Who Is My Enemy?

In Mathew chapter 5:43 Jesus says “you have heard that it has been said thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy”.  We have had this idea of love you enemies preached to us for as long as we can remember.  It has been the reason for the doctrine of pacifism and the reason why many have been a-posed to war and have gone to great lengths to avoid the draft.  All of this seems very strange and is in fact in conflict with Jewish Law that states “If one comes to kill you be first and kill him”.  This in Sanh. 72a.  This statement seems to run counter the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 5:43 until one investigates it thoroughly.  The question is what is Jesus really saying.  When one looks at this passage in the Greek text we note that the word for enemy is the Greek word “ekthros”.  In Thayers Greek English lexicon ekthros is simply defined as hated or hateful.  However, if one goes to Liddell and Scott’s Classical Greek English lexicon you will find there are three Greek words for hated.  The first is ekthros but the second is polemios, which means one who is actively at war with you.  The third is dusmenis which means one who has long been alienated and refuses to be reconciled.  A closer examination of ekthros states that an ekthros is one who was previously a philos (lover) but who is alienated.  All of this is very interesting especially when one examines this in the Hebrew texts instead of the Greek.  To do so I want to take you to the Mishnah Order Nezekin and Tractate or Chapter Sanhedrin Chapter 3 Mishnah 5, which states a friend or an enemy is ineligible (to serve in a court of law).  By friend is meant ones best man (the bride’s agent).  And by enemy is meant anyone that had not spoken with him through enmity for three days.  In other words an enemy according to the Hebrew text is one that was previously a friend and has been alienated and not spoken with the individual for three days.  In other words this statement of Jesus has nothing to do with pacifism nor is it an injunction against self defense or war.  As a matter of fact Jewish Law is rife with passages and/or injunctions that speak of self defense and/or punishment to be meted out against those guilty of some breach of law.  In this regard there is another passage I want to call to your attention, one that without a knowledge of Hebrew is quite difficult to understand.  In Matthew Chapter 5 starting with verse 21 it says “you have heard that it was said by them of old time “you shall not kill and whoever shall kill shall be in danger of judgement.  But in the Hebrew text it says you shall be in danger of the bet din.  The next verse states that I say unto you that whoever is angry with a brother without a cause shall be in danger of the san herding.  And whosoever shall say thou fool (naval) shall be in danger of the fires of gehinom.

What does that all mean?  Without a knowledge of Hebrew you would have no idea.  First of all it talks about the Sanhedrin and in Judaism there are three Sanhedrin.  One is the small Sanhedrin or the bet din, which is a congregational court of only three judges.  The second Sanhedrin consists of 23 judges and the great Sanhedrin consists of 71 members.  Each Sanhedrin judges certain specific offenses and all of the laws regarding the number of judges and a specific offenses each Sanhedrin judges are listed in the tractate Sanhedrin.  This is the first injunction referring to a transgression of such offense that the one violating the injunction is deemed worthy of eternal punishment.  But what is a naval?  Who would know from a simple reading of this passage in Matthew either in English or Greek?  The fact it mentions the naval is a specific indication that this information was communicated originally, not in Greek but Hebrew.  In the book, Every Man’s Talmud, by Abraham Cohen on page three he explains “whether atheism, in the sense of the dogmatic denial of God’s existence was excepted by anybody in Rabbinic times is doubtful; But both in bible and Talmud the concern was with the practical atheist who conducted his life as though he would never be held to account for his deeds.  In biblical literature the statement ‘there is no god’ is made by the naval, i.e. the morally corrupt person who, while acknowledging the existence of a creator, refused to believe that he was at all interested in the actions of his creature.  That’s in Psalms 14:1 and also 53:1.  His counterpart in the Talmud is apikoros, or epicurean, who likewise denies the fundamental principal of religion (BB16b) by his abominable conduct.  TheRabbis define the atheist as one who affirmed “there is no judgement and no judge (gen.R.266)” in the universe irrespective of his disbelief in the existence of God.  The use of the term epicurean in this sense is already found in Josephus who refers to this type “as men who cast providence out of human life and who do not believe that God takes care of the affairs of the world, nor that the Universe is governed and continued in being by that blessed and immortal nature, but say that the world is carried along of it’s own accord, without a ruler and guardian.” (Antiq.x.xi.7).

Without a knowledge of Hebrew and Jewish texts this passage would remain a mystery.  In light of the Hebrew text in tractate Sanhedrin it is apparent that the passage in Genesis 5:43 is not directed toward pacifism nor an injunction against war or self defense.