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Text -- Matthew 5:21-26 (NET)

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Context
Anger and Murder
5:21 “You have heard that it was said to an older generation, ‘Do not murder,’ and ‘whoever murders will be subjected to judgment.’ 5:22 But I say to you that anyone who is angry with a brother will be subjected to judgment. And whoever insults a brother will be brought before the council, and whoever says ‘Fool’ will be sent to fiery hell. 5:23 So then, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 5:24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother and then come and present your gift. 5:25 Reach agreement quickly with your accuser while on the way to court, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the warden, and you will be thrown into prison. 5:26 I tell you the truth, you will never get out of there until you have paid the last penny!
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Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics

Names, People and Places:
 · Raca an Aramaic term of contempt and abuse 'empty one'.


Dictionary Themes and Topics: WRATH, (ANGER) | TRESPASS | Syriac | Sanhedrim | SERMON ON THE MOUNT | SANHEDRIN | SACRIFICE, IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, 1 | Matthew, Gospel according to | LAW IN THE NEW TESTAMENT | JESUS CHRIST, 4C1 | Instruction | Hinnom | GIFT | FIRE | FARTHING | EVIL | Chaldee language | COUNCIL | Brother | ADVERSARY | more
Table of Contents

Word/Phrase Notes
Robertson , Vincent , Wesley , JFB , Clarke , Calvin , Defender , TSK

Word/Phrase Notes
Barnes , Poole , Lightfoot , PBC , Haydock , Gill

Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes , Geneva Bible

Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis , Maclaren , MHCC , Matthew Henry , Barclay , Constable , College , McGarvey , Lapide

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Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Robertson: Mat 5:22 - -- But I say unto you ( egō de legō humin ). Jesus thus assumes a tone of superiority over the Mosaic regulations and proves it in each of the six e...

But I say unto you ( egō de legō humin ).

Jesus thus assumes a tone of superiority over the Mosaic regulations and proves it in each of the six examples. He goes further than the Law into the very heart.

Robertson: Mat 5:22 - -- "Raca" ( Raka ) and " Thou fool "(Mōre ). The first is probably an Aramaic word meaning "Empty,"a frequent word for contempt. The second word is G...

"Raca" ( Raka )

and " Thou fool "(Mōre ). The first is probably an Aramaic word meaning "Empty,"a frequent word for contempt. The second word is Greek (dull, stupid) and is a fair equivalent of "raca."It is urged by some that mōre is a Hebrew word, but Field ( Otium Norvicense ) objects to that idea. " Raca expresses contempt for a man’ s head=you stupid! Mōre expresses contempt for his heart and character=you scoundrel"(Bruce).

Robertson: Mat 5:22 - -- "The hell of fire "(tēn geennan tou puros ), "the Gehenna of fire,"the genitive case (tou puros ) as the genus case describing Gehenna as marked ...

"The hell of fire

"(tēn geennan tou puros ), "the Gehenna of fire,"the genitive case (tou puros ) as the genus case describing Gehenna as marked by fire. Gehenna is the Valley of Hinnom where the fire burned continually. Here idolatrous Jews once offered their children to Molech (2Ki 23:10). Jesus finds one cause of murder to be abusive language. Gehenna "should be carefully distinguished from Hades (hāidēs ) which is never used for the place of punishment, but for the place of departed spirits , without reference to their moral condition"(Vincent). The place of torment is in Hades (Luk 16:23), but so is heaven.

Robertson: Mat 5:24 - -- First be reconciled ( prōton diallagēthi ). Second aorist passive imperative. Get reconciled (ingressive aorist, take the initiative). Only examp...

First be reconciled ( prōton diallagēthi ).

Second aorist passive imperative. Get reconciled (ingressive aorist, take the initiative). Only example of this compound in the New Testament where usually katallassō occurs. Deissmann ( Light from the Ancient East , p. 187, New Ed.) gives a papyrus example second century a.d. A prodigal son, Longinus, writes to his mother Nilus: "I beseech thee, mother, be reconciled (dialagēti ) with me."The boy is a poor speller, but with a broken heart he uses the identical form that Jesus does. "The verb denotes mutual concession after mutual hostility, an idea absent from katallassō "(Lightfoot). This because of dia (two, between two).

Robertson: Mat 5:25 - -- Agree with ( isthi eunoōn ). A present periphrastic active imperative. The verb is from eunoos (friendly, kindly disposed). "Mak up wi’ yer...

Agree with ( isthi eunoōn ).

A present periphrastic active imperative. The verb is from eunoos (friendly, kindly disposed). "Mak up wi’ yere enemy"( Braid Scots ). Compromise is better than prison where no principle is involved, but only personal interest. It is so easy to see principle where pride is involved.

Robertson: Mat 5:25 - -- The officer ( tōi hupēretēi ). This word means "under rower"on the ship with several ranks of rowers, the bottom rower (hupo under and ēres...

The officer ( tōi hupēretēi ).

This word means "under rower"on the ship with several ranks of rowers, the bottom rower (hupo under and ēressō , to row), the galley-slave, then any servant, the attendant in the synagogue (Luk 4:20). Luke so describes John Mark in his relation to Barnabas and Saul (Act 13:5). Then it is applied to the "ministers of the word"(Luk 1:2).

Robertson: Mat 5:26 - -- The last farthing ( ton eschaton kodrantēn ). A Latin word, quadrans , 1/4 of an as (assarion ) or two mites (Mar 12:42), a vivid picture of i...

The last farthing ( ton eschaton kodrantēn ).

A Latin word, quadrans , 1/4 of an as (assarion ) or two mites (Mar 12:42), a vivid picture of inevitable punishment for debt. This is emphasized by the strong double negative ou mē with the aorist subjunctive.

Vincent: Mat 5:22 - -- Hell-fire ( τήν γέενναν τοῦ πυρός ) Rev., more accurately, the hell of fire. The word Gehenna , rendered hell, oc...

Hell-fire ( τήν γέενναν τοῦ πυρός )

Rev., more accurately, the hell of fire. The word Gehenna , rendered hell, occurs outside of the Gospels only at Jam 3:6. It is the Greek representative of the Hebrew Ge -Hinnom , or Valley of Hinnom, a deep, narrow glen to the south of Jerusalem, where, after the introduction of the worship of the fire-gods by Ahaz, the idolatrous Jews sacrificed their children to Molech. Josiah formally desecrated it, " that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech" (2Ki 23:10). After this it became the common refuse-place of the city, into which the bodies of criminals, carcasses of animals, and all sorts of filth were cast. From its depth and narrowness, and its fire and ascending smoke, it became the symbol of the place of the future punishment of the wicked. So Milton:

" The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence

And black Gehenna called, the type of hell."

As fire was the characteristic of the place, it was called the Gehenna of fire. It should be carefully distinguished from Hades (ᾅδης ), which is never used for the place of punishment, but for the place of departed spirits, without reference to their moral condition. This distinction, ignored by the A. V., is made in the Rev.

Vincent: Mat 5:25 - -- Agree with ( ἴσθι εὐνοῶν ) Lit., be well-minded toward; inclined to satisfy by paying or compromising. Wyc., Be thou con...

Agree with ( ἴσθι εὐνοῶν )

Lit., be well-minded toward; inclined to satisfy by paying or compromising. Wyc., Be thou consenting to.

Vincent: Mat 5:25 - -- Officer ( ὑπηρέτῃ ) Denoting a subordinate official, as a herald or an orderly, and in this sense applied to Mark as the " minister"...

Officer ( ὑπηρέτῃ )

Denoting a subordinate official, as a herald or an orderly, and in this sense applied to Mark as the " minister" or attendant of Paul and Barnabas (Act 13:5). It furnishes an interesting instance of the expansion of a word from a limited and special meaning into a more general one; and also of the influence of the Gospel in lifting words into higher and purer associations. Formed with the verb ἐρέσσω , to row, it originally signified a rower, as distinguished from a soldier, in a war-galley. This word for a galley-slave comes at last, in the hands of Luke and Paul, to stand for the noblest of all offices, that of a minister of the Lord Jesus (Luk 1:2; Act 26:16; 1Co 4:1).

Wesley: Mat 5:21 - -- From the scribes reciting the law; Thou shalt do no murder - And they interpreted this, as all the other commandments, barely of the outward act.

From the scribes reciting the law; Thou shalt do no murder - And they interpreted this, as all the other commandments, barely of the outward act.

Wesley: Mat 5:21 - -- The Jews had in every city a court of twenty - three men, who could sentence a criminal to be strangled. But the sanhedrim only (the great council whi...

