Biblical laws, like those of most primitive peoples, were made for small groups living in small communities with strong group discipline; they were to regulate the members’ behavior towards each other, not towards outsiders. “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” meant “Thou shalt love thy fellow Israelite as thyself.”
Morton Smith wrote to the editors requesting the following comments be printed in the next issue:
To the Editors:
I should be grateful if you would print the following open letter to Professor J.M. Cameron.
Dear Professor Cameron,
I want to thank you for your attack on my book, Hope and History (vol. 54 of World Perspectives) in The New York Review of April 17, p. 36. I cannot say that I am glad to have made you think, but I am delighted to have made you sputter, especially since in doing so you gave such wide circulation to my opinions.
As an expression of gratitude, let me correct your mistake about the Old Testament. To refute my interpretation of Lev 19.18 (that in “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” the word “neighbor”—Hebrew re’a—means “fellow Israelite”) you appealed to Lev. 19.34 and Dt. 10.19. Neither of these texts, however, refers to the re’a. Both speak of the ger, a term which in Deuteronomy meant “migratory worker,” a lower-class alien who might be fed food unfit for Israelites, Dt. 14.21; notice that he is not to be loved “as yourself,” but merely to be “loved,” i.e. given friendly treatment. In Leviticus (a later text) ger has come to mean a “proselyte,” i.e. one who has become a fellow Israelite and must therefore be given full benefit of the Law. (See the study of the history of these terms in my Palestinian Parties and Politics, Columbia University Press, 1971, pp. 178-82 and 276-78.) That re’a means “fellow Israelite” is the consistent teaching of all the oldest rabbinic commentaries on the Old Testament laws involving the term. I spare you the references, since I don’t suppose you could check them anyhow, but if you want them, I’ll be glad to supply. Meanwhile, let me add one piece of friendly advice: Henceforth do not hastily think others as ignorant as yourself.
Morton Smith
Professor of Ancient History
Columbia University, New York City
Needless to say Professor Cameron had nothing much to say in response ...
