Jesus was a Jew, where do you get the idea He excludes Jews from those He sees as His neighbor? The Apostles were all Jews.
Neighbor is defined with reference to the Parable He tells about the Good Samaritan, and basically is anyone we confront in our lives with needs, Jew or Gentile, it does not matter who the person we see in need is,
Maybe you can point me to the verse where Jesus or the Apostles call themselves Jews. While you're at it, tell me what it is you think that makes Jesus and a random yid off the street both a Jew.
Are you illiterate? In the parable, the wounded man isn't anyone's neighbor. The story explicitly disqualifies from being neighbors those God Damned Jews who didn't come to the wounded man's aid. The Samaritan is the one and only neighbor in the story. (And, as usual, Jesus was showing his hatred of the Jews by making them the non-neighbor bad guys in this story.)
Thus, in the Parable of the good Samaritan, a Jewish man was robbed and left half dead beside the road.
Jesus didn't say the wounded man was a Jew. If you were at all familiar with the real Jesus you wouldn't have erroneously jumped to the conclusion that the wounded man was jewish (WTF?).
You continually try to twist the Bible and make it pro-Jew. That makes you a liar.
You did the right thing giving this guy a ride, as he was clearly in distress. But, Jesus wasn't telling us to be neighborly. He was telling us to love our neighbors.
And about the command, love one another as I have loved you, I do not agree that is only a call to love Christians. Christians did not even exist yet,
Jesus is explicitly addressing his disciples and he tells them (the group) to love one another. If you were literate, you would recognize that the meaning implied by "one another" is fellow members of the group, not people outside the group. Jesus didn't say "love all men." Learn to read.
Your last statement, I also disagree with, Jesus did not hate his enemies, and we are not called to hate our enemies. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, love your enemy, for God made the sun rise on, and the rain come down on them, too, God loves them, too. Matthew 5:43-48
Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’" Do you know where they heard "hate your enemy? From their Bible, the Old Testament!
Jesus continued, "But I tell you: Love your enemies..." Jesus doesn't say this is a command. And, it is the same kind of hyperbole Jesus used when he said to hate your parents. Do you hate your parents? Do you think that's what Jesus wanted?
Jesus didn't tell the Jews he loved them. Jesus didn't treat the Jews with love. He told them that they're children of Satan. That's hate. Anyone who loves God would naturally hate the enemies of God, such as the Jews whom God has damned.
Ariux,
To start, I have some general comments, it seems almost every statement you make here is made with this assumption Jesus hates all Jews and commands hate of them. You are wrong about both. Where do you get these ideas from? If it is Matthew 23, you are not interpreting Matthew 23 correctly. The Apostle Paul was a Jew, a Pharisee, and he received a Revelation from Jesus after Jesus spoke the words He said in Matthew 23. Jesus obviously does not hate and call for Christians to hate the Apostle Paul, who was Jewish, or Jews generally.
You seem to be saying Jesus was not Jewish, you are wrong about that. We have His lineage set forth, in Matthew and Luke. He is God and man (addressed most fully in the Gospel of John), and He is Jewish.
You seem to be saying the first 12 Apostles were not Jewish, you are wrong about that, too. I think that is clearly demonstrated by all of the later interactions with the Apostle Paul, who was the Apostle for the Gentiles, and the Jewish Apostles who stayed in Jerusalem, such as the Apostle Peter. Further, when Jesus first sent the Apostles out to tell others the Gospel, He says to them "Don't go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans." Matthew 10. He tasks them first with sharing the Gospel with Jews. The first 12 Apostles are also named in Matthew 10, they are all Jewish. The Bible tells us all of these people are Jewish, in many places, we do not have to have Jesus or each person addressed proclaim themselves to be Jewish to conclude they are Jewish.
In the story of the Good Samaritan, we are specifically told in that Bible verse that the wounded man is Jewish, in the version of the Bible I was reading, that is. We do not hear about his response to anything, he is half dead, the way he is described, so I do agree he is not described as being neighborly to anyone else. But I do not agree that the point of the Parable was to show Jesus hate for Jews. He is demonstrating what being a neighbor is, and both Jews and Gentiles are called to be neighbors. This, the fact He is calling Jews and Gentiles to be neighbors to others, is illustrated by the fact the audience He shares this Parable with is His very own first 12 Jewish Apostles and others.
You call me a Liar for stating the wounded man in the story of the Good Samaritan is Jewish. I called him a Jew because the Bible translation I was reading from, The New Living Translation, says that he was Jewish, that was the Bible verse and version of my Parallel Bible I was reading from when I wrote my post. I was not lying about anything when I said he was Jewish.
I read and quote below and provide a reference below, as well:
"Parable of the Good Samaritan
30 Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.
31 “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. 32 A Temple assistant[d] walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.
33 “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. 34 Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. 35 The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins,[e] telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’
36 “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.
37 The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”
Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”
Luke 10 NLT - Jesus Sends Out His Disciples - The - Bible Gateway
Now, as I write this present post, I do realize as I look at my Parallel Bible I was referring to when I wrote my first post, that the three other versions of Luke 10 I have set forth in my parallel bible, The King James Version, The New King James Version, and the NIV do not state the wounded man was Jewish. They each refer to the wounded man as simply "a man." So, maybe he was not Jewish. Maybe, he was Jewish. From the other Bible verses, we simply do not know what he was, Jewish or nonJewish. Maybe, the point of the Parable is that in his condition it could not be determined whether he was Jewish or not Jewish. Such a possibility is suggested by the fact that we are told the Levite, before deciding not to help him, actiually goes up to him and looks upon him. Before the Levite walks away to the other side of the street, he does this. Bottomline, on the issue of whether the wounded man was Jewish or not, I do not know, at this point. All 4 versions of the Bible I am reading are Translations. I do not think it matters, really, for the point illustrated by the story ,which is addressing the Good Samaritan acting as a neigbor to a hurt man.
You state, Jesus wasn't telling us to be neighborly, but was telling us to love our neighbors. What Jesus says in the Parable is go and do as the Good Samaritan did. This is true of all 4 versions of the Bible in my parallel Bible. This Parable demonstrates what being a neighbor is, and I believe that ties directly into Jesus command to love our neigbors as ourselves, since the Parable immediately follows Jesus statements about the most important commandments to follow, this is in Luke 10:25-29. Luke 10:29, an expert in the law is asking Jesus who is my neighbor, as he is trying to understand what Jesus command to love your neighbor as yourself means.
You stated the command to love one another as I have loved you, that is specifically referred to as a new command by Jesus himself in the Book of John , is a command to the disciples to love each other. I disagree. That is a much too limited way to read what Jesus deems to call a new command. Such an interpretation would call for the disciples to engage in legalism, which is something he expressed much criticism over with fellow Jews. See Matthew 23. Further, to interpret this to mean followers or disciples are called to only love other believers and followers in this way calls for a judgment call to be made as to what is in the hearts of others. This runs against Jesus statements elsewhere in the Gospels that tell Christians not to judge others.
Love one another as I have loved you is a command to Christians to look at Jesus life, how he treated others, and to seek to treat others around us, in our own lives, in a similar fashion. His own life, how He reached out and felt compassion for those hurting, and reached out and helped them, is also an illustration of being a Good Samaritan, I realize as I am writing this. The way He sacrificed His life to save others is also an example for us to follow. Martyrs throughout the History of Christianity have followed his example and died for their faith.
Sherri
