Loving one's neighbor in JETS

Fri, 14 Jul 2017 13:00:02 +0000

As I mentioned earlier, the current issue of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (60.2) contains Henry Kelly’s essay on “Love of Neighbor as Great Commandment in the Time of Jesus: Grasping at Straws in the Hebrew Scriptures” (265–81). According to the abstract,

One’s “neighbor,” generously interpreted to include everyone else in the world, even personal and impersonal enemies, looms large in the NT, especially in the form of the second great commandment, and in various expressions of the Golden Rule. The NT also contains expansive claims that neighbors have a similar importance in the OT. The main basis that commentators cite for these claims is a half-verse in the middle of Leviticus (“You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” 19:18b), as fully justifying these claims, supported by other isolated verses, notably, Exod 23:45, on rescuing the ass of one’s enemy. Relying on these verses has the appearance of grasping at straws in order to justify the words of Jesus, but it seems clear that in the time of Jesus they had indeed been searched out and elevated to new significance. John Meier has recently argued that it was Jesus himself who gave the Levitical neighbor his high standing, but because the Gospels present the notion as already known, this article suggests that it had achieved a consensus status by this time.

Journal of Biblical Literature 131, no. 4

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:37:56 +0000

The latest issue of the Journal of Biblical Literature includes:

Jonathan Kaplan, “1 Samuel 8:11-18 as ‘A Mirror for Princes’”
Nizzim Amzallag and Mikhal Avriel, “The Cryptic Meaning of the Isaiah 14 Māšāl”
Mark Hamilton, “Isaiah 32 as Literature and Political Meditation”
Mark Awabdy, “Yhwh Exegetes Torah: How Ezekiel 44:7–9 Bars Foreigners from the Sanctuary”
Christian Stadel, “A Septuagint Translation Tradition and the Samaritan Targum to Genesis 41:43”
John Meier, “The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds (Matthew 13:24–30): Is Thomas’s Version (Logion 57) Independent?”
Andrew Simmonds, “Mark’s and Matthew’s Sub Rosa Message in the Scene of Pilate and the Crowd”
Matthew Rindge, “Reconfiguring the Akedah and Recasting God: Lament and Divine Abandonment in Mark”
Benjamin Lappenga, “Misdirected Emulation and Paradoxical Zeal: Paul’s Redefinition of ‘The Good’ as Object of ζῆλος in Galatians 4:12–20”
Callie Callon, “Secondary Characters Furthering Characterization: The Depiction of Slaves in the Acts of Peter”

John-Meier on J. David Stark

Loving one's neighbor in JETS

Journal of Biblical Literature 131, no. 4