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"You have heard that it was said, `You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.`
Verse Takeaways
1
A Man-Made Addition
Commentators unanimously state that only the first half of this phrase, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor," is from the Old Testament (Leviticus 19:18). The second half, "and hate thine enemy," was a human addition. Scholars call it a "rabbinical inference" or a "parasitical growth" that distorted God's original command. Jesus is correcting this flawed human tradition, not the Law of God itself.
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Matthew
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18th Century
Presbyterian
You have heard that it has been said, You shall love your neighbour, and hate your enemy. The command to love our neighbour was a law of G…
And hate thine enemy (κα μισησεις). This phrase is not in Le 19:18, but is a rabbinical inference which Jesus repudiates bluntly. …
19th Century
Anglican
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. In its form, the latter clause was a Rabbinic addition to the former. This is im…
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Baptist
You have heard that it has been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I say to you, that you resist not evil: but whoever shall…
The command “Love your neighbor” is found in Lev 19:18; no OT Scripture adds “and hate your enemies,” though this seems to be the result of popular…
16th Century
Protestant
You shall love your neighbor. It is astonishing that the Scribes fell into so great an absurdity as to limit the word neighbor to…
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17th Century
Reformed Baptist
You have heard that it has been said By, or to them of old time. This law has been delivered to them,
The Jewish teachers understood —neighbor' to mean only those who were of their own country, nation, and religion, whom they regarded as their frien…
13th Century
Catholic
You have heard that it has been said, You shall love your neighbor. Above, the Lord fulfilled the Law concerning permissi…