Chapter XXI.

69. In the next place, He goes on to say, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy: But I say unto you, Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which persecute you;199    Augustin, with the best Greek text, omits et calumniantibus vos (“and despitefully use you”) of the Vulgate. that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He commandeth200    Jubet; Vulgate, facit (with the Greek). His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love201    Dilexeritis; Vulgate, diligitis. them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the Gentiles the very same?202    Hoc ipsum; Vulgate, hoc; Greek, τὸ αὐτό. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven203    Qui est in cœlis; Vulgate, cœlestis (see Revised Version). is perfect.” For without this love, wherewith we are commanded to love even our enemies and persecutors, who can fully carry out those things which are mentioned above? Moreover, the perfection of that mercy, wherewith most of all the soul that is in distress is cared for, cannot be stretched beyond the love of an enemy; and therefore the closing words are: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.” Yet in such a way that God is understood to be perfect as God, and the soul to be perfect as a soul.

70. That there is, however, a certain step [in advance] in the righteousness of the Pharisees, which belongs to the old law, is perceived from this consideration, that many men hate even those by whom they are loved; as, for instance, luxurious children hate their parents for restraining them in their luxury. That man therefore rises a certain step, who loves his neighbour, although as yet he hates his enemy. But in the kingdom of Him who came to fulfil the law, not to destroy it, he will bring benevolence and kindness to perfection, when he has carried it out so far as to love an enemy. For the former stage, although it is something, is yet so little that it may be reached even by the publicans as well. And as to what is said in the law, “Thou shalt hate thine enemy,”204    The first part of the Lord’s quotation is found in Lev. xix. 18; these words, whatever may be said about the sanction, real or apparent, of revenge and triumph over an enemy’s fall in the Old Testament, are not found there. Bengel well says “pessima glossa” (“wretched gloss”),—a gloss of the Pharisees, “bearing plainly enough the character of post-exilic Judaism in its exclusiveness toward all surrounding nations” (Weiss). Centuries after Christ spoke these words, Maimonides gives utterance to this narrow feeling of hate: “If a Jew see a Gentile fall into the sea, let him by no means take him out; for it is written, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour’s blood,’ but this is not thy neighbour.” The separation of the Jews, demanded by their theocratic position, was the explanation in part—not an excuse—for such feeling towards people of other nationalities. Heathen peoples had the same feeling towards enemies. “It was the celebrated felicity of Sulla; and this was the crown of Xenophon’s panegyric of Cyrus the Younger, that no one had done more good to his friends or more mischief to his enemies.” Plautus said, “Man is a wolf to the stranger” (“homo homini ignoto lupus est”). The term “stranger” in Greek means “enemy.” But common as this philosophy was to the pre-Christian world, the Jew was specially known for his hatred of all not of his own nationality (Juvenal, Sat. xiv. 104, etc.). The “enemy” referred to in the passage is not a national enemy ( Keim) but a personal one (Weiss, Meyer, etc.). Our Lord subsequently defined who was to be understood by the term “neighbour” in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke x. 36). it is not to be understood as the voice of command addressed to a righteous man, but rather as the voice of permission to a weak man.

71. Here indeed arises a question in no way to be blinked, that to this precept of the Lord, wherein He exhorts us to love our enemies, and to do good to those who hate us, and to pray for those who persecute us, many other parts of Scripture seem to those who consider them less diligently and soberly to stand opposed; for in the prophets there are found many imprecations against enemies, which are thought to be curses: as, for instance, that one, “Let their table become a snare,”205    Ps. lxix. 22. and the other things which are said there; and that one, “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow,”206    Ps. cix. 9. and the other statements which are made either before or afterwards in the same Psalm by the prophet, as bearing on the case of Judas. Many other statements are found in all parts of Scripture, which may seem contrary both to this precept of the Lord, and to that apostolic one, where it is said, “Bless; and curse not;”207    Rom. xii. 14. while it is both written of the Lord, that He cursed the cities which received not His word;208    Matt xi. 20–24 and Luke x. 13–15. and the above-mentioned apostle thus spoke respecting a certain man, “The Lord will reward him according to his works.”209    2 Tim. iv. 14. Augustin here again follows the better text than the Textus Receptus; so also Vulgate, reddet. See Revised Version.

72. But these difficulties are easily solved, for the prophet predicted by means of imprecation what was about to happen, not as praying for what he wished, but in the spirit of one who saw it beforehand. So also the Lord, so also the apostle; although even in the words of these we do not find what they have wished, but what they have foretold. For when the Lord says, “Woe unto thee, Capernaum,” He does not utter anything else than that some evil will happen to her as a punishment of her unbelief; and that this would happen the Lord did not malevolently wish, but saw by means of His divinity. And the apostle does not say, May [the Lord] reward; but, “The Lord will reward him according to his work;” which is the word of one who foretells, not of one uttering an imprecation. Just as also, in regard to that hypocrisy of the Jews of which we have already spoken, whose destruction he saw to be impending, he said,” God shall smite thee, thou whited wall.” 210    See above chap. xix. 58. But the prophets especially are accustomed to predict future events under the figure of one uttering an imprecation, just as they have often foretold those things which were to come under the figure of past time: as is the case, for example, in that passage, “Why have the nations raged, and the peoples imagined vain things?”211    Ps. ii. 1. The English version employs the present tense. For he has not said, Why will the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? although he was not mentioning those things as if they were already past, but was looking forward to them as yet to come. Such also is that passage, “They have parted my garments among them, and have cast lots upon my vesture:”212    Ps. xxii. 18. for here also he has not said, They will part my garments among them, and will cast lots upon my vesture. And yet no one finds fault with these words, except the man who does not perceive that variety of figures in speaking in no degree lessens the truth of facts, and adds very much to the impressions on our minds.

