which is the authoritative lexical aid for Greek I found an unusual reference that finally led me to the truth. The Greek word in question here is Exthros which is generally translated as Enemy in EVERY NEW TESTAMENT LEXICAL AID.
However, in the Liddell and Scott there is a reference to a 1st century A.D. grammaticus, Ammonius – Grammaticus, which defined the word Exthros as someone who had been a Philos (a brother) but is alienated (out of enmity you had become estranged from them for a while). It was different than a Polamios, who you are at war with (who was a blood enemy who was out to kill you) and a Dusmenos is one who has long been alienated and refuses to reconcile.
Then it all made sense to me.
Jesus was quoting the Jewish Law and EVERY New Testament commentary was wrong.
In the Babylonian Talmud, in the Book called Sanhedrin, which dealt with trials and legal issues, # III 5, there is a reference to this subject, “If one had not spoken to his brother (a person of the community or a Philos) for 3 days due to “enmity” then you could not sit on a court of law either for that individual or against that individual.
What Jesus was saying then was that you brothers had better quit behaving badly towards one another or else you won’t be able to support your community if such a need arises. A person may be falsely accused and if you haven’t spoken to your brother for 3 days you won’t be able to get him out of trouble or vice versa if you see your brother committing a crime, you can’t bring charges.
Even if we raise the argument that “Your “enemy” is someone who persecutes “you” in any or all situations how does this argument make Jewish sense if Jesus says that the time would come when even those of a man’s household would be an “enemy” (Matthew 10:36).
Scholar Richard A. Horsely in his book “Covenant Economics: A Biblical Vision of Justice for All” states concerning the verses in Luke 6:27-29 (and the corresponding ones in Matthew 5:43-44): “These are sayings on which pacifists (Including myself) who demonstrated against war and for civil rights based our non-violence. This interpretation, HOWEVER, takes the sayings by themselves out of the context of the covenantal speech. “Enemies” was the standard term in covenantal teaching for those local neighbors with whom people had come into conflict (and who could sabotage one’s crops – see Matthew 13:25), it is not a reference to the Romans” (page 110).
So Horsely, the pacifist, recognizes that this passage does not have to do with “blood enemies” or the polamios who would do us harm/violence. As a matter of fact he goes on to state “Neither in this speech (Luke’s version) or in Matthew’s adaptation of the Sermon of the Mount do these admonitions and illustrations concern violence, the slap on the cheek (Luke 6:29a) is an insult, NOT a full-fledged physical attack” (ibid. page110).
Also, scholar James L. Kugel in his book: “In Potiphar’s House: The Interpretative life of Biblical Texts” shows quite convincingly that the text in Leviticus 19:17-18, “17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. 18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord”. As interpreted by the Qumran community they see “brother”, “neighbor” and “children of thy people” as referring only to members of the Qumran community – anyone outside of the community, that is other Israelite’s, were seen as “enemies”. Enemies were anyone outside of the community.
As Kugel writes: “…for the drafters of the Damascus Document”(a Qumran scroll), it seemly likely that for them the “sons of your people” was a far narrower concept. For throughout their writings it is clear that they viewed the border between themselves and other Jews as absolute, and practices enjoined within the community did not apply to those outside. The world outside the sect was indeed full of “enemies” (ibid. page234). So loving your neighbor and not hating the son of your people or a brother only applied to fellow members of the Qumran sect – not to other Israelites outside of the community as they were enemies (because they were outside of the community, out of harmony with the community. Not in fellowship with them).
Kugel goes on to state that this helps to clarify Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:43-44. That Jesus was arguing against (as he was throughout the sermon) a “restrictive interpretation” of the Torah that interpreted Leviticus 19:17-18 as meaning you are to love those you are in harmony and fellowship with (your neighbor or brother) – but it is okay to hate one of your fellow countrymen or member of the community that you are out of fellowship with, that you have had a falling out with (and thus becomes your enemy – ibid. pages 236-239).
Kugel also shows that this is alluded to in 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 where Paul writes: “If anyone refuses to obey what we say in this letter, note that man and have nothing to do with him, so that he may be put to shame. [Yet] do not consider (or treat him) as an enemy but warn him as a brother” So here we see a brother who is out of harmony, out of fellowship with the community of believers – but he is not to be seen or treated as an enemy but still held and admonished as a brother.
This suggests that Paul understood the tendency to treat one whom you are out of fellowship with as an enemy – so he tells them “DON’T do that!” An enemy came to be one who was close to us but who we are now out of fellowship with. Thus they become “an enemy”.
Jesus and Paul teaches us this is NOT how Leviticus 19:17-18 is to be interpreted, that is we are NOT to treat a brother/fellow believer whom we are out of fellowship with (or he with us) as an enemy. We are to treat them with love, do good to them, pray for them, maybe even admonish them – i.e. treat them as a brother still (even if they do not treat us as one). The full context of Matthew 5 and Luke 6 has to do with the community and the persecution that can be received from these we were once in fellowship with as Richard Horsely and Matthew 10:36 show.
So there you have it. Too many Christians have needlessly gone to their deaths and others have let too many individuals take advantage of others due to misunderstanding this one passage and the other passages and Jewish teachings that support it. All real men, especially the godly Alpha Males, should be prepared to defend themselves and their families from thugs and criminals and even false teachers and politicians who come in as wolves to destroy through distorted teachings that are just flat out wrong in order to manipulate you and control you.
You can now see that in Judaism, hatred by a Christian or Believer is only an invalid emotion when it is directed towards the innocent or the righteous. Nowhere does God tell us not to hate the cruel, the wicked, the barbaric, the murderers, communists/socialists and especially terrorists who stand against God and the righteous and innocent. In fact, if we are truly Believers/Christians then we are obligated by God’s Law to hate evil in order to resist and fight evil. Just remember that Jesus said “your enemy” in relation to your brother in Christ, he never said to love “Gods enemy” the one who is coming to kill you, the righteous or the innocent.
The enemy of the Believer/Christian in relation to what Jesus spoke on the Sermon on the Mt. is the person who somehow frustrates your day to day relationship with your fellow man and interrupts you fellowship with God by doing something stupid like denting your car or cutting you off while driving and because of it you’re pissed off. God’s enemy is the man who raped and killed some young girl. He is a brute fiend.
We, as Believers/Christians are under no such obligation to forgive ungodly, fiendish behavior. We should be hating, fighting and neutralizing ungodly terrorists within our midst no matter who they are so that they can never harm innocent people again, because when channeled in the right direction hatred is a positively positive emotion.
I hope you can find this useful in your daily lives.
Thanks to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach for the concept on God’s enemies vs. Our enemies. Thanks to Mike Davis for further information regarding an Enemy.
For excellent information on how to live your life as a Godly Alpha Male I can recommend the book The Alpha Male by John H. Ingle at your book store.