The Love Of Neighbour In Ancient Judaism

In The Love of Neighbour in Ancient Judaism, Kengo Akiyama traces the surprisingly complex development of the mainstay of early Jewish and Christian ethics "Love your neighbour" in the Second Temple period.

We are all familiar with the commandment to 'love your neighbour as yourself'. But it's difficult to know exactly what it means, There are three main problems - firstly, what is meant by 'love', secondly who is (and is not) your neighbour, and finally what does 'as yourself' mean? It's not as simple as it looks at first glance.Of course, it's not just us, today, who are asking these questions. The commandment has been interrogated and analysed for thousands of years, within the Jewish tradition and within the Christian tradition. Each generation, each new blast of scholarship, added a new layer of meaning to the plain sense of the biblical text.This book serves as a partial biography of the commandment, examining the commandment through three lenses. The first lens is the lens of Biblical scholarship and literary criticism. What does each word mean, on its own and in context. Did the words mean something very different to the Israelites at Sinai or the Judeans who first heard the Torah read out at the time of Ezra? What can we learn from comparing the Biblical text to texts from other cultures from the Ancient Near East. The second lens is the lens of Rabbinic Judaism. In particular, the midrash (legend) recorded three times in ancient Rabbinic texts (from 100 BCE to 700 CE) that the famous Rabbi Akiva debated with his colleague Simeon Ben Azzai as to which commandment was the principal or greatest commandment in Torah. Why might Rabbi Akiva have selected the commandment 'love your neighbour'? Why did Ben Azzai disagree? What can we learn from these ancient Rabbinic texts as to what the commandment meant to the Jews of late antiquity? The final lens is that of twentieth century Jewish philosophy. The commandment 'love your neighbour' was central to the work of two Jewish philosophers - one, Franz Rosenzweig who lived, worked and died in Germany prior to the Second World War; the other, Emmanuel Levinas, the Ethicist and Holocaust survivor. Both Rosenzweig and Levinas lived and worked in a cultural milieu where Jewish, Christian and Secular philosophies intermingled. Rosenzweig's world was one of Christian ascendency, and his life's work was to create a method for Jews and Christians to co-exist. Levinas saw that Philosophy had been used and abused by the Nazis to justify their own warped sense of superiority. He also found himself leading the shocked post-war Jewish community of France into reclaiming and revivifying their Jewish identity. In both cases, the commandment to 'love your neighbour' became a central premise to life in modernity - a premise as important to Jews and Christians as to those of no religion at all.This book provides a deep, scholarly and spiritually sensitive analysis of the commandment to 'love your neighbour'. Funds raised from its sale will enable further research - notably into the intervening centuries between the Rabbinic period and the emergence of modernity. It will be of interest to anyone with a broad inquiring mind into Judaism, Christianity, inter-faith and humanistic ethics.

This book examines an undertheorized topic in the study of religion and sacred texts: the figure of the neighbor. By analyzing and comparing this figure in Jewish, Christian and Islamic texts and receptions, the chapters explore a conceptual shift from "Children of Abraham" to "Ambiguous Neighbors." Through a variety of case studies using diverse methods and material, chapters explore the neighbor in these neighboring texts and traditions. The figure of the neighbor seems like an innocent topic at the surface. It is an everyday phenomenon, that everyone have knowledge about and experiences with. Still, analytically, it has a rich and innovative potential. Recent interdisciplinary research employs this figure to address issues of cultural diversity, gender, migration, ethnic relationships, war and peace, environmental challenges and urbanization. The neighbor represents the borderline between insider and outsider, friend and enemy, us and them. This ambiguous status makes the neighbor particularly interesting as an entry point into issues of cultural complexity, self-definition and identity. This volume brings all the intersections of religion, ethnicity, gender, and socio-cultural diversity into the same neighborhood, paying attention to sacred texts, receptions and contemporary communities. The Ambiguous Figure of the Neighbor in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Texts and Receptions offers a fascinating study of the intersections between Jewish, Christian and Islamic text, and will be of interest to anyone working on these traditions.

