Love Your Enemies: Jesus' Love Command in the Synoptic Gospels and the Early Christian Paraenesis

by John Piper

Overview

This dissertation work by John Piper provides an in-depth exploration of Jesus’s command to love one’s enemies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433534751
Publisher:	Crossway
Publication date:	06/30/2012
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

John Piper (DTheol, University of Munich) is the founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and the chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. He served for 33 years as the senior pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is the author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God; Don’t Waste Your Life; This Momentary Marriage; A Peculiar Glory; and Reading the Bible Supernaturally.

Table of Contents

Preface to the 2012 Republication v

Note on the Title and Previous Editions xi

Preface to the 1979 Edition xii

Abbreviations xiii

Introduction 1

1 In Search of the Paraenetic Tradition of a Command of Enemy Love 4

I The Pertinent Texts 4

II Literary Dependence or Common Traditional Source? 5

III Determining the Form of the Command in the Paraenetic Tradition 8

A I Thess 5:15 8

B Rom 12:17 and I Pt 3:9 14

IV Conclusion 17

2 The Origin of the Command of Enemy Love in the New Testament Paraenetic Tradition 19

I The Question and the Approach 19

II Hellenistic Philosophy 20

A Seneca 21

B Epictetus 25

III The Old Testament 27

IV Hellenistic Judaism 35

A Works from the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha 35

B Philo 39

V Qumran and Works in the Region of its Influence 39

A Manual of Discipline 40

B The Book of Jubilees 42

C The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 43

VI Palestinian Judaism outside Qumran 45

A The Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach 45

B Josephus 46

C The Rabbis 46

VII The Teaching of Jesus 49

A The Question of Q 49

B The Question of the Antitheses 51

C Analysis of the Individual Sayings 56

VIII Conclusion 63

3 Jesus' Command of Enemy Love in the Larger Context of His Message 66

I Preliminary Remarks 66

A The Hermeneutical Problems 66

B The Validity of Systematizing 67

C The Content of the Chapter 68

II Jesus' Command of Enemy Love and the Kingdom of God 69

A Four Recent Studies and One Older Work 69

B Jesus' Command of Enemy Love and the Coming Kingdom: Condition? 76

C Jesus' Command of Enemy Love and the Present Aspect of the Kingdom: Enablement 80

D Jesus' Command of Enemy Love as a Sign of the Kingdom 86

III Jesus' Command of Enemy Love and the Law 89

A Non-Resistance (Mt 5:39-42) vs the Lex Talionis (Ex 21:24) 89

B Enemy Love (Mt 5:44 par Lk) vs Neighbor Love (Lev 19:18) 91

C Abolition vs Continuation of the Law 95

4 The Use and Meaning of Jesus' Command of Enemy Love in the Early Christian Paraenesis 100

I Preliminary Remarks 100

II The Motivation of the Command of Enemy Love 101

A A Brief Survey of the Previous Research 101

B Paul 102

C I Peter 119

III The Content of the Command of Enemy Love 128

A The General Features of Enemy Love 128

B Love and the Command of Enemy Love and the Institutions of Society 130

5 The Gospel Tradition of Jesus' Command of Enemy Love and its Use in Matthew and Luke 134

I The Gospel Tradition of Jesus' Command of Enemy Love before the Gospels 134

A Determining the Vorlage 134

B Determining the Sitz im Leben of the Vorlage 136

II The Gospel Tradition of Jesus' Command of Enemy Love in the Gospels 139

A The Approach and Methodology 139

B Matthew's Use of the Gospel Tradition of Jesus' Command of Enemy Love 141

C Luke's Use of the Gospel Tradition of Jesus' Command of Enemy Love 153

Conclusion 171

Notes 176

Bibliography 235

Index of Passages Cited 249

Index of Modern Authors 267

Index of Subjects 271