Hatred - The Bible

The Bible

Both the Old and the New Testaments deal with hatred. David, in the Psalms, thanks God for destroying those that hate him, and thanks Him for hating his enemies. This is the era of wars and kingdoms; armies destroy enemies, hate is political and military. But it is also domestic: David's sons hate each other, and Absalom will kill his half-brother after the latter rapes and spurns his sister. And after banishment, Abasalom will hate his father and try to destroy him. Ecclesiastes 3:8 teaches that there is a "time to love, and a time to hate;". However, the Old Testament (also known as the Jewish bible, the Tanakh) also contains condemnations of hatred. For example, " thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart". In the New Testament, hatred focuses on the soul. Evil is internalised and the focus of hatred becomes that part of the heart, the sinning self. The New Testament also clearly condemns hatred. John contended that "whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in himself." But all people are, according to the gospels, sinners, and only have to look inside of themselves in order to find sin. Loving good means hating sin and turning from vice. Love, as Aquinas teaches, must be divided into love of good things, the healthy movement of the soul true to itself, and love of inappropriate objects, the desire to have and use what may be bad for the soul.