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(1)
Thom 6:3 = POxy654 6:3
(2) 1Q: Luke 6:31 = Matt 7:12
(3) Didache 1:2b
(1) Thom 6:3 = POxy654 6:3
/6:1/ His disciples asked him and said to him, "Do you want us to fast? How should we pray? Should we give to charity? What diet should we observe?" /2/ Jesus said, "Don't lie, /3/ and don't do what you hate, /4/ because all things are disclosed before heaven. /5/ After all, there is nothing hidden that won't be revealed, /6/ and there is nothing covered up that will remain undisclosed." [Complete Gospels]
=POxy 654 6:3
/ 6:1/ [His disciples] ask him [and] say, "How [should we] fast? [How should] we [pray]? How [should we give charity]? What [diet] should [we] observe?" /2/ Jesus says, "[Don't lie, /3/ and] don't do [what] you [hate, /4/ because all things are apparent before] truth. /5/[After all, there is nothing] hidden [that won't be exposed]." [Complete Gospels]
(2) 1Q: Luke 6:31 = Matt 7:12
6:31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
= Matt 7:12
7:12 "In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.
(3) Didache 1:2b
/1:1/ There are two ways, one to life and one to death, but the difference between the two ways is great. /2/ The way of life is this: "First, you shall love God, who has created you; second, your neighbor as yourself. Whatever you do not want to happen to you, do not do to another." /3/ This is the teaching [that comes] from these words: [Hermeneia]
Jesus SeminarItem: 33
Stratum: I (30-60 CE)
Attestation: Triple
Historicity: -
Common Sayings Tradition: YesCrossan observes that sayings such as the debt petition in 120 The Lord's Prayer [1/2], 27 Forgiveness for Forgiveness [1/4], 60 Measure for Measure [1/3] and 118 Judgment for Judgment [1/2] are all rather more radical than the provisions in the Golden Rule:
Those ... aphorisms suggest that we do unto others as God does unto us and that God does unto us as we do unto others. The point, however, is not sequentiality or causality, "we do in order that God does," but rather simultaneity and mutuality, "we do and God does." God forgives us our debts, that is offerings or punishments due for our sins, and we forgive our neighbors their debts, that is, the returns or penalties due for their loans. [Historical Jesus, 294]
Text
Item
Source
JS Mtg
%Red
%Pink
%Gray
%Black
W Avg
Color Thom 6:2
160
Q, T
89Tor
8
8
15
69
0.18
Black POxy654 2:3
160
Q, T
89Tor
8
8
8
77
0.15
Black POxy654 6:3
160
Q, T
90Son
0
4
4
93
0.04
Black Thom 6:3
160
Q, T
90Son
0
4
4
93
0.04
Black Luke 6:31
160
Q, T
89Tor
12
9
50
29
0.34
Gray Matt 7:12a
160
Q, T
89Tor
12
9
52
27
0.35
Gray Matt 7:12b
160
Q, T
89Tor
3
3
25
69
0.14
Black Did 1:2b
160
Q, T
89Tor
0
10
33
57
0.18
Black The commentary in The Five Gospels [296] notes that while the golden rule is not inimical to the views of Jesus established on the basis of other sayings attributed to him, there are grounds to question to traditional attribution of this saying to Jesus:
The possible flaw is this: Does this injunction veil a calculating egoism? Does it suggest that one should not go beyond self-interest? Some scholars take the view that the golden rule, in both its positive and negative forms, does not really correspond to admonitions like "turn the other cheek," and "lend to those from whom you expect nothing back." It was this possible discrepancy, and the fact that the saying is widely attested in ancient sources, that led the majority of the Fellows to place it in the gray category ...
Samuel T. Lachs
Lachs [Rabbinic Commentary on the New Testament, 143-45] lists the following parallels in Jewish and Christian sources:
You shall love your neighbour as yourself. [Lev 19:18]
And that which you hate, do to no man. [Tobit 4:15]
Just as a man asks something for his own soul from God,
so let him do to every living soul. [Slavonic Enoch 61:1]What is the teaching of wisdom? And the other [the one to whom the king directed the question] replied: "As you wish that no evil should befall you, but to be a partaker of all good thing, so you should act on the same principle toward your subjects and offenders." [Aristeas 207]
The way of life is this: First thou shlt love the God who made thee, secondly thy neighbor as thyself; and whatsoever thou wouldst not have done to thyself do not thou to another. [Did 1:2]
He hath also not created the world for naught, but that His creatures should fear Him, and that none should do to his neighbor what he does not like for himself. [T.Naph. 1:6]
Be considerate to thy companion as thyself,
and be mindful of all thou detesteth. [Sira 31:15]On another occasion it hapepned that a certain heathen came before Shammai and said to him: "Make me a proselyte on condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot." Thereupon he repulsed him with a builder's cubit which was in his hand. When he went before Hillel, he said to him: "What is hateful to you do not to your neighbor, that is the whole Torah, while the rest is commentary thereof; go and learn it." [B.Shab. 31a]
Luedemann [Jesus, 151f] notes the ancient and diverse attestation of this saying in antiquity, including its earliest occurrence in Herodotus III 142, 3:
I will not do that for which I censure my neighbors.
He notes that there may have been a positive verdict on the question of its historicity, had the saying attributed to Jesus run along the lines:
Treat people as they want to be treated!
Kurt Niederwimmer
Niederwimmer [Hermeneia, 66] notes the evidence for the Didache reflecting a non-Synoptic tradition in both its citation of the Two Commandments and in its version of the Gold Rule. Unlike the Q version (Luke 6:31//Matt 7:12), the version here follows the more common practice of expressing this injunction in a negative form.
At note 14, Niederwimmer lists the ancient Jewish and Christian texts in which this injunction occurs: Ep.Arist. 207; Tobit 4:15; Philo Hyp. 1 in Eusebius Praep. ev. 8.7.6; b. Sab. 31a; T. Naph. 1.6; Acts 15:20,29; Ep. apost. 18 (29); Theophilus Ad Autolycum 2:34; Aristides Apol. 15.5; Gos. Thom. (Coptic) 6; cf. Greek P. Oxy. 654.5; Irenaeus, Adv. haer. 3.12.14; Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.23, 139.2; Ps.-Clem. Rec. 8.56.7; Didasc. (Syriac) 1, (Latin) 2.12-13; Ps.-Cyprian De Centes. 42; Lib. grad. 7.1, 30.26, etc.
He concludes:
In its setting here, the injunction is an interpretation of the commandment to love the neighbor, and more precisely an interpretation of that characteristic [phrase] 'as yourself' (hos seauton) with which love of self is made the model and measure of love of neighbor.
John P. Meier
Meier does not consider this saying in the first three volumes of his Marginal Jew.
Muslim Jesus Traditions
Tarif Khalidi [The Muslim Jesus] provides the following traditions relevant to this cluster.
/48/ A man came to Jesus and said, "Teacher of goodness, teach me something that you know and I do not, that benefits me and does you no harm." Jesus asked, "What would that be?" The man said, "How can a servant be truly pious before God?" Jesus replied, "The matter is easy. You must truly love God in your heart and work in His service, exerting all your effort and strength, and be merciful toward the people of your race as you show mercy to yourself." He said, "Teacher of goodness, who are the people of my race?" Jesus replied, "All the children of Adam. And that which you do not wish done to you, do not do to others. In this way you will be truly pious befoee God." [mid-ninth century]
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