The Most Basic Law in the Bible - The BAS Library
Login
Home > Magazines > Bible Review > August 1995

The Most Basic Law in the Bible

It is easy to “love” the war-ravaged Bosnians, the AIDS-stricken Zaireans or the bereaved of Oklahoma City. But what of the strangers in our midst, the vagrants on our sidewalks?

By Jacob Milgrom

The commandment “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) was declared the fundamental ethic in Christianity and Judaism by Jesus and Rabbi Akiva, respectively.1 The Hebrew original consists of only three words. I shall discuss them, for limitations of space, in summary form. 1. we’ahavta, “You shall love.” How can love be commanded? The answer simply is that this Hebrew word implies not only an attitude or emotion, but also deeds. This is especially true of Deuteronomy, which speaks of a covenantal love. One loves the stranger by providing him with food and shelter (Deuteronomy 10:18–19). One […]

Please join the BAS Library or become an All Access member of BAS to gain full access to this article and so much more.

Join the BAS Library!

Already a library member? Log in here.

Endnotes

1.

Matthew 22:37–40; Mark 12:20–31; Luke 20:27–28 Sipra Qedoshim 4:12, cited below.

2.

Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon, column 4:266–68, in James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1969), p. 537.

3.

For example, Ibn Ezra (second explanation), Ramban, Bekhor Shor.

4.

To be sure, the lamed is frequently the sign of a direct object (e.g., 2 Samuel 3:30), as prevalent in Aramaic (e.g., Ezra 5:9).

5.

Also Leviticus 19:34 (discussed below). 1 Kings 5:15 (5:1 English) and 2 Chronicles; see Abraham Malamat, “‘Love Your Neighbor as Yourself’—What It Really Means,” BAR 16:04.

6.

Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a; Jerusalem Talmud, Nedarim 9; see Sira 28:4.

7.

Matthew 7:2; Luke 6:13, Romans 13:8–10.

8.

For example, Exodus 22:20; 23:9; Deuteronomy 10:19.

9.

See A. Ehrlish, Randglossen zur hebraischen Bibel, 7 volumes (Leipzig, 1908–14), on Leviticus 19:34.

10.

N.H. Wessely, Netivot Ha-Shalom, vol. 3, Leviticus, ed. M. Mendelssohn (Vienna, 1846), on Leviticus 19:18.

11.

E. Ullendorf, “Thought Comparisons in the Hebrew Bible,” in Studies in Rationalism, Judaism and Universalism in Memory of L. Roth, ed. R. Loewe (London, 1966), pp. 276–78.

12.

Sipra Qedoshim 4:12; see Genesis Rabbah 24:7.