The Virtue of Hate
An interesting article in First Things, The Virtue of Hate, compares Christian and Jewish notions of forgiveness.
Posted on April 22nd, 2006 by pwyll
Filed under: religion
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An interesting article in First Things, The Virtue of Hate, compares Christian and Jewish notions of forgiveness.
Posted on April 22nd, 2006 by pwyll
Filed under: religion
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As with many people who use scripture passages to bolster theological arguments, the author of this essay makes the grave mistake of reading the Bible as though it were a single book. Passages from Exodus, Judges, Kings, and the prophets, written hundreds of years apart, under vastly different circumstances, are lumped together as though they are chapters in a single theological tract that represents “Judaism”.
This, of course, is nonsense.
While I will not make the mistake of representing the teachings of Jesus as a mere extension of earlier Judaism, there is not the great “chasm” that this author, for whatever reason, insists upon. The books (not chapters) that were closest to Jesus’ time and arguably the most influential in his teachings were the “Wisdom” books. A much more thoughtful version of justice and mercy is already apparent there.