as those who love their brothers, and to those who leave the community as those who hate their brothers. But the familial character of the conflict raises the issue of how complete and total the conflict was. While some interpreters follow Perkins in downplaying the polemical edge, viewing the struggle as either not very great, or at least not very central to the argument of the letters (Lieu 1991, 5–6, 13–16, 66), others argue against this view. Raymond Brown (1982, 48–49) is prominent among them.