A new commentary for today's world, The Story of God Bible Commentary explains and illuminates each passage of Scripture in light of the Bible's grand story. The first commentary series to do so, SGBC offers a clear and compelling exposition of biblical texts, guiding everyday readers in how to creatively and faithfully live out the Bible in their own contexts. Its story-centric approach is ideal for pastors, students, Sunday school teachers, and laypeople alike. Three easy-to-use sections designed to help readers live out God's story: LISTEN to the Story: Includes complete NIV text with references to other texts at work in each passage, encouraging the reader to hear it within the Bible's grand story EXPLAIN the Story: Explores and illuminates each text as embedded in its canonical and historical setting LIVE the Story: Reflects on how each text can be lived today and includes contemporary stories and illustrations to aid preachers, teachers, and students Praise for SGBC: "The editors and contributors set that table very well and open up the biblical story in ways that move us to act with sensitivity and understanding ... Well done." -Daniel I. Block, Wheaton College and Graduate School "[The] easy-to-use format and practical guidance brings God's grand story to modern-day life so anyone can understand how it applies today." -Andy Stanley, Senior Pastor, North Point Ministries "Engagingly readable, it not only explores the biblical text but offers a range of applications and interesting illustrations." -Craig S. Keener, Asbury Theological Seminary "I love the SGBC series. It makes the text sing and helps us hear the story afresh." -John Ortberg, Senior Pastor, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church "Pastors, Bible study leaders, and Christians of all types who are looking for a substantive and practical guide through the Scriptures will find these volumes helpful." -Frank Thielman, Beeson Divinity School "This commentary series breaks new ground ... Ideal for preaching and teaching." -Craig Blomberg, Denver Seminary "A perfect tool for helping every follower of Jesus to walk in the story that God is writing for them." -Judy Douglass, Cru

In The Dangerous Duty of Rebuke Matthew Goldstone explores the ways religious leaders in early Jewish and Christian communities conceived of the obligation to rebuke based upon the biblical verse: “Rebuke your fellow but do not incur sin” (Leviticus 19:17).

“We are meant to take the Bible seriously, not literally.” —from the Introduction In Even the Devil Quotes Scripture, Robyn J. Whitaker looks to the Bible as a guide to interpreting the Bible, and her findings breathe new life into our understanding and use of Scripture. As it turns out, the uses of Scripture within Scripture are flexible, open to frequent reinterpretation, and rarely literal. For instance, Ezra and Nehemiah reinterpret laws about whether Jews can marry foreigners in the wake of the Babylonian exile. Their contradiction of earlier traditions found in Deuteronomic law do not invalidate Scripture but rather represent its diverse applications for the prophets’ specific situations. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus presents a more demanding interpretation of Mosaic law in the Sermon on the Mount, while in Mark’s Gospel he all but ignores its prohibition of working on the Sabbath. Yet the common ethos of the two gospels prioritizes compassion over legalism. Ultimately, Whitaker ascertains one definitive characteristic of inner-biblical interpretation: love. After all, the Old Testament passage most frequently quoted in the New Testament is Leviticus 19:18: “Love thy neighbor.” Thus, Whitaker proposes a hermeneutic of love—a litmus test for the validity of a scriptural interpretation measured in charity. Ideal for any devoted reader of the Bible, Even the Devil Quotes Scripture opens our eyes to the Bible as a living, loving gift of God’s unfolding revelation.

Celebrate the contributions of Gregory E. Sterling Harold W. Attridge, Ellen Birnbaum, Adela Yarbro Collins, John J. Collins, Michael B. Cover, Jan Willem van Henten, Carl R. Holladay, Andrew McGowan, Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr, Maren R. Niehoff, James R. Royse, and David T. Runia offer essays honoring Professor Gregory E. Sterling in this special edition of the The Studia Philonica Annual. This volume includes a biography of Sterling’s life by David T. Runia and a bibliography of Sterling’s scholarship by Michael B. Cover. Essays cover a range of topics on Philo, the Bible, and Josephus. Features: Articles on aspects of Hellenistic Judaism written by scholars from around the world Comprehensive bibliography of scholarship on Philo