Texts in Conversation
In Leviticus, God forbids hating a brother in one's heart, commands reproving a neighbor, and calls for loving the neighbor as oneself. In the Didache, an early church manual, readers are told to hate no one, reprove some, and love some more than life.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Leviticus 19:17
Hebrew Bible
15 “‘You must not deal unjustly in judgment: You must neither show partiality to the poor nor honor the rich. You must judge your fellow citizen fairly. 16 You must not go about as a slanderer among your people. You must not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is at stake. I am the Lord. 17 You must not hate your brother in your heart. You must surely reprove your fellow citizen so that you do not incur sin on account of him. 18 You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
Didache 2:7
Early Christian
3 You shall not commit perjury; you shall not lie; you shall not speak ill; you shall not bear grudges. 4 You shall not be double-minded or double-tongued, because that leads to death. 5 Your words shall not be false or meaningless but followed by actions. 6 You shall not be greedy or exploitative, nor a hypocrite, nor evil-minded, nor arrogant; you shall not plan evil against your neighbor. 7 You shall not hate anyone; some you will correct, some you will pray for, and some you will love more than your own life.
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Notes and References
“... Ca VII.5 recognises the allusion to Lev. 19:17 and brings the text into line with the LXX, but omits the second half of the text, replacing it with Prov. 9:8 [...] The origin of Did. 2:6b-7 seems to lie in a free rendering of Lev. 19:15-18. This becomes clear when the text is compared with that of LXX and Ba. 19:3-5 (though the text of the latter has been disturbed by the intrusion of Decalogue material): ...”
Draper, Jonathan Alfred
A Commentary on the Didache in the Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Documents
(pp. 57-58) St. John's College, 1983
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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