The Jews had in every city a court of twenty - three men, who could sentence a criminal to be strangled. But the sanhedrim only (the great council which sat at Jerusalem, consisting of seventy - two men,) could sentence to the more terrible death of stoning. That was called the judgment, this the council. Exo 20:13.

Wesley: Mat 5:22 - -- Which of the prophets ever spake thus? Their language is, Thus saith the Lord. Who hath authority to use this language, but the one lawgiver, who is a...

Which of the prophets ever spake thus? Their language is, Thus saith the Lord. Who hath authority to use this language, but the one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy.

Wesley: Mat 5:22 - -- Some copies add, without a cause - But this is utterly foreign to the whole scope and tenor of our Lord's discourse. If he had only forbidden the bein...

Some copies add, without a cause - But this is utterly foreign to the whole scope and tenor of our Lord's discourse. If he had only forbidden the being angry without a cause, there was no manner of need of that solemn declaration, I say unto you; for the scribes and Pharisees themselves said as much as this. Even they taught, men ought not to be angry without a cause. So that this righteousness does not exceed theirs. But Christ teaches, that we ought not, for any cause, to be so angry as to call any man Raca, or fool. We ought not, for any cause, to be angry at the person of the sinner, but at his sins only. Happy world, were this plain and necessary distinction thoroughly understood, remembered, practised! Raca means, a silly man, a trifler. Whosoever shall say, Thou fool - Shall revile, or seriously reproach any man. Our Lord specified three degrees of murder, each liable to a sorer punishment than the other: not indeed from men, but from God.

Wesley: Mat 5:22 - -- In the valley of Hinnom (whence the word in the original is taken) the children were used to be burnt alive to Moloch. It was afterward made a recepta...

In the valley of Hinnom (whence the word in the original is taken) the children were used to be burnt alive to Moloch. It was afterward made a receptacle for the filth of the city, where continual fires were kept to consume it. And it is probable, if any criminals were burnt alive, it was in this accursed and horrible place. Therefore both as to its former and latter state, it was a fit emblem of hell. It must here signify a degree of future punishment, as much more dreadful than those incurred in the two former cases, as burning alive is more dreadful than either strangling or stoning.

Wesley: Mat 5:23 - -- On any of the preceding accounts: for any unkind thought or word: any that did not spring from love.

On any of the preceding accounts: for any unkind thought or word: any that did not spring from love.

Wesley: Mat 5:24 - -- For neither thy gift nor thy prayer will atone for thy want of love: but this will make them both an abomination before God.

For neither thy gift nor thy prayer will atone for thy want of love: but this will make them both an abomination before God.

Wesley: Mat 5:25 - -- With any against whom thou hast thus offended: while thou art in the way - Instantly, on the spot; before you part.

With any against whom thou hast thus offended: while thou art in the way - Instantly, on the spot; before you part.

Wesley: Mat 5:25 - -- Lest he commit his cause to God. Luk 12:58.

Lest he commit his cause to God. Luk 12:58.

Wesley: Mat 5:26 - -- That is, for ever, since thou canst never do this. What has been hitherto said refers to meekness: what follows, to purity of heart.

That is, for ever, since thou canst never do this. What has been hitherto said refers to meekness: what follows, to purity of heart.

JFB: Mat 5:21 - -- Or, as in the Margin, "to them of old time." Which of these translations is the right one has been much controverted. Either of them is grammatically ...

Or, as in the Margin, "to them of old time." Which of these translations is the right one has been much controverted. Either of them is grammatically defensible, though the latter--"to the ancients"--is more consistent with New Testament usage (see the Greek of Rom 9:12, Rom 9:26; Rev 6:11; Rev 9:4); and most critics decide in favor of it. But it is not a question of Greek only. Nearly all who would translate "to the ancients" take the speaker of the words quoted to be Moses in the law; "the ancients" to be the people to whom Moses gave the law; and the intention of our Lord here to be to contrast His own teaching, more or less, with that of Moses; either as opposed to it--as some go the length of affirming--or at least as modifying, enlarging, elevating it. But who can reasonably imagine such a thing, just after the most solemn and emphatic proclamation of the perpetuity of the law, and the honor and glory in which it was to be held under the new economy? To us it seems as plain as possible that our Lord's one object is to contrast the traditional perversions of the law with the true sense of it as expounded by Himself. A few of those who assent to this still think that "to the ancients" is the only legitimate translation of the words; understanding that our Lord is reporting what had been said to the ancients, not by Moses, but by the perverters of his law. We do not object to this; but we incline to think (with BEZA, and after him with FRITZSCHE, OLSHAUSEN, STIER, and BLOOMFIELD) that "by the ancients" must have been what our Lord meant here, referring to the corrupt teachers rather than the perverted people.

JFB: Mat 5:21 - -- That is, This being all that the law requires, whosoever has imbrued his hands in his brother's blood, but he only, is guilty of a breach of this comm...

That is, This being all that the law requires, whosoever has imbrued his hands in his brother's blood, but he only, is guilty of a breach of this commandment.

JFB: Mat 5:21 - -- Liable to the judgment; that is, of the sentence of those inferior courts of judicature which were established in all the principal towns, in complian...

Liable to the judgment; that is, of the sentence of those inferior courts of judicature which were established in all the principal towns, in compliance with Deu 16:16. Thus was this commandment reduced, from a holy law of the heart-searching God, to a mere criminal statute, taking cognizance only of outward actions, such as that which we read in Exo 21:12; Lev 24:17.

JFB: Mat 5:22 - -- Mark the authoritative tone in which--as Himself the Lawgiver and Judge--Christ now gives the true sense, and explains the deep reach, of the commandm...

Mark the authoritative tone in which--as Himself the Lawgiver and Judge--Christ now gives the true sense, and explains the deep reach, of the commandment.

JFB: Mat 5:22 - -- It is unreasonable to deny, as ALEXANDER does, that three degrees of punishment are here meant to be expressed, and to say that it is but a threefold ...

It is unreasonable to deny, as ALEXANDER does, that three degrees of punishment are here meant to be expressed, and to say that it is but a threefold expression of one and the same thing. But Romish expositors greatly err in taking the first two--"the judgment" and "the council"--to refer to degrees of temporal punishment with which lesser sins were to be visited under the Gospel, and only the last--"hell-fire"--to refer to the future life. All three clearly refer to divine retribution, and that alone, for breaches of this commandment; though this is expressed by an allusion to Jewish tribunals. The "judgment," as already explained, was the lowest of these; the "council," or "Sanhedrim,"which sat at Jerusalem--was the highest; while the word used for "hell-fire" contains an allusion to the "valley of the son of Hinnom" (Jos 18:16). In this valley the Jews, when steeped in idolatry, went the length of burning their children to Molech "on the high places of Tophet"--in consequence of which good Josiah defiled it, to prevent the repetition of such abominations (2Ki 23:10); and from that time forward, if we may believe the Jewish writers, a fire was kept burning in it to consume the carrion and all kinds of impurities that collected about the capital. Certain it is, that while the final punishment of the wicked is described in the Old Testament by allusions to this valley of Tophet or Hinnom (Isa 30:33; Isa 66:24), our Lord Himself describes the same by merely quoting these terrific descriptions of the evangelical prophet (Mar 9:43-48). What precise degrees of unholy feeling towards our brothers are indicated by the words "Raca" and "fool" it would be as useless as it is vain to inquire. Every age and every country has its modes of expressing such things; and no doubt our Lord seized on the then current phraseology of unholy disrespect and contempt, merely to express and condemn the different degrees of such feeling when brought out in words, as He had immediately before condemned the feeling itself. In fact, so little are we to make of mere words, apart from the feeling which they express, that as anger is expressly said to have been borne by our Lord towards His enemies though mixed with "grief for the hardness of their hearts" (Mar 3:5), and as the apostle teaches us that there is an anger which is not sinful (Eph 4:26); so in the Epistle of James (Jam 2:20) we find the words, "O vain (or, empty) man"; and our Lord Himself applies the very word "fools" twice in one breath to the blind guides of the people (Mat 23:17, Mat 23:19) --although, in both cases, it is to false reasoners rather than persons that such words are applied. The spirit, then, of the whole statement may be thus given: "For ages ye have been taught that the sixth commandment, for example, is broken only by the murderer, to pass sentence upon whom is the proper business of the recognized tribunals. But I say unto you that it is broken even by causeless anger, which is but hatred in the bud, as hatred is incipient murder (1Jo 3:15); and if by the feelings, much more by those words in which all ill feeling, from the slightest to the most envenomed, are wont to be cast upon a brother: and just as there are gradations in human courts of judicature, and in the sentences which they pronounce according to the degrees of criminality, so will the judicial treatment of all the breakers of this commandment at the divine tribunal be according to their real criminality before the heart-searching Judge." Oh, what holy teaching is this!