CAPUT XXI.---69. Deinde adjungit, et dicit: Audistis quia dictum est, Diliges proximum tuum, et oderis inimicum tuum. Ego autem dico vobis, diligite inimicos vestros, benefacite his qui vos oderunt, et orate pro eis qui vos persequuntur: ut sitis filii Patris vestri qui in coelis est, qui solem suum oriri jubet super bonos et malos, et pluit super justos et injustos. Si enim dilexeritis eos qui vos diligunt, quam mercedem habebitis? nonne et Publicani hoc faciunt? Et si salutaveritis fratres vestros tantum, quid amplius facitis? nonne et Ethnici hoc ipsum faciunt? Estote ergo vos perfecti, sicut et Pater vester qui in coelis est, perfectus est. Nam sine ista dilectione, qua etiam inimicos et persecutores nostros diligere jubemur, ea quae superius dicta sunt implere quis potest? Perfectio autem misericordiae, qua plurimum animae laboranti consulitur, ultra dilectionem inimici porrigi non potest; et ideo sic clauditur: Estote ergo vos perfecti, sicut et Pater vester qui in coelis est, perfectus est. Ita tamen ut Deus intelligatur perfectus tanquam Deus, et anima perfecta tanquam anima.

70. Gradum tamen esse aliquem in Pharisaeorum justitia, quae ad Legem veterem pertinet, hinc intelligitur, quod multi homines eos etiam a quibus diliguntur oderunt; sicut luxuriosi filii parentes coercitores luxuriae suae: ascendit ergo aliquem gradum qui proximum diligit, quamvis adhuc oderit inimicum. Ejus autem imperio, qui venit Legem implere, non solvere, perficiet benevolentiam et benignitatem, cum eam usque ad inimici dilectionem perduxerit. Nam ille gradus quamvis nonnullus sit, tam parvus est tamen, 1265 ut cum Publicanis etiam possit esse communis. Nec quod in Lege dictum est, Oderis inimicum tuum, vox jubentis justo accipienda est, sed permittentis infirmo.

71. Oritur hic sane nullo modo dissimulanda quaestio, quod huic praecepto Domini, quo nos hortatur diligere inimicos nostros, et benefacere his qui nos oderunt, et orare pro his qui nos persequuntur, multae aliae Scripturarum partes minus diligenter et sobrie considerantibus videntur adversae; quia et in Prophetis inveniuntur multae imprecationes adversus inimicos, quae maledictiones putantur: sicut est illud, Fiat mensa eorum in laqueum (Psal. LXVIII, 23); et caetera quae ibi dicuntur: et illud, Fiant filii ejus pupilli, et uxor ejus vidua (Psal. CVIII, 9); et quae alia vel supra vel infra in eodem psalmo in personam Judae per Prophetam dicuntur. Multa alia usquequaque in Scripturis reperiuntur, quae videantur esse contraria et huic praecepto Domini, et illi apostolico, quo ait, Benedicite, et nolite maledicere (Rom. XII, 14): cum et de Domino scriptum sit quod maledixerit civitatibus quae verbum ejus non acceperunt (Matth. XI, 20-24, et Luc. X, 13-15); et memoratus Apostolus de quodam ita dixerit, Reddet illi Dominus secundum opera illius (II Tim. IV, 14).

72. Sed haec facile solvuntur, quia et Propheta per imprecationem quid esset futurum cecinit, non optantis voto, sed spiritu praevidentis; ita et Dominus, ita et Apostolus: quanquam in horum etiam verbis non hoc invenitur quod optaverint, sed quod praedixerint. Non enim cum ait Dominus, Vae tibi, Capharnaum, aliud sonat nisi aliquid ei mali eventurum merito infidelitatis: quod futurum Dominus non malevolentia optabat, sed divinitate cernebat. Et Apostolus non ait, Reddat; sed, Reddet illi Dominus secundum opera ejus: quod verbum praenuntiantis est, non imprecantis. Sicut et de illa hypocrisi Judaeorum, de qua jam dictum est, cui eversionem imminere cernebat, dixit, Percutiet te Deus, paries dealbate (Supra, cap. 19, n. 58). Prophetae autem maxime solent figura imprecantis futura praedicere, sicut figura praeteriti temporis ea quae ventura erant saepe cecinerunt: sicut est illud, Quare fremuerunt gentes, et populi meditati sunt inania (Psal. II, 1)? Non enim dixit, Quare frement gentes, et populi meditabuntur inania; cum ea non quasi jam transacta meminisset, sed ventura prospiceret. Tale etiam illud est, Diviserunt sibi vestimenta mea, et super vestimentum meum miserunt sortem (Psal. XXI, 19): et hic enim non dixit, Divident sibi vestimenta mea, et super vestimentum meum mittent sortem. Nec tamen de his verbis quisquam calumniatur, nisi qui non sentit varietatem istam figurarum in loquendo nihil veritati rerum minuere, et plurimum addere affectibus animorum.