Matthew 5:43 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ye have heard, &c.— It may be proper to note here, in this last quotation, the manner of our Lord's quoting the doctrines which he chose to speak of. He does not say, Ye know that it was said, &c. as he would have done if nothing but the written law had been in his eye; but he says, Ye have heard that it was said; comprehending not only the law itself, but the explications of it, which the doctors pretended to have derived from the mouth of Moses by tradition. The passage of the law referred to in the present case is Leviticus 19:18 where the clause, and hate thine enemy, is not found. But the doctors pretended that it was deducible from the first part of the precept, which seems to limit forgiveness to Israelites: besides, they supported their opinion by the tradition of the elders, and by the precepts concerning the idolatrous nations too rigidly understood. Hence their malevolence toall mankind but their own nation was so remarkable, that the Heathens took notice of it. "Their fidelity," says Tacitus, "is inviolable, and their pity ready towards one another; but unto all others they bear an implacable hatred." Hist. lib. 5: cap. 5 and compare 1 Thessalonians 2:15. Indeed, they were so excessively haughty, that they would not so much as salute a Heathen or a Samaritan. None but brethren received the least mark of respect from them; a behaviour which rendered them odious to all mankind. They certainlydishonoured God extremely, by pretending that his law countenanced such ferocity; the precepts upon which they laid so much stress having no reference at all to the disposition which particular persons among the Israelites were to bear to particular persons among the Heathens. They only prescribed what treatment the Israelites were to give those nations as bodies politic, in which capacity it was most just they should be destroyed, because of their abominations, and because they might have tempted God's people to idolatry; Leviticus 25:28. But the Jews, overlooking the reason of those precepts, extended them most absurdly to the heathens in general, nay, and to private enemies among their brethren also. In opposition to this narrow and abominable spirit, our Lord commands his disciples to shew benevolence, according to their power, to every individual of the human species, without respect of country or religion; benevolence even to their bitterest enemies. See Macknight, Chemnitz, and the next verse.