JFB: Mat 5:23 - -- To apply the foregoing, and show its paramount importance.

To apply the foregoing, and show its paramount importance.

JFB: Mat 5:23 - -- Of just complaint "against thee."

Of just complaint "against thee."

JFB: Mat 5:24 - -- The meaning evidently is--not, "dismiss from thine own breast all ill feeling, "but" get thy brother to dismiss from his mind all grudge against thee....

The meaning evidently is--not, "dismiss from thine own breast all ill feeling, "but" get thy brother to dismiss from his mind all grudge against thee."

JFB: Mat 5:24 - -- "The picture," says THOLUCK," is drawn from life. It transports us to the moment when the Israelite, having brought his sacrifice to the court of the ...

"The picture," says THOLUCK," is drawn from life. It transports us to the moment when the Israelite, having brought his sacrifice to the court of the Israelites, awaited the instant when the priest would approach to receive it at his hands. He waits with his gift at the rails which separate the place where he stands from the court of the priests, into which his offering will presently be taken, there to be slain by the priest, and by him presented upon the altar of sacrifice." It is at this solemn moment, when about to cast himself upon divine mercy, and seek in his offering a seal of divine forgiveness, that the offerer is supposed, all at once, to remember that some brother has a just cause of complaint against him through breach of this commandment in one or other of the ways just indicated. What then? Is he to say, As soon as I have offered this gift I will go straight to my brother, and make it up with him? Nay; but before another step is taken--even before the offering is presented--this reconciliation is to be sought, though the gift have to be left unoffered before the altar. The converse of the truth here taught is very strikingly expressed in Mar 11:25-26 : "And when ye stand praying (in the very act), forgive, if ye have aught (of just complaint) against any; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive you," &c. Hence the beautiful practice of the early Church, to see that all differences amongst brethren and sisters in Christ were made up, in the spirit of love, before going to the Holy Communion; and the Church of England has a rubrical direction to this effect in her Communion service. Certainly, if this be the highest act of worship on earth, such reconciliation though obligatory on all other occasions of worship--must be peculiarly so then.

JFB: Mat 5:25 - -- Thine opponent in a matter cognizable by law.

Thine opponent in a matter cognizable by law.

JFB: Mat 5:25 - -- "to the magistrate," as in Luk 12:58.

"to the magistrate," as in Luk 12:58.

JFB: Mat 5:25 - -- Here, rather, "lest at all," or simply "lest."

Here, rather, "lest at all," or simply "lest."

JFB: Mat 5:25 - -- Having pronounced thee in the wrong.

Having pronounced thee in the wrong.

JFB: Mat 5:25 - -- The official whose business it is to see the sentence carried into effect.

The official whose business it is to see the sentence carried into effect.

JFB: Mat 5:26 - -- A fractional Roman coin, to which our "farthing" answers sufficiently well. That our Lord meant here merely to give a piece of prudential advice to hi...

A fractional Roman coin, to which our "farthing" answers sufficiently well. That our Lord meant here merely to give a piece of prudential advice to his hearers, to keep out of the hands of the law and its officials by settling all disputes with one another privately, is not for a moment to be supposed, though there are critics of a school low enough to suggest this. The concluding words--"Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out," &c.--manifestly show that though the language is drawn from human disputes and legal procedure, He is dealing with a higher than any human quarrel, a higher than any human tribunal, a higher than any human and temporal sentence. In this view of the words--in which nearly all critics worthy of the name agree--the spirit of them may be thus expressed: "In expounding the sixth commandment, I have spoken of offenses between man and man; reminding you that the offender has another party to deal with besides him whom he has wronged on earth, and assuring you that all worship offered to the Searcher of hearts by one who knows that a brother has just cause of complaint against him, and yet takes no steps to remove it, is vain: But I cannot pass from this subject without reminding you of One whose cause of complaint against you is far more deadly than any that man can have against man: and since with that Adversary you are already on the way to judgment, it will be your wisdom to make up the quarrel without delay, lest sentence of condemnation be pronounced upon you, and then will execution straightway follow, from the effects of which you shall never escape as long as any remnant of the offense remains unexpiated." It will be observed that as the principle on which we are to "agree" with this "Adversary" is not here specified, and the precise nature of the retribution that is to light upon the despisers of this warning is not to be gathered from the mere use of the word "prison"; so, the remedilessness of the punishment is not in so many words expressed, and still less is its actual cessation taught. The language on all these points is designedly general; but it may safely be said that the unending duration of future punishment--elsewhere so clearly and awfully expressed by our Lord Himself, as in Mat 5:29-30, and Mar 9:43, Mar 9:48 --is the only doctrine with which His language here quite naturally and fully accords. (Compare Mat 18:30, Mat 18:34).

The Same Subject Illustrated from the Seventh Commandment (Mat 5:27-32).

Clarke: Mat 5:21 - -- Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time - τοις αρχαιοις, to or by the ancients. By the ancients, we may understand those who...

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time - τοις αρχαιοις, to or by the ancients. By the ancients, we may understand those who lived before the law, and those who lived under it; for murder was, in the most solemn manner, forbidden before, as well as under, the law, Gen 9:5, Gen 9:6

But it is very likely that our Lord refers here merely to traditions and glosses relative to the ancient Mosaic ordinance; and such as, by their operation, rendered the primitive command of little or no effect. Murder from the beginning has been punished with death; and it is, probably, the only crime that should be punished with death. There is much reason to doubt, whether the punishment of death, inflicted for any other crime, is not in itself murder, whatever the authority may be that has instituted it. God, and the greatest legislators that have ever been in the universe, are of the same opinion. See Montesquieu, Blackstone, and the Marquis Beccaria, and the arguments and testimonies lately produced by Sir Samuel Romilly, in his motion for the amendment of the criminal laws of this kingdom. It is very remarkable, that the criminal code published by Joseph II., late emperor of Germany, though it consists of seventy-one capital crimes, has not death attached to any of them. Even murder, with all intention to rob, is punished only with "imprisonment for thirty years, to lie on the floor, to have no nourishment but bread and water, to be closely chained, and to be publicly whipped once a year, with less than one hundred lashes."See Colquhoun on the Police of the City of London, p. 272.

Clarke: Mat 5:22 - -- Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause - ὁ οργιζομενος - εικη, who is vainly incensed. "This translation is litera...

Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause - ὁ οργιζομενος - εικη, who is vainly incensed. "This translation is literal; and the very objectionable phrase, without a cause, is left out, εικη being more properly translated by that above."What our Lord seems here to prohibit, is not merely that miserable facility which some have of being angry at every trifle, continually taking offense against their best friends; but that anger which leads a man to commit outrages against another, thereby subjecting himself to that punishment which was to be inflicted on those who break the peace. Εικη, vainly, or, as in the common translation, without a cause, is wanting in the famous Vatican MS. and two others, the Ethiopic, latter Arabic, Saxon, Vulgate, two copies of the old Itala, J. Martyr, Ptolomeus, Origen, Tertullian, and by all the ancient copies quoted by St. Jerome. It was probably a marginal gloss originally, which in process of time crept into the text

Clarke: Mat 5:22 - -- Shall be in danger of the judgment - ενοχος εϚται, shall be liable to the judgment. That is, to have the matter brought before a senate,...

Shall be in danger of the judgment - ενοχος εϚται, shall be liable to the judgment. That is, to have the matter brought before a senate, composed of twenty-three magistrates, whose business it was to judge in cases of murder and other capital crimes. It punished criminals by strangling or beheading; but Dr. Lightfoot supposes the judgment of God to be intended. See at the end of this chapter

Clarke: Mat 5:22 - -- Raca - ריקה from the Hebrew רק rak , to be empty. It signifies a vain, empty, worthless fellow, shallow brains, a term of great contempt. S...

Raca - ריקה from the Hebrew רק rak , to be empty. It signifies a vain, empty, worthless fellow, shallow brains, a term of great contempt. Such expressions were punished among the Gentoos by a heavy fine. See all the cases, Code of Gentoo Laws, chap. 15: sec. 2

Clarke: Mat 5:22 - -- The council - Συνεδριον, the famous council, known among the Jews by the name of Sanhedrin. It was composed of seventy-two elders, six cho...

