Re: bible ethics

George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Thu, 09 Dec 1999 14:38:09 -0500

Moorad Alexanian wrote:
>
> Dear George,
>
> I recall a bar mitzvah when the Rabbi said that all that Christ had said
> was already in the OT; in particular, the bit about loving each other. I
> kept that thought in my mind for quite some time until I realized that what
> Christ had said was "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one
> another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." John
> 13:34. Christ as God incarnate set the example of true, absolute love; a
> love that culminated in His crucifixion.

The sense in which the "new commandment" of Jn.13 is "new" is not completely
clear. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev.19:18) is of course part of the
Mosaic legislation & in the synoptics Jesus cites it as being second in importance only
to the command to love God. Thus the "new commandment" is an intensification of the
old.
I would agree with the rabbi that what Jesus said of a legal nature is already
in the OT. That is not the case, however, for what he says - and what we can infer -
about his relationship with God as his Father & about his claim to have authority to
forgive sins.
Shalom,
George

George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/