In the Greek sense, and especially in the New Testament sense, that screw-driver is teleios ( G5046) , because it exactly fulfilled the purpose for which I desired and bought it. On these occasions Paul is putting himself on oath. I mean, there was nothing moderate about her. Words Of Insult ( Matthew 5:21-22 Continued). In the Old Testament, this is the word generally, and unfortunately, used by our translators to render the Hebrew, Sheol. Now Jesus, in the beginning of this message, is describing the people that he is addressing the message to, for he is describing the child of God. The one great principle was that in all things a man must seek God's will, and that, when he knows it, he must dedicate his whole life to the obeying of it. No man can pray for another man and still hate him. "I call God to witness against me," he writes to the Corinthians, "It was to spare you that I refrained from coming to Corinth" ( 2 Corinthians 1:23). The new standard kills all pride, and forces us to Jesus Christ who alone can enable us to rise to that standard which he himself has set before us. All are agreed that in the Sermon on the Mount we have the essence of the teaching of Jesus to the inner circle of his chosen men. Why dont the KJV, NKJV, and NIV translate the word? Thus they will begin to project against you their feelings of guilt.Now, notice Jesus didn't say, blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely because you are doing something weird. Our Lord here calls their attention back to them, and gives then to understand, that in the coming world there are different degrees of punishment prepared for different degrees of vice; and that not only the outward act of iniquity should be judged and punished by the Lord, but that injurious words, and evil passions, should all meet their just recompense and reward. To the pure all things are pure. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." It is derived from a root meaning "to spit. Now, if the above offences were to be so severely punished, which did not immediately affect the life of another, how much sorer must the punishment of murder be! 1 Corinthians 15:55. Always the fire smouldered in it, and a pall of thick smoke lay over it, and it bred a loathsome kind of worm which was hard to kill ( Mark 9:44-48). It was the lack of that very quality which ruined Alexander the Great, who, in a fit of uncontrolled temper in the middle of a drunken debauch, hurled a spear at his best friend and killed him. A light is often the warning which tells us to halt when there is danger ahead. Josephus writes of them: "They are eminent for fidelity and are ministers of peace. The principle which Jesus lays down is quite clear. In Matthew's version there are 107 verses. 5:1-2 "Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him. It is first of all to be noted about this beatitude that the Greek word for to mourn, used here, is the strongest word for mourning in the Greek language. Nor did Jesus argue about this, or seek in any way to justify himself for so doing, or seek to prove his right to do so. Thus, hurtful words would no longer make it to heaven. For example, well-respected Matthew scholar, R.T. France, writes, To invoke this awesome concept in relation to the use of an everyday abusive epithet is the sort of paradoxical exaggeration by which Jesus sayings often compel the readers attention. (France, NICOT, Matthew, p. 202). When Moses laid down a law code for civil governments, he established the principle that the punishment had to fit the crime. Upon a temporal account. For them there will be one less struggle to be encountered on the way. The practical object is equally obvious. Here is Jesus' second example of the new standard. What is Jesus' point in Matthew 5:22? This is a different kind of love. The Greek view of marriage was an extraordinary paradox. They are not such as any of us, or perhaps any man, would beforehand have thought of introducing, and into such a genealogy, of all others. They are doing nothing exceptional if they love only those who are friends, for even the ungodly do that. The Jewish Rabbis well knew the way in which the eyes can be used to stimulate the wrong desire. Besides, He was Jehovah. Thus the contradictions looked hopeless; for it seemed, that in order to be the Messiah, He must, and yet He must not, be Joseph's son. That the law of the sixth commandment was only external, and forbade no more than the act of murder, and laid to restraint upon the inward lusts, from which wars and fightings come. The Sermon on the Mount is nothing less than the concentrated memory of many hours of heart to heart communion between the disciples and their Master. The court consisted of seventy or seventy-two members, with a president and vice-president, and was made up of the heads of the twenty-four courses of the priests, with forty-six or forty-eight (how chosen it is not known) from the "elders" and "scribes." There are four women alluded to. Praotes ( G4236) describes humility, the acceptance of the necessity to learn and of the necessity to be forgiven. A heart that grieves over its own sin and iniquity, a heart that hungers and thirsts after God, for they will then be filled with that mercy of God and they will become pure, the pure desire of their hearts for God and for the things of God. "You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people" ( Leviticus 19:18). And whosoever shall say to his brother Raca, shall be in danger of the council, or "sanhedrim". So the Christian life is a fine balance. His guarantee and his witness should lie in what he is himself. See the word applied in this sense by the Targum, on Ruth 2:12; Psalms 140:12; Genesis 3:24; Genesis 15:17. He told of his business difficulties. pale-cheeked, flat-breasted all; they brood their lives away, unspurred by ambition: the sun shines for them, but they do not. It would obviously make the biggest difference in the world if we desired goodness more than anything else. It is not only the sorrow which brings an ache to the heart; it is the sorrow which brings the unrestrainable tears to the eyes. Justification is by faith of Christ, we know; and as far as the efficacious work on which it depends is concerned, it is clearly in virtue of what Christ has suffered for sin and sins before God. However, while this may be true, this does not give license to speak angrily. The love of God is such that he can never take pleasure in the destruction of any of the creatures whom his hands have made. And that leads me then to a true evaluation of myself. In Matthew 5:22, raca is an expression of contempt toward another person. [2.] But that is a weak argument, for this is a saying which is indeed so unlikely that no one would have invented it; it is so unlikely a saying that Jesus must have said it; and when we come to see what it really means, we will see that it is inevitable that Jesus should have said it. This saying of Jesus is a total prohibition of what someone has called "theatrical goodness.". Acts 9:31 King James Version (KJV 1900) Old Testament (Ii. Again x, it happened to R. Simeon ben Eliezer of Migdal Edar, who went from the house of Rabbi; and he met with a certain man very much deformed; he says unto him, Reka, how many are the deformed sons of "Abraham our father?" Jesus did not speak the beatitudes in Greek; he spoke them in Aramaic, which was the kind of Hebrew people spoke in his day. He was seeking to deal with a situation in which the structure of family life was collapsing, and in which national morals were becoming ever more lax. The words of the Last Supper--"This is my body." Aramaic was the common language of the time of Christ, and Greek, but Hebrew was only for the scholars. Consequently it is not merely the question between man and man, but the Evil One on one side, and God Himself on the other; and God Himself, as a Father, disclosing, and proving the selfish condition of fallen man upon the earth. ; but it is an unwarrantable conclusion for any to draw, that our Lord Jesus delivered it simply and solely as it stands in Matthew's gospel. Two things vitiated the marriage situation in the Greek world. Jerome rendered it inanis aut vacuus absque cerebro. To call a man moros ( G3474) was not to criticise his mental ability; it was to cast aspersions on his moral character; it was to take his name and reputation from him, and to brand him as a loose-living and immoral person. There is one further point in this beatitude, a point which only emerges in the Greek. As we look to our future home in heaven, we know that our language there will only be loving. Why did Jesus warn against saying the word raca in Matthew 5:22? That is what Jesus means. #2 with a brother or sister This seems to be directed at those who would be angry at fellow Christians, but it would be consistent with Jesuss ethic to apply it to all human beings. The greatest of all Jewish days was the Day of Atonement. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a scratch for a scratch meant that there had to be a heavy punishment for a major offence, and a light punishment for a minor offence (Exodus 21:23-25). And His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and He healed them. To call a man Raca (see rhaka, G4469; H7386) was to call him a brainless idiot, a silly fool, an empty-headed blunderer. Jesus said we do err because we so often are comparing ourselves with others around us. We must shine with the reflection of his light. Well the Lord doesn't say that you're blessed when you're persecuted for being an oddball but "for righteousness and for his namesake". As it has been said, penes ( G3993) describes the man who has nothing superfluous; ptochos ( G4434) describes the man who has nothing at all. In every one of us there is an inner conflict between good and evil; we are always tugged in two directions at once; every man is at least to some extent a walking civil war. Most people suffer from what Robert Louis Stevenson called "the malady of not wanting." All Jerusalem was moved, and multitudes were baptized by him in Jordan. The Scribe or the Rabbi never dared to express even an opinion of his own unless he could buttress it with supporting quotations from the great teachers of the past. The worshipper is standing at the rail, ready to hand over his victim to the priest; his hands are on it to confess; and then he remembers his breach with his brother, the wrong done to his brother; if his sacrifice is to avail, he must go back and mend that breach and undo that wrong, or nothing can happen. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. I love it. It is not, as the authorized version has it, "By His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many;" for it is unquestionable that justification is not by His knowledge. Thou worthless. Marriage amongst the Romans ( Matthew 5:31-32). But it is not so really. She was loud. The worshipper, of course, did not make his own sacrifice; he brought it to the priest who offered it on his behalf The worshipper has entered the Temple; he has passed through its series of courts, the Court of the Gentiles, the Court of the Women, the Court of the Men. 1. She took her full part in life. Matthew 5:22 Meaning of Verse and Simple Commentary Mar 31, 2020 by Editor in Chief Matthew 5:22 "But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Jesus went on to say that only the pure in heart will see God. Love or charity is so much better than all burnt-offerings and sacrifice, that God will have reconciliation made with an offended brother before the gift be offered; he is content to stay for the gift, rather than have it offered while we are under guilt and engaged in a quarrel. When an angry person demonstrates such an attitude toward his fellow man, he is not far from the actual act of murder. Show footnotes Acts 9:31 The New International Version (NIV) 31 Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Jesus said, But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And this is the more observable, because, in the Gospel of Luke, the first opening of His ministry is expressly at Nazareth; while the point of emphasis in Matthew is, that He leaves Nazareth, and comes and dwells in Capernaum. "I will satisfy her poor with bread" ( Psalms 132:15). Shall be in danger of the judgment , shall be liable to the judgment. Agape ( G26) , someone has said, is the power to love those whom we do not like and who may not like us. It would appear that, in the time of Christ, this was a received way of speaking, and that hell was then called by no other name than gehenna, ( ,) the word being slightly altered from the true pronunciation. Why does he teach that hell is the punishment for raca? . In His discussion of righteousness (character and conduct that conforms to the will of God), Jesus went back to the revelation of Gods will, namely, Gods Word, the Old Testament. In the Old Testament we find it laid down no fewer than three times. Christ supplies the defect, as a painter fills in a rude outline of a picture (), says Theophy. (i) He was saying that there is a definite continuation between the past and the present. Under Roman law you could be walking down the road and a Roman soldier come to you and he had his backpack on and all he would say, Carry this thing for a mile, and you had to do it under Roman law; you had to carry the thing for a mile. The point of our Lord's teaching was, therefore, that to scorn God's image in man is to do dishonour to God Himself. You either be what God intends you to be or you're not going to be, you'll be "trodden under the foot of man".Then he said. They themselves spoke of Jerusalem as "a light to the Gentiles," and a famous Rabbi was often called "a lamp of Israel." Does this saying of Jesus then forbid a man to take an oath anywhere--for instance, in the witness box? (1.) Hot philountes ( G5368) , the present participle, is the word which describes a man's closest and nearest and truest friends. The Christians refused to conform. Refraining from homicide does not constitute a person righteous in Gods sight. Whosoever [he said,] therefore shall break one of the least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven ( Matthew 5:19 ). Sorrow can do two things for us. Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, And say, 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'. (i) Salt was connected with purity. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. The man who is the slave of anger, the man who speaks in the accent of contempt, the man who destroys another's good name, may never have committed a murder in action, but he is a murderer at heart. And Jesus is declaring that God intended it to be a spiritual thing, governing the spiritual attitudes of man and that God is more interested in your attitude than he is the actions.Now there are many people today who are trying to be so careful in their actions but their attitudes stink. It was called the gehenna of fire, and was the image which our Saviour often employed to denote the future punishment of the wicked. How do major English Bible translations render the word raca? From this certain things emerge. To the heirs of the kingdom the Lord is unfolding the principles of that kingdom most blessed and rich instruction, but instruction in righteousness. And so check out in that persecution that's coming your way, make sure that it is for the sake of Jesus Christ that the persecution is coming not just because of some weird characteristic.And Jesus said. Jerusalem was indeed a light to the Gentiles, but "God lit Israel's lamp." There is none of us who would even faintly connect ourselves with perfection. "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". It was some water he desired. Here again we have the basic fact--a man cannot be right with God unless he is right with his fellow-men. Happy indeed is the man who has won through to inner peace, in which the inner warfare is over, and his whole heart is given to God. So, it seems, the sanhedrim were not obliged to take notice of him. 2. In his first example Jesus shows that to refrain from murder is not enough. Hurray, hurray. Desire for His truth, desire for His glory, carries me out into a certain path that exposes me to suffering. Let us look at the last part of this verse. Whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca ( Matthew 5:22 ). The Jewish Rabbis held that the highest task which a man can perform is to establish right relationships between man and man. Matthew concludes his account of the Sermon on the Mount with the words: "And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching for he taught them as one who had authority and not as their Scribes" ( Matthew 7:28-29). Deuteronomy 15:11 For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land. The Temple of Aphrodite at Corinth had a thousand priestesses, who were sacred courtesans; they came down to the streets of Corinth at evening time so that it became a proverb: "Not every man can afford a journey to Corinth." But suppose his firm received a contract to build a temple to one of the heathen gods, what was that man to do? The one purpose of light is to give light. And when a man sees sin in all its horror he cannot do anything else but experience intense sorrow for his sin. Moros also means fool, but the man who is moros ( G3474) is the man who is a moral fool. We are to leave the judgment of others to God. Nevertheless, the grace of God in this is exceeding good and wise. He said that he had not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfil the Law. So then, if the Christian is to be the salt of the earth he must be an example of purity. Later on he says, "that you might be the children of your Father"( Matthew 5:45 ), and he talks about "your Father". Aristotle defines meekness, praotes ( G4236) , as the mean between orgilotes (see orge, G3709) , which means excessive anger, and aorgesia, which means excessive angerlessness. That kind of poverty it is the aim of the Christian gospel to remove. To the school of Shammai there was no possible ground of divorce except only adultery and unchastity. It is the anger which quickly blazes up and which just as quickly dies down. To do so they went away into the Egyptian desert with the idea of living alone and thinking of nothing but God. The Jew would have regarded with abhorrence the gift which was given for the sake of prestige, publicity, or self-glorification. It seems an extraordinary thing that anyone living a Christian life should seem a fit victim for persecution and death. is liable to judgment in the supreme court; and he who says to his brother, "You fool!" It was based on Deuteronomy 15:7-11, 5:38-42 "If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren, in any of your towns within your land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him, and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. In such a case it is better to compound and make the best terms we can, than to stand it out; for it is in vain to contend with the law, and there is danger of our being crushed by it. There are many ways by which you can let your light shine, but the way you are to let your light shine. Joseph was the descendant of David, the king, through Solomon: the Messiah must therefore, somehow or other, be the son of Joseph; yet had He really been the son of Joseph, all would have been lost. 4001 f). The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou. Sin can take the loveliest life in all the world and smash it on a Cross." Again, it is evident that, as the text stands in the received Greek text and our common English Bible, "Get thee behind me, Satan," is another mistake. This place was near Jerusalem, and had been formerly used for those abominable sacrifices, in which the idolatrous Jews had caused their children to pass through the fire to Molech. So long as there is this inner tension, this inner conflict, life must be insecure. : Genna (G1067), the final destiny of the wicked, hell; tartaro (G5020), the prison of the fallen angels or evil spirits; bussos (G12), abyss, the place where the dragon (drkon [G1404]), i.e., Satan, is bound during the millennial reign (cf. If they see that we care, their hearts will respond in caring. 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. What then is the situation? When a task is laid on you, even if the task is unreasonable and hateful, don't do it as a grim duty to be resented; do it as a service to be gladly rendered.". Jesus is intensely concerned with a man's thoughts. Where there is good the Church must praise; where there is evil, the Church must condemn--and inevitably men will try to silence the troublesome voice of conscience. " King James Version (KJV) < Previous Verse Next Verse > He came to fulfill the prophets where Isaiah said, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we've turned every one of us to our way; and God laid on him the iniquities of us all" ( Isaiah 53:6 ). 57. The exposition of this command which the Jewish teachers contended themselves with; their comment upon it was, Whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judgment.