FRIEND, FRIENDSHIP (אֹהֵב, רֵעַ֮, H8276, companion, friend, among other terms; φίλος, G5813, friend, φιλία, G5802, friendship; also ἑταῖρος, G2279, comrade, mate).

Besides friendship in the form of hospitality (see Hospitality), there are many explicit references to friends or friendship in the Bible. The range of the connotations of these terms is wide. Apart from being merely a term of familiar, kindly address (Matt 20:13; 22:12), “friend” may mean a well-disposed acquaintance, dependable companion, or helpful neighbor (Gen 38:20; Jer 6:21; Luke 11:5-8; 14:10; 15:6, 9), a political adherent (1 Sam 30:26; 2 Sam 3:8; 15:37; 1 Kings 4:5; John 19:12), or a person dear as one’s own soul (Deut 13:6). There are false friends as well as true ones (Prov 18:24); friends who fail one (Job 6:14, 27; Lam 1:2; Zech 13:6) as well as friends who prove faithful (Ps 35:14; Prov 17:17; John 15:13). There are those who are selfish (Prov 19:4, 6f.) and those who seek the welfare of others (27:6, 10).

Friendship with Jesus depended on a common commitment of life with Him (Matt 12:46-50; John 15:14).

Perhaps the most notable instance of human friendship in the Bible is that of David and Jonathan (1 Sam 18:1-4; 19:1-7; 20:1-42; 2 Sam 1:25f.).

The highest friendship the Bible speaks of is friendship with God (2 Chron 20:7; Isa 41:8; James 2:23), whose direct opposite, enmity with God, is friendship with the world (James 4:4).

Bibliography H. Black, Friendship (1903); S. Dodds, Friendship’s Meaning and the Heart of God in Nature (1919), 7-43; G. Kittel, ed., TWNT, V (1954), 16-23.