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.”