The council - Συνεδριον, the famous council, known among the Jews by the name of Sanhedrin. It was composed of seventy-two elders, six chosen out of each tribe. This grand Sanhedrin not only received appeals from the inferior Sanhedrins, or court of twenty-three mentioned above; but could alone take cognizance, in the first instance, of the highest crimes, and alone inflict the punishment of stoning

Clarke: Mat 5:22 - -- Thou fool - Moreh , probably from מרה marah , to rebel, a rebel against God, apostate from all good. This term implied, among the Jews, the high...

Thou fool - Moreh , probably from מרה marah , to rebel, a rebel against God, apostate from all good. This term implied, among the Jews, the highest enormity, and most aggravated guilt. Among the Gentoos, such an expression was punished by cutting out the tongue, and thrusting a hot iron, of ten fingers breadth, into the mouth of the person who used it. Code of Gentoo Laws, chap. 15: sec. 2. p. 212

Clarke: Mat 5:22 - -- Shall be in danger of hell fire - ενοχος εϚται εις την γεενναν του πυρος, shall be liable to the hell of fire. Our ...

Shall be in danger of hell fire - ενοχος εϚται εις την γεενναν του πυρος, shall be liable to the hell of fire. Our Lord here alludes to the valley of the son of Hinnom, גי הנם Ghi hinom . 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. A particular place in this valley was called Tophet, from תפת tophet , the fire stove, in which some supposed they burnt their children alive to the above idol. See 2Ki 23:10; 2Ch 28:3; Jer 7:31, Jer 7:32. From the circumstances of this valley having been the scene of those infernal sacrifices, the Jews, in our Savior’ s time, used the word for hell, the place of the damned. See the word applied in this sense by the Targum, on Rth 2:12; Psa 140:12; Gen 3:24; Gen 15:17. It is very probable that our Lord means no more here than this: if a man charge another with apostasy from the Jewish religion, or rebellion against God, and cannot prove his charge, then he is exposed to that punishment (burning alive) which the other must have suffered, if the charge had been substantiated. There are three kinds of offenses here, which exceed each other in their degrees of guilt

1st. Anger against a man, accompanied with some injurious act

2dly. Contempt, expressed by the opprobrious epithet raka , or shallow brains

3dly. Hatred and mortal enmity, expressed by the term moreh , or apostate, where such apostasy could not be proved

Now, proportioned to these three offenses were three different degrees of punishment, each exceeding the other in its severity, as the offenses exceeded each other in their different degrees of guilt

1st. The judgment, the council of twenty-three, which could inflict the punishment of strangling

2dly. The Sanhedrin, or great council, which could inflict the punishment of stoning. An

3dly. The being burnt alive in the valley of the son of Hinnom. This appears to be the meaning of our Lord

Now, if the above offenses were to be so severely punished, which did not immediately affect the life of another, how much sorer must the punishment of murder be! Mat 5:21. And as there could not be a greater punishment inflicted than death, in the above terrific forms, and this was to be inflicted for minor crimes; then the punishment of murder must not only have death here, but a hell of fire in the eternal world, attached to it. It seems that these different degrees of guilt, and the punishment attached to each, had not been properly distinguished among the Jews. 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. Murder is the most punishable of all crimes, according to the written law, in respect both of our neighbors and civil society. But he who sees the heart, and judges it by the eternal law, punishes as much a word or a desire, if the hatred whence they proceed be complete and perfected. Dr. Lightfoot has some curious observations on this passage in the preface to his Harmony of the Evangelists. See his works, vol. ii., and the conclusion of this chapter.

Clarke: Mat 5:23 - -- Therefore if thou bring thy gift - Evil must be nipped in the bud. An unkind thought of another may be the foundation of that which leads to actual ...

Therefore if thou bring thy gift - Evil must be nipped in the bud. An unkind thought of another may be the foundation of that which leads to actual murder. A Christian, properly speaking, cannot be an enemy to any man; nor is he to consider any man his enemy, without the fullest evidence: for surmises to the prejudice of another can never rest in the bosom of him who has the love of God in his heart, for to him all men are brethren. He sees all men as children of God, and members of Christ, or at least capable of becoming such. If a tender forgiving spirit was required, even in a Jew, when he approached God’ s altar with a bullock or a lamb, how much more necessary is this in a man who professes to be a follower of the Lamb of God; especially when he receives the symbols of that Sacrifice which was offered for the life of the world, in what is commonly called the sacrament of the Lord’ s supper!

Clarke: Mat 5:24 - -- Leave there thy gift before the altar - This is as much as to say, "Do not attempt to bring any offering to God while thou art in a spirit of enmity...

Leave there thy gift before the altar - This is as much as to say, "Do not attempt to bring any offering to God while thou art in a spirit of enmity against any person; or hast any difference with thy neighbor, which thou hast not used thy diligence to get adjusted."It is our duty and interest, both to bring our gift, and offer it too; but God will not accept of any act of religious worship from us, while any enmity subsists in our hearts towards any soul of man; or while any subsists in our neighbor’ s heart towards us, which we have not used the proper means to remove. A religion, the very essence of which is love, cannot suffer at its altars a heart that is revengeful and uncharitable, or which does not use its utmost endeavors to revive love in the heart of another. The original word, δωρον, which we translate gift, is used by the rabbins in Hebrew letters דורון doron , which signifies not only a gift, but a sacrifice offered to God. See several proofs in Schoettgen

Clarke: Mat 5:24 - -- Then come and offer thy gift - Then, when either thy brother is reconciled to thee, or thou hast done all in thy power to effect this reconciliation...

Then come and offer thy gift - Then, when either thy brother is reconciled to thee, or thou hast done all in thy power to effect this reconciliation. My own obstinacy and uncharitableness must render me utterly unfit to receive any good from God’ s hands, or to worship him in an acceptable manner; bat the wickedness of another can be no hinderance to me, when I have endeavored earnestly to get it removed, though without effect.

Clarke: Mat 5:25 - -- Agree with thine adversary quickly - Adversary, αντιδικος, properly a plaintiff in law - a perfect law term. Our Lord enforces the exhorta...

Agree with thine adversary quickly - Adversary, αντιδικος, properly a plaintiff in law - a perfect law term. Our Lord enforces the exhortation given in the preceding verses, from the consideration of what was deemed prudent in ordinary law-suits. In such cases, men should make up matters with the utmost speed, as running through the whole course of a law-suit must not only be vexatious, but be attended with great expense; and in the end, though the loser may be ruined, yet the gainer has nothing. A good use of this very prudential advice of our Lord is this: Thou art a sinner; God hath a controversy with thee. There is but a step between thee and death. Now is the accepted time. Thou art invited to return to God by Christ Jesus. Come immediately at his call, and he will save thy soul. Delay not! Eternity is at hand; and if thou die in thy sins, where God is thou shalt never come

Those who make the adversary, God; the judge, Christ; the officer, Death; and the prison, Hell, abuse the passage, and highly dishonor God.

Clarke: Mat 5:26 - -- The uttermost farthing - Κοδραντην . The rabbins have this Greek word corrupted into קרדיונטסס kordiontes , and קונטריק,...

The uttermost farthing - Κοδραντην . The rabbins have this Greek word corrupted into קרדיונטסס kordiontes , and קונטריק, kontrik , and say, that two פרוטות prutoth make a kontarik , which is exactly the same with those words in Mar 12:42, λεπτα δυο, ο εστι κοδραντης, two mites, which are one farthing. Hence it appears that the λεπτον lepton was the same as the prutah . The weight of the prutah was half a barley-corn, and it was the smallest coin among the Jews, as the kodrantes , or farthing, was the smallest coin among the Romans. If the matter issue in law, strict justice will be done, and your creditor be allowed the fullness of his just claim; but if; while you are on the way, going to the magistrate, you come to a friendly agreement with him, he will relax in his claims, take a part for the whole, and the composition be, in the end, both to his and your profit

This text has been considered a proper foundation on which to build not only the doctrine of a purgatory, but also that of universal restoration. But the most unwarrantable violence must be used before it can be pressed into the service of either of the above antiscriptural doctrines. At the most, the text can only be considered as a metaphorical representation of the procedure of the great Judge; and let it ever be remembered, that by the general consent of all (except the basely interested) no metaphor is ever to be produced in proof of any doctrine. In the things that concern our eternal salvation, we need the most pointed and express evidence on which to establish the faith of our souls.

Calvin: Mat 5:21 - -- 21.You have heard that it was said This sentence, and those which immediately follow, are connected with what we have just considered: for our Lord e...

