50 Christian Stettler d) “My Commandment” in John One problem remains. In the synoptic Gospels the double commandment of love is nowhere called a command of Jesus. In Matthew the risen lord only refers to “everything that I have commanded (ejneteilavmhn) you” in a summarising way (28,20) (41), and one is reminded of those passages, especially in Matthew, where Jesus teaches in his own authority, most prominently in the antitheses of the Sermon on the Mount (“I say to you”, Matt 5,21-48). It is only in the Gospel of John that Jesus not only speaks about “my commandments (ejntolaiv)” in a general way (14,15.21; 15,10), but even more specifically about “my commandment (ejntolhv)”, which he even calls “a new commandment” (42), namely the commandment of mutual love among his disciples (13,34; 15,12, cf. 15,17). Paul could not possibly know the Gospel of John, but obviously both John and Paul independently drew on a tradition that called the love commandment a (or even the) “command of Jesus” (43). It is disputed whether John interpreted the synoptic commandment to love one’s neighbour and even one’s enemy in the narrow sense of mutual love of Christians (44), or whether John distinguished this “new command- ment” of love among disciples from the wider synoptic commandments (45). For Paul the former is true. He knew Jesus’ instructions about love for enemies and Jesus’ summary of the law in the love commandment, but he primarily interpreted “love for one’s neighbour” in the sense of mutual love among Christians, however without completely reducing Christian love to it. Moreover, it is interesting that elsewhere Paul mentions the “enracine- ment christologique” (46) of mutual love which is so central to John 13,34 (“love one another as I have loved you”). According to Paul, Christians should carry one another’s burdens and please each other as Christ has done to them (Rom 15,1-3); they should accept one another as Christ has accepted them (Rom 15,7), forgive each other as Christ has done to them (Col 3,13), love one another as Christ has loved them (Eph 5,2). This similarity of Paul and John is hardly an accident. Rather, “Paul may know the tradition in precisely the same form” as John (47). (41) This is the only example for the use of ejntolhv/ejntevllesqai for commandments of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels. This was overlooked by V.P. FURNISH, The Love Command in the New Testament (London 1973) 137, who says that “the Synoptics consistently use the word ‘commandment(s)’ to refer to the ordinances of the Old Testament law”. (42) The question of why John calls this commandment “new” is beyond the scope of this study. (43) So also WENHAM, Paul, 257, regarding Gal 6,2 (WENHAM does not note 1 Cor 14,37 in this connection). (44) This does not necessarily mean that in John Christian love is completely reduced to love of insiders, as is sometimes held. See C.K. BARRETT, The Gospel According to St John (London 21978) 452; J.A.T. ROBINSON, The Priority of John (London 1985) 329-339; J. AUGENSTEIN, Das Liebesgebot im Johannesevangelium und in den Johannesbriefen (BWANT 134; Stuttgart 1993) especially 93; H. THYEN, Das Johannesevangelium (HNT 6; Tübingen 2005) 608-613 (here further references). (45) In this case John would presuppose and supplement the synoptic Gospels. (46) C. SPICQ, Agapè dans le Nouveau Testament (EtB; Paris 1959) III, 178. (47) WENHAM, Paul, 258, n. 107.