vinced that “neighbor” in the Hebrew language meant, invariably and exclusively, a Hebrew. We find the same meaning expressed in the Gospel parable of the Samaritan. From the inquiry of the Jewish scribe (Luke x. 29), “And who is my neighbor?” it is plain that he did not regard the Samaritan as such. The word “neighbor” is used with the same meaning in Acts vii. 27. “Neighbor,” in Gospel language, means a compatriot, a person belonging to the same nationality. And so the antithesis used by Jesus in the citation, “love thy neighbor, hate thine enemy,” must be in the distinction between the words “compatriot” and “foreigner.” I then sought for the Jewish understanding of “enemy,” and I found my supposition confirmed. The word “enemy” is nearly always employed in the Gospels in the sense, not of a personal enemy, but, in general, of a “hostile people” (Luke i. 71, 74; Matt. xxii. 44; Mark xii. 36; Luke xx. 43, etc.). The use of the word “enemy” in the singular form, in the phrase “hate thine enemy,” convinced me that the meaning is a “hostile people.” In the Old Testament, the conception “hostile people” is nearly always expressed in the singular form.
When I understood this, I understood why Jesus, who had before quoted the authentic words of the law, had here cited the words “hate thine enemy.” When we understand the word “enemy” in the sense of “hostile people,” and “neighbor” in the sense of “compatriot,” the difficulty is completely