21.You have heard that it was said This sentence, and those which immediately follow, are connected with what we have just considered: for our Lord explains more fully, by minute instances, by what tortuous methods 396 the Pharisees debase the law, so that their righteousness is mere filth. It is a mistake, however, to suppose that this is an ἐπανόρθωσις , or correction 397 of the Law, and that Christ raises his disciples to a higher degree of perfection, than Christ could raise a gross and carnal nation, which was scarcely able to learn first principles. It has been a prevailing opinion, that the beginning of righteousness was laid down in the ancient law, but that the perfection of it is pointed out in the Gospel. But nothing was farther from the design of Christ, than to alter or innovate any thing in the commandments of the law. There God has once fixed the rule of life which he will never retract. But as the law had been corrupted by false expositions, and turned to a profane meaning, Christ vindicates it against such corruptions, and points out its true meaning, from which the Jews had departed.

That the doctrine of the law not only commences, but brings to perfection, a holy life, may be inferred from a single fact, that it requires a perfect love of God and of our neighbor, (Deu 6:5; Lev 19:18.) He who possesses such a love wants nothing of the highest perfection. So far as respects the rules of a holy life, the law conducts men to the goal, or farthest point, of righteousness. Accordingly, Paul declares the law to be weak, not in itself, but in our flesh, (Rom 8:3.) But if Moses had given nothing more than the first lessons of true righteousness, how ridiculous would have been that appeal!

“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that ye may live,” (Deu 30:19.)

Again,

“And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, and to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul?” (Deu 10:12.)

Vain and deceitful, also, would have been that promise, “The man that doeth them shall live in them,” (Lev 18:5; Rom 10:5; Gal 3:12.)

That Christ, on the other hand, intended to make no correction in the precepts of the law, is very clear from other passages: for to those who desire to enter into life by their good works, he gives no other injunction, than to, keep the commandments of the law, (Mat 19:17.) From no other source do the Apostles, as well as Christ himself, draw the rules for a devout and holy life. It is doing a grievous injury to God, the author of the Law, to imagine that the eyes, and hands, and feet alone, are trained by it to a hypocritical appearance of good works, and that it is only in the Gospel that we are taught to love God with the heart. Away, then, with that error, “The deficiencies of the law are here supplied by Christ.” We must not imagine Christ to be a new legislator, who adds any thing to the eternal righteousness of his Father. We must listen to him as a faithful expounder, that we may know what is the nature of the law, what is its object, and what is its extent.

It now remains for us to see, what Christ condemns in the Pharisees, and in what respect his interpretation of it differs from their glosses. The amount of it is, that they had changed the doctrine of the law into a political order, and had made obedience to it to consist entirely in the performance of outward duties. Hence it came, that he who had not slain a man with his hand was pronounced to be free from the guilt of murder, and he who had not polluted his body by adultery was supposed to be pure and chaste before God. This was an intolerable profanation of the law: for it is certain, that Moses everywhere demands the spiritual worship of God. From the very nature of the law we must conclude, that God, who gave it by the hand of Moses, spoke to the hearts, as well as to the hands and to the eyes. True, our Lord quotes the very words of the law; but he does so in accommodation to the view which was generally taken of them by the people. “Till now, the scribes have given you a literal interpretation of the law, that it is enough, if a man keep his hands from murder and from acts of violence. But I warn you, that you must ascend much higher. Love is the fulfilling of the law, (Rom 13:10;)and I say that your neighbor is injured, when you act towards him otherwise than as a friend.” The latter clause which he quotes, he who kills shall be liable to the judgment, confirms what I said a little before, that Christ charges them with turning into a political scheme the law of God, which had been given for the government of the heart.

Calvin: Mat 5:22 - -- 22.But I say to you His reply is not opposed to the command of Moses, (Exo 20:13; Lev 24:21; Num 35:16;) but to the interpretation usually put upon i...

22.But I say to you His reply is not opposed to the command of Moses, (Exo 20:13; Lev 24:21; Num 35:16;) but to the interpretation usually put upon it by the scribes. Now, as the Pharisees boasted of antiquity, (for it is always the custom to plead the prescription of a long period in defense of errors,) 398 Christ reminds the people of his authority, to which all antiquity ought justly to give way. Hence we conclude, that truth is of greater weight than custom or the number of years.

He who shall say to his brother Christ assigns three degrees of condemnation besides the violence of the hands; which implies, that this precept of the law restrains not only the hands, but all affections that are opposed to brotherly love. “Those who shall only be angry with their brethren, or treat them with haughty disdain, or injure them by any reproach, are murderers.” Now, as it is certain that the word Racha occupies an intermediate place between anger and openly reproachful language, I have no doubt that it is an interjection of contempt or disdain. Though Christ adjudges to the hell of fire none but those who break out into open reproach, we must not suppose, that he declares anger to be free from a similar punishment; but, alluding to earthly judgments, he assures them that God will judge and punish even concealed anger. 399 But, as he who manifests his indignation by bitter language goes farther than this, Christ says, that that man will be held guilty by the whole heavenly council, that he may receive severer punishment.

Those, again, who break out into reproaches are adjudged to the hell of fire: which implies, that hatred, and every thing that is contrary to love, is enough to expose them to eternal death, though they may have committed no acts of violence. Γἔεννα ( hell) is, beyond all question, a foreign word. גיא ( Ge) is the Hebrew word for a valley. Now, “the valley of Hin-nom” was infamous for the detestable superstition which was committed in it, because there they sacrificed their children to idols, (2Ch 33:6.) The consequence was, that holy men, in order to excite stronger hatred of that wicked ungodliness, used it as the name for hell, that the very name might be dreaded by the people as shocking and alarming. 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, ( γέεννα ,) the word being slightly altered from the true pronunciation.

Calvin: Mat 5:23 - -- Mat 5:23.Therefore, if thou shalt bring thy gift This clause confirms, and at the same time explains, the preceding doctrine. It amounts to this, that...

Mat 5:23.Therefore, if thou shalt bring thy gift This clause confirms, and at the same time explains, the preceding doctrine. It amounts to this, that the precept of the law, which forbids murder, (Exo 20:13,) is obeyed, when we maintain agreement and brotherly kindness, with our neighbor. To impress this more strongly upon us, Christ declares, that even the duties of religion are displeasing to God, and are rejected by him, if we are at variance with each other. When he commands those who have injured any of their brethren, to be reconciled to him, before they offer their gift, his meaning is, that, so long as a difference with our neighbor is kept up by our fault, we have no access to God. But if the worship, which men render to God, is polluted and corrupted by their resentments, this enables us to conclude, in what estimation he holds mutual agreement among ourselves.

Here a question may be put. Is it not absurd, that the duties of charity should be esteemed more highly than the worship of God? We shall then be forced to say, that the order of the law is improper, or that the first table of the law must be preferred to the second. The answer is easy: for the words of Christ mean nothing more than this, that it is a false and empty profession of worshipping God, which is made by those who, after acting unjustly towards their brethren, treat them with haughty disdain. By a synecdoche he takes a single class to express the outward exercises of divine worship, which in many men are rather the pretenses, than the true expressions, of godliness. It ought to be observed that Christ, adapting his discourse to that age, speaks of sacrifices. Our condition is now different: but the doctrine remains the same, that whatever we offer to God is polluted, unless, at least as much as lieth in us, (Rom 12:18,) we are at peace with our brethren. Alms are called in Scripture sacrifices of a sweet smell, (Phi 4:18;) and we learn from the mouth of Paul, that he who

“spends all his substance on the poor,
if he have not charity, is nothing,” (1Co 13:3.)

Lastly, God does not receive and acknowledge, as his sons, any who do not, in their turn, show themselves to be brethren to each other. Although it is only to those who have injured their brethren that these words are addressed, enjoining them to do their endeavor to be reconciled to them, yet under one class he points out, how highly the harmony of brethren is esteemed by God. When he commands them to leave the gift before the altar, he expresses much more than if he had said, that it is to no purpose for men to go to the temple, or offer sacrifices to God, so long as they live in discord with their neighbors.

Calvin: Mat 5:25 - -- 25.Be agreed with thy adversary Christ appears to go farther, and to exhort to reconciliation not only those who have injured their brethren, but tho...

25.Be agreed with thy adversary Christ appears to go farther, and to exhort to reconciliation not only those who have injured their brethren, but those also who are unjustly treated. 401 But I interpret the words as having been spoken with another view, to take away occasion for hatred and resentment, and to point out the method of cherishing good-will. For whence come all injuries, but from this, that each person is too tenacious of his own rights, that is, each is too much disposed to consult his own convenience to the disadvantage of others? Almost all are so blinded by a wicked love of themselves, that, even in the worst causes, they flatter themselves that they are in the right. To meet all hatred, enmity, debates, and acts of injustice, Christ reproves that obstinacy, which is the source of these evils, and enjoins his own people to cultivate moderation and justice, and to make some abatement from the highest rigor, that, by such an act of justice, they may purchase for themselves peace and friendship. 402 It were to be wished, indeed, that no controversy of any kind should ever arise among us; and undoubtedly men would never break out into abuse or quarrelling, if they possessed a due share of meekness. But, as it is scarcely possible but that differences will sometimes happen, Christ points out the remedy, by which they may be immediately settled; and that is, to put a restraint on our desires, and rather to act to our own disadvantage, than follow up our rights with unflinching rigor. That Christ frequently gave this exhortation is evident from the twelfth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, where he does not relate the sermon on the mount, but gives an abridgment of various passages in our Lord’s discourses.

Lest the adversary deliver thee to the judge This part is explained by some in a metaphorical sense, that the Heavenly Judge will act toward us with the utmost rigor, so as to forgive us nothing, if we do not labor to settle those differences which we have with our neighbors. But I view it more simply, as an admonition that, even among men, it is usually advantageous for us to come to an early agreement with adversaries, because, with quarrelsome persons, their obstinacy often costs them dear. At the same time, I admit, that the comparison is justly applied to God; for he will exercise judgment without mercy (Jas 2:13) to him who is implacable to his brethren, or pursues his contentiousness to the utmost. But it is highly ridiculous in the Papists, to construct their purgatory out of a continued allegory on this passage. Nothing is more evident than that the subject of Christ’s discourse is the cultivation of friendship among men. They have no shame, or conscientious scruple, to pervert his words, and to torture them into a widely different meaning, provided they can impose on the unlearned. But as they do not deserve a lengthened refutation, I shall only point out, in a single word, their shameful ignorance. The adversary is supposed by them to be the devil. But Christ enjoins those who believe on him to be agreed with the adversary Therefore, in order that the Papists may find their purgatory here, they must first become the friends and brethren of devils. A farthing is well known to be the fourth part of a penny: but here, as is evident from Luke, it denotes a mite, or any small piece of money. Now, if we were disposed to cavilling, 403 we might here obtain another exposure of the absurdity of the Papists. For, if he who has once entered Purgatory will never leave it, till he has paid the last farthing, it follows, that the suffrages (as they call them) of the living for the dead are of no avail. For Christ makes no allowance, that others may free a debtor by satisfying for him, but expressly demands from each person the payment of what he owes. 404 Now, if Moses and other satisfactions are useless, however warm the fire of Purgatory may be, yet the kitchens of priests and monks, for the sake of which they are so anxious to maintain it, will be cool enough.

Defender: Mat 5:22 - -- The word Raca is an Aramaic expression of contempt, something like our English slang "stupid idiot!" Such an insult to a fellow believer in the Jewish...

The word Raca is an Aramaic expression of contempt, something like our English slang "stupid idiot!" Such an insult to a fellow believer in the Jewish dispensation might warrant being charged, before the council of the Sanhedrin, with slander.

Defender: Mat 5:22 - -- This is even a greater insult. The Greek is the word from which we get our English word "moron," but it also implies rebellion. Calling a brother a re...

This is even a greater insult. The Greek is the word from which we get our English word "moron," but it also implies rebellion. Calling a brother a rebellious moron would be very out of character for a Christian.

Defender: Mat 5:22 - -- "Hell" is gehenna, in the Greek, the place of everlasting fire. Almost certainly it refers to the ultimate lake of fire (Rev 20:15), not to the great ...

"Hell" is gehenna, in the Greek, the place of everlasting fire. Almost certainly it refers to the ultimate lake of fire (Rev 20:15), not to the great pit in the center of the earth known as Hades (this word is also commonly translated "hell" - Mat 11:23), where the spirits of the unsaved are confined as they await the final judgment. Note the divine principle of degrees of punishment implied in this verse."

TSK: Mat 5:21 - -- it : Mat 5:27, Mat 5:33, Mat 5:43; 2Sa 20:18; Job 8:8-10 by them : or, to them Thou : Gen 9:5, Gen 9:6; Exo 20:13; Deu 5:17 and : Exo 21:12-14; Num 35...

TSK: Mat 5:22 - -- I say : Mat 5:28, Mat 5:34, Mat 5:44, Mat 3:17, Mat 17:5; Deu 18:18, Deu 18:19; Act 3:20-23, Act 7:37; Heb 5:9, Heb 12:25 That : Gen 4:5, Gen 4:6, Gen...

I say : Mat 5:28, Mat 5:34, Mat 5:44, Mat 3:17, Mat 17:5; Deu 18:18, Deu 18:19; Act 3:20-23, Act 7:37; Heb 5:9, Heb 12:25

That : Gen 4:5, Gen 4:6, Gen 37:4, Gen 37:8; 1Sa 17:27, 1Sa 17:28, 1Sa 18:8, 1Sa 18:9, 1Sa 20:30-33, 1Sa 22:12-23; 1Ki 21:4; 2Ch 16:10; Est 3:5, Est 3:6; Psa 37:8; Dan 2:12, Dan 2:13, Dan 3:13, Dan 3:19; Eph 4:26, Eph 4:27

his brother : Mat 5:23, Mat 5:24, Mat 18:21, Mat 18:35; Deu 15:11; Neh 5:8; Oba 1:10,Oba 1:12; Rom 12:10; 1Co 6:6; 1Th 4:6; 1Jo 2:9, 1Jo 3:10,1Jo 3:14, 1Jo 3:15, 1Jo 4:20,1Jo 4:21, 1Jo 5:16

without : Psa 7:4, Psa 25:3, Psa 35:19, Psa 69:4, Psa 109:3; Lam 3:52; Joh 15:25

be : Mat 5:21

the judgment : An inferior court of judicature, in every city, consisting of 23 members, which punished criminals by strangling or beheading.

Whosoever : Mat 11:18, Mat 11:19, Mat 12:24; 1Sa 20:30; 2Sa 16:7; Joh 7:20, Joh 8:48; Act 17:18; 1Co 6:10; Eph 4:31, Eph 4:32; Tit 3:2; 1Pe 2:23, 1Pe 3:9; Jud 1:9

Raca : that is, vain fellow, 2Sa 6:20; Jam 2:20

the council : The Sanhedrin, συνεδριον [Strong’ s G4892], composed of 72 elders, who alone punished by stoning. Mat 10:17, Mat 26:59; Mar 14:55, Mar 15:1; Joh 11:47; Act 5:27

fool : Psa 14:1, Psa 49:10, Psa 92:6; Pro 14:16, Pro 18:6; Jer 17:11

hell : Mat 5:29, Mat 5:30, Mat 10:28, Mat 18:8, Mat 18:9, Mat 25:41; Mar 9:47; Luk 12:5, Luk 16:23, Luk 16:24; Rev 20:14

TSK: Mat 5:23 - -- thou : Mat 8:4, Mat 23:19; Deu 16:16, Deu 16:17; 1Sa 15:22; Isa 1:10-17; Hos 6:6; Amo 5:21-24 rememberest : Gen 41:9, Gen 42:21, Gen 42:22, Gen 50:15-...

TSK: Mat 5:24 - -- there : Mat 18:15-17; Job 42:8; Pro 25:9; Mar 9:50; Rom 12:17, Rom 12:18; 1Co 6:7, 1Co 6:8; 1Ti 2:8; Jam 3:13-18, Jam 5:16; 1Pe 3:7, 1Pe 3:8 and then ...

TSK: Mat 5:25 - -- with : Gen 32:3-8, Gen 32:13-22, Gen 33:3-11; 1Sam. 25:17-35; Pro 6:1-5, Pro 25:8; Luk 12:58, Luk 12:59, Luk 14:31, Luk 14:32 whiles : Job 22:21; Psa ...

TSK: Mat 5:26 - -- Thou : Mat 18:34, Mat 25:41, Mat 25:46; Luk 12:59, Luk 16:26; 2Th 1:9; Jam 2:13

collapse all
Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Mat 5:21 - -- Ye have heard - Or, this is the common interpretation among the Jews. Jesus proceeds here to comment on some prevailing opinions among the Jews...

Ye have heard - Or, this is the common interpretation among the Jews. Jesus proceeds here to comment on some prevailing opinions among the Jews; to show that the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was defective; and that people needed a better righteousness, or they could not be saved. He illustrates what he meant by that better righteousness by showing that the common opinions of the scribes were erroneous.

By them of old time - This might be translated to the ancients, referring to Moses and the prophets. But it is more probable that Jesus here refers to the interpreters of the law and the prophets. He did not set himself against the law of Moses, but against the false and pernicious interpretations of the law prevalent in his time.

Thou shalt not kill - See Exo 20:13. This properly denotes taking the life of another with malice, or with an intention to murder him. The Jews understood it as meaning no more. The comment of our Saviour shows that it was spiritual, and was designed to extend to the thoughts and feelings as well as the external act.

Shall be in danger of - Shall be held guilty, and be punished by. The law of Moses declared that the murderer should be put to death, Lev 24:21; Num 35:16. It did not say, however, by whom this should be done, and it was left to the Jews to organize courts to have cognizance of such crimes, Deu 16:18.

The judgment - This was the tribunal that had cognizance of cases of murder, etc. It was a court that sat in each city or town, and consisted commonly of seven members. It was the lowest court among the Jews, and from it an appeal might be taken to the Sanhedrin.

Barnes: Mat 5:22 - -- But I say unto you - Jesus being God as well as man Joh 1:1, Joh 1:14, and therefore, being the original giver of the law, had a right to expou...

But I say unto you - Jesus being God as well as man Joh 1:1, Joh 1:14, and therefore, being the original giver of the law, had a right to expound it or change it as he pleased. Compare Mat 12:6, Mat 12:8. He therefore spoke here and elsewhere as having authority, and not as the scribes. It may be added here that no mere man ever spake as Jesus did, when explaining or enforcing the law. He did it as having a right to do it; and he that has a right to ordain and change laws in the government of God must be himself divine.

Is angry with His brother without a cause - Anger, or that feeling which we have when we are injured, and which prompts us to defend ourselves when in danger, is a natural feeling, given to us:

1.    As a proper expression of our disapprobation of a course of evil conduct; and

2.    That we may defend ourselves when suddenly attacked.

When excited against sin, it is lawful. God is angry with the wicked, Psa 7:11. Jesus looked on the hypocritical Pharisees with anger, Mar 3:5. So it is said, "Be ye angry, and sin not, Eph 4:26. This anger, or indignation against sin, is not what our Saviour speaks of here. What he condemns here is anger without a cause; that is, unjustly, rashly, hastily, where no offence has been given or intended. In that case it is evil; and it is a violation of the sixth commandment, because "he that hateth his brother, is a murderer,"1Jo 3:15. He has a feeling which would lead him to commit murder, if it were fully acted out. The word "brother"here refers not merely to one to whom we are nearly related, having the same parent or parents, as the word is commonly used, but includes also a neighbor, or perhaps anyone with whom we may be associated. As all people are descended from one Father and are all the creatures of the same God, so they are all brethren: and so every man should be regarded and treated as a brother, Heb 11:16.

Raca - This is a Syriac word, expressive of great contempt. It comes from a verb signifying to be empty, vain; and hence, as a word of contempt, denotes senseless, stupid, shallow-brains. Jesus teaches here that to use such words is a violation of the spirit of the sixth commandment, and if indulged, may lead to a more open and dreadful infraction of that law. Children should learn that to use such words is highly offensive to God, for we must give an account for every idle word which we speak in the day of judgment, Mat 12:36.

In danger of the council - The word translated "council"is in the original Sanhedrin, and there can be no doubt that the Saviour refers to the Jewish tribunal of that name. This was instituted in the time of the Maccabees, probably about 200 years before Christ. It was composed of 72 judges: the high priest was the president of this tribunal. The 72 members were made up of the chief priests and elders of the people and the scribes. The chief priests were such as had discharged the office of the high priest, and those who were the heads of the twenty-four classes of priests, who were called in an honorary way high or chief priests. See Mat 2:4. The elders were the princes of the tribes or heads of the family associations. It is not to be supposed that all the elders had a right to a seat here, but such only as were elected to the office. The scribes were learned people of the nation elected to this tribunal, being neither of the rank of priests or elders. This tribunal had cognizance of the great affairs of the nation. Until the time when Judea was subjected to the Romans, it had the power of life and death. It still retained the power of passing sentence, though the Roman magistrate held the right of execution. It usually sat in Jerusalem, in a room near the temple. It was before this tribunal that our Saviour was tried. It was then assembled in the palace of the high priest, Mat. 26:3-57; Joh 18:24.

Thou fool - This term expressed more than want of wisdom. It was expressive of the highest guilt. It had been commonly used to denote those who were idolaters Deu 22:21, and also one who is guilty of great crimes, Jos 7:15; Psa 14:1.

Hell fire - The original of this is "the gehennah of fire."The word gehenna, γέεννα geenna , commonly translated "hell,"is made up of two Hebrew words, and signifies the valley of Hinnom. This was formerly a pleasant valley near to Jerusalem, on the south. A small brook or torrent usually ran through it and partly encompassed the city. This valley the idolatrous Israelites devoted formerly to the horrid worship of Moloch, 2Ki 16:3; 2Ch 28:3. In that worship, the ancient Jewish writers inform us, the idol of Moloch was of brass, adorned with a royal crown, having the head of a calf, and his arms extended as if to embrace anyone. When they offered children to him they heated the statue within by a great fire, and when it was burning hot they put the miserable child into his arms, where it was soon consumed by the heat; and, in order that the cries of the child might not be heard, they made a great noise with drums and other instruments about the idol. These drums were called תּף toph , and hence a common name of the place was Tophet, תּפת Tophet , Jer 7:31-32.

After the return of the Jews from captivity, this place was held in such abhorrence that, by the example of Josiah 2Ki 23:10, it was made the place where to throw all the dead carcasses and filth of the city, and was not unfrequently the place of public executions. It became, therefore, extremely offensive; the sight was terrific; the air was polluted and pestilential; and to preserve it in any manner pure, it was necessary to keep fires continually burning there. The extreme loathsomeness of the place; the filth and putrefaction; the corruption of the atmosphere, and the lurid fires blazing by day and night, made it one of the most appalling and terrific objects with which a Jew was acquainted. It was called the gehenna of fire, and was the image which our Saviour often employed to denote the future punishment of the wicked.

In this verse it denotes a degree of suffering higher than the punishment inflicted by the "court of seventy,"or the Sanhedrin, and the whole verse may therefore mean, "He that hates his brother without a cause is guilty of a violation of the sixth commandment, and shall be punished with a severity similar to that inflicted by the court of judgment. He that shall suffer his passions to transport him still further, so that he shall make his brother an object of derision and contempt, shall be exposed to severer punishment, corresponding to that which the Sanhedrin (council) inflicts. But he who shall load his brother with odious appellations and abusive language shall incur the severest degree of punishment, represented by being burned alive in the horrid and awful valley of Hinnom."

The amount, then, of this difficult and important verse is this: The Jews considered but one crime a violation of the sixth commandment, namely, actual murder, or willful, unlawful taking life. Jesus says that the commandment is much broader. It relates not only to the external act, but to the feelings and words. He specifies three forms of such violation:

1.    Unjust anger.

2.    Anger accompanied with an expression of contempt.

3.    Anger, with an expression not only of contempt, but wickedness.

Among the Jews there were three degrees of condemnation: that by the "judgment,"the "council,"and the "fire of Hinnom."Jesus says likewise there shall be grades of condemnation for the different ways of violating the sixth commandment. Not only murder shall be punished by God, but anger and contempt shall be regarded by him as a violation of the law, and punished according to the offence. As these offences were not actually cognizable before the Jewish tribunals, he must mean that they will be punished hereafter, and all these expressions therefore relate to degrees of punishment proportionate to crime in the future world - the world of justice and of woe.

Barnes: Mat 5:23-24 - -- Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar ... - The Pharisees were intent only on the external act in worship. They looked not at all to t...

Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar ... - The Pharisees were intent only on the external act in worship. They looked not at all to the internal state of the mind. If a man conformed to the external rites of religion, however much envy, and malice, and secret hatred he might have, they thought he was doing well. Our Saviour taught a different doctrine. It was of more consequence to have the heart right than to perform the outward act. If, therefore, says he, a man has gone so far as to bring his gift to the very altar, and should remember that anyone had anything against him, it was his duty there to leave his offering and go and be reconciled. While a difference of this nature existed, his offering could not be acceptable. He was not to wait until the offended brother should come to him; he was to go and seek him out, and be reconciled. So now the worship of God will not be acceptable, however well performed externally, until we are at peace with those that we have injured. "To obey is better than sacrifice,"1Sa 15:22. He that comes to worship his Maker filled with malice, and hatred, and envy, and at war with his brethren, is a hypocritical worshipper, and must meet with God’ s displeasure. God is not deceived, and he will not be mocked.

Thy gift - Thy sacrifice. What thou art about to devote to God as an offering.

To the altar - The altar was situated in front of the temple, and was the place on which sacrifices were made. See the notes on plan, Mat 21:12. To bring a gift to the altar was expressive of worshipping God, for this was the way in which he was formerly worshipped.

Thy brother - Any man, especially any fellow-worshipper. Anyone of the same religious society.

Hath aught - Is offended, or thinks he has been injured by you in any manner.

First be reconciled - This means to settle the difficulty; to make proper acknowledgment or satisfaction for the injury. If you have wronged him, make restitution. If you owe him a debt which ought to be paid, pay it. If you have injured his character, confess it and seek pardon. If he is under an erroneous impression, if your conduct has been such as to lead him to suspect that you have injured him, make an explanation. Do all in your power; and all you ought to do, to have the matter settled. From this we learn:

1.    That, in order to worship God acceptably, we must do justice to our fellow-men.

2.    Our worship will not be acceptable unless we do all we can to live peaceably with others.

3.    It is our duty to seek reconciliation with others when we have injured them.

4.    This should be done before we attempt to worship God.

5.    This is often the reason why God does not accept our offerings, and we go empty away from our devotions. We do not do what we ought to others; we cherish improper feelings or refuse to make proper acknowledgments, and God will not accept such attempts to worship him.

Barnes: Mat 5:25-26 - -- Agree with thine adversary quickly - This is still an illustration of the sixth commandment. To be in hostility, to go to law, to be litigious,...

Agree with thine adversary quickly - This is still an illustration of the sixth commandment. To be in hostility, to go to law, to be litigious, is a violation always, on one side or the other, of the law requiring us to love our neighbor, and our Saviour regards it as a violation of the sixth commandment. While you are in the way with him, says he, that is, while you are going to the court, before the trial has taken place, it is your duty, if possible, to come to an agreement. It is wrong to carry the contention to a court of law. See 1Co 6:6-7. The consequence of not being reconciled, he expresses in the language of courts. The adversary shall deliver to the judge, and he to the executioner, and he shall throw you into prison. He did not mean to say that this would be literally the way with God, but that His dealings with those that harbored these feelings, and would not be reconciled with their brethren, were represented by the punishment inflicted by human tribunals. That is, he would hold all such as violators of the sixth commandment, and would punish them accordingly.

There is no propriety in the use sometimes made of this verse, in representing God as the "adversary"of the sinner, and urging him to be reconciled to God while in the way to judgment. Nor does the phrase "thou shalt by no means come out thence until thou hast paid the uttermost farthing"refer to the eternity of future punishment. It is language taken from courts of justice, to illustrate the truth that God will punish people according to justice for not being reconciled to him. The punishment in the future world will be eternal indeed Mat 25:46, but this passage does not prove it.

Thine adversary - A man that is opposed to us in law. It here means a creditor; a man who has a just claim on us.

In the way with him - While you are going before the court. Before the trial comes on. It is remarkable that this very direction is found in the Roman law of the Twelve Tables, which expressly directed the plaintiff and defendant to make up the matter while they were in the way, or going to the praetor - in via, rem uti pacunt orato . - Blackstone’ s Commentary , iii. p. 299. Whether the Saviour had any reference to this cannot be determined. As the Roman laws prevailed to some extent in Palestine, however, it is possible that there was such an allusion.

The officer - The executioner; or, as we should say, the sheriff.

The uttermost farthing - The last farthing. All that is due. The farthing was a small coin used in Judea, equal to two mites. It was not quite equal to half a farthing of British money.

Poole: Mat 5:21-22 - -- Ver. 21,22. The Pharisees, in their lectures upon the law, usually thus prefaced, It was said by them of old time; this, saith Christ, ye have he...

Ver. 21,22. The Pharisees, in their lectures upon the law, usually thus prefaced, It was said by them of old time; this, saith Christ,

ye have heard. Thou shalt not kill: this was spoken by God in Mount Sinai, it was the sixth of the ten words then spoke.

And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: this now was the Pharisees’ addition, for we read of no such addition to the law as delivered, Exo 20:13 . Thus they mixed their traditions with the word of God, which possibly might be the reason of their saying rather, It was said by them of old time, than, "It was said by Moses," or, "It was said in the law of God"; for under that phrase, it was said by the ancients they both comprehended the law given by Moses to the ancient people of God, and also their own traditions and false glosses, which though not so ancient as the law, yet had obtained for some considerable time in the corrupt state of the Jews.

Shall be in danger of or obnoxious unto, the judgment not to the wrath and vengeance of God, of that they said nothing, but to those courts of judgment which sat amongst them, to administer justice in criminal causes. As if this law of God had been only intended to uphold peace, and to preserve human society and civil order.

Thou shalt not kill; that is, (as they interpreted), Thou shalt not, without a warrant from God, or from the law, actually take away the life of another. It appears by what followeth, that they extended not this law to unjustifiable passions in the heart, such as rash anger, malice, revengeful thoughts; nor to any opprobrious or revengeful words.

But I say unto you I shall give you another sense of this law. The killing here forbidden is as well rash and causeless anger, and opprobrious, threatening speeches, as bloody actions.

Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment, &c Our Saviour (as most interpreters judge) speaks this with allusion to the three courts amongst the Jews. The one was the court of three men, which only judged of smaller and lighter causes, not in capital causes. Another was their court of twenty-three men, which much answered our courts at Westminster. The third was their sanhedrim, consisting of seventy men, which answered our parliament. Some think that by the judgment is meant the first or second of the courts; by the council, the superior courts amongst the Jews. But the judgment of our reverend Dr. Lightfoot seemeth much more probable, that by the judgment is meant the judgment of God;

by the council and

hell fire not only the judgment and vengeance of God, but the judgments and punishments that are inflicted in the courts of men, that are magistrates, and bear not the sword in vain: so as the sense is this: I say unto you, that if a man doth but in his heart nourish wrath and anger against another without a just cause, and lets it grow up into malice, and thoughts and desires of private revenge, though he be not by it obnoxious to courts of justice, who can only determine upon overt acts, yet he is accountable to God, and liable to his judgment: but if men suffer their passions to break out into reviling terms and language, such as

Raca ( signifying a vain person), or, Thou fool, ( speaking this from anger or malice), they are not only liable to the eternal vengeance of God, compared to the fire of Gehenna, but ought to be subjected to the punishment of the civil magistrate. Every civil government being by the law of God, in order to the prevention of quarrels or bloodshed, (which often followeth revilings of each other), obliged to punish such offences, as being the beginnings of murder, provocations to it, and indications of murderous hearts, hearts full of that which in the eye of God is murder.

Poole: Mat 5:24 - -- The Jews were to offer gifts and sacrifices, Heb 5:1 . Their gifts were their free will offerings, they were the most frequent oblations amongst th...

The Jews were to offer gifts and sacrifices, Heb 5:1 . Their gifts were their free will offerings, they were the most frequent oblations amongst the Jews, as may appear from Leviticus, and what the priests pressed with the greatest importunity, as may appear from Mar 7:11 ; therefore our Saviour instanceth in these, rather than in other parts of their worship. Bring unto God the best and most acceptable sacrifices (in your or, the teacher’ s judgment) that you can, if there be found malice or rash anger in your hearts, God will not accept them. Therefore, how near soever you be come to a religious action, if you there remember that your brother hath a just reason to be offended with you, for any malice or rash anger showed or expressed by you, do not think this will discharge you of your obligation to pay your homage to God; but forbear a while,

leave your gift before the altar and do what in you lies to be reconciled to your brother, to have a placable spirit to him, to purge your heart of wrath and malice, and any desire of revenge,

and then come and offer your gift pay that homage which you owe, and it was in your heart to pay to God. It is a text usually applied with reference to communion with God in the Lord’ s supper, but equally extensive to any other part of worship, hearing the word, Jam 1:21 , and prayer, 1Ti 2:8 . God accepteth no service, no homage, from an implacable, malicious heart.

Poole: Mat 5:26 - -- Forasmuch as the overt acts and expressions of unjust wrath and malice are iniquities punishable by the judge, let it be the care of those that will...

Forasmuch as the overt acts and expressions of unjust wrath and malice are iniquities punishable by the judge, let it be the care of those that will be my disciples, if by their passions they have provoked any, and made them their adversaries, quickly to agree with them; for you know the ordinary course of enraged adversaries amongst men, is to bring their actions, and to bring men before the civil judge; and when the judge upon inquiry hath found them guilