me they shall all be filled
with longing for the one God and form with Israel one community on earth,
a great brotherhood of man serving the common Father above.(1249) Still,
the actual world began, not with the unity, but with the wide diversity
and dispersion of mankind. The idea of the unity of man came as a
corollary to the kindred conception of the unity of God, after a long
historical process.

Just as the creation of the world opens with the separation of light from
darkness, so the process of the spiritual and moral development of mankind
begins, according to the divine plan of salvation, with the separation of
Israel from the heathen nations.(1250) The sharper the contrast became
between the spiritual God of Israel and the crude sensual gods of
heathendom, the wider grew the chasm between Judaism and heathenism,
between Israel and the nations. As light is opposed to darkness, so
Israel's truth stood opposed to the idolatry of the nations, until
Christianity and Islam, its daughter-religions, arose between the two
extremes. Henceforth Israel waits with still more confidence for the age
whose dawning will bring the full knowledge of God to all mankind, leading
the world from the night of error and discord to the noon-day brightness
of truth and unity, when a universal monotheism will make all humanity
one.

2. Nothing was more remote from ancient Israel than the hatred of the
stranger or hostility to other nations, so often attributed to it.(1251)
In the time of the patriarchs and under the monarchy, the Hebrews fostered
a spirit of friendly intercourse with their neighbors, which was often
confirmed by peaceful alliances.(1252) Of course, during war time the
spirit of hostility had full sway, particularly as ancient warfare imposed
a relentless ban upon both booty and human life among the vanquished. But
even then the kings of Israel were called compassionate also toward their
enemies when compared with other rulers.(1253) Indeed, the code of Israel
is distinguished from all other codes of antiquity by mildness and tender
compassion. On the other hand, the God of justice, revealed through Amos,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk, punishes Israel and the nations
impartially on account of their moral transgressions.(1254) He avenges
acts of treachery, even when committed against pagan tyrants. "Shall not
the Judge of all the earth do justly?"(1255) Such is the recurrent thought
that governs Israel, demanding the same