WORD STUDY – YOUR NEIGHBOR –
‫קריבא‬
(Aramaic)
Leviticus 19:18: “But thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself.”
Mark 12:31: “And the second is like this, thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself.”
“Good shepherd, tell this youth what tis to love?
It is to be all made of sighs and tears,
It is to be all made of faith and service.”
Shakespeare – As You Like It
Act 5, Scene 2
The Greek New Testament uses the word agape for love in Mark
12:31.
A quick check of the Septuagint on my Septuagint App
on my I Pad (such a wonderful invention) tells me that the
Hebrew word ahavah is rendered as agape in the Greek. We know
that agape is an unconditional love.
I remember a Hollywood movie star told of a time when the
doctor said her daughter had a terminal illness. After getting
this news she went out to the desert and when totally alone
for one half hour she cursed God out, cursed out Jesus and
said that if she knew there was a Holy Spirit she would have
cursed Him out as well. After one half hour of cursing out
God with every vulgar and obscene words could think of, there
was a silence and then she heard an audible voice that said:
“That is the first time you’ve spoken to me, I love you.” That
is agape love, the perfect love of God and we are told we must
have that love for our neighbor.
Who is our neighbor? The word used for neighbor the Hebrew
text in Leviticus is ra’ah. The Greek word in Mark 12:31 is
plesion which means one that you would consider a friend or
companion. The Septuagint uses plesion in Leviticus 19:18 as
well but even through ra’ah is a word used for friend, ra’ah
is speaking of a very close friend or companion one who is in
close proximity or of the same faith. This is similar to the
Aramaic word used in the Peshitta in Mark 12:31 which is
qariba and means to be in very close proximity. So this is not
referring to everyone in the world but only those who are in
close proximity, those that you share some sort of
relationship with, business, social or family. It does not
refer to someone we never met but hear about on the news. That
is why a certain lawyer stood up and asked Jesus: “Who is our
neighbor.” Luke 10:25-27. Figures a lawyer would ask that
question. I mean where do you draw a line as to who is a
qariba. Jesus then told the story of the Good Samaritan which
basically said: “Anyone that you come in contact with is a
qariba or neighbor. If they are in need, you are to treat that
person as a neighbor.
Here is the kicker, we are to love that person as ourselves.
The word as ourselves in Leviticus is kamaka which literally
means like what you are. The word used in the New Testament in
the Greek is seauton which is really just a reflexive pronoun
and means to bring back to yourself or simply yourself. The
Aramaic word used, which is the language that Jesus spoke this
in, is nephesh or you soul.
Curious, why did Jesus say
nephesh when the Torah said kamaka? The answer lies in the
fact that the word nephesh in Hebrew came to means something
different by Jesus’s day than it did 1,500 years earlier.
Nephesh soul and ruch spirit by Jesus day started to be used
interchangeably. That is why it is so hard to understand the
difference between nephesh and ruch or soul and spirit today.
The science of linguistics is still a developing science
particularly with ancient dead languages. Only in recent years
has extensive research been done on the changes in the Hebrew
language over the 1,500 year span that the Old Testament was
written.
Jesus, however, being the master linguist simply used an
Aramaic word which was closest to kamaka. See, when God
breathed the breath of life into man, man became a living
nephesh or self. That is an awareness of oneself, one’s
personality, that part of you that makes you unique from any
other living thing on this planet. The first century
understanding of the Aramaic word nephesh is best understood
with the Hebrew word kamaka or simply what you are. So we are
to love anyone we come in contact with as we love what we are.
Of course the problem is many people do not love what they
are. If fact many people actually hate themselves and if they
are to love me as they love themselves, well I just as soon
they forget the second commandment. But if we read this
literally, to have an unconditional love for your neighbor
like what you are, that is a horse of a different color.
This is how Jesus was able to relate the two commandments of
loving God and your neighbor. For just as God’s love for us is
unconditional despite all our sinfulness and we in turn are to
love Him, so too are we to love our neighbors despite their
sinfulness because we may be just as bad as they are. In other
words, when your neighbor does an ugly turn on you just
remember you are not perfect either. If you want to love God
and have Him return that love and overlook your faults, we
need to also overlook the faults of our neighbors. In this
context it is referring to those who are brothers and sisters
in Christ.
I have been listening to the latest news on President Elect
Donald Trump. It is interesting how different new agencies are
so divided in their coverage of the new President. The major
new networks have come up with a new term for many of the
fringe news medias, particularly the internet new medias.
They are calling them the fake news. Then one major news
network that was declaring these fringe news media as fake
news reported some news on Donald Trump which proved to be
unfounded and false. The so called fake news picked up on this
and started calling the major news network false news. Sort
of like the old children’s game of “I know that’s what you are
but what am I.” Jesus is saying simply, “Don’t call your
neighbor fake news when you are just as fake yourself.” Or to
put it less politically, “Don’t throw rocks at your neighbor
just because they disagree with you, you just might be just as
wrong yourself.”
One last thought on “’ahavah” or “love.” If you change the
vowel pointing from a Chirik Yod to a Holem that word love
becomes the word service or obligation. Rabbi Samson Hirsch
explains that both forms of the word are still the same word,
thus love demands service and obligation. Perhaps Shakespeare
was on track when he said in As You Like It “Love is to be all
made of faith and service.” To love your neighbor or anyone
you come in contact with means you will put service to them
before yourself. That is you do not ask: “What can that person
do for me” but rather, “How can I serve that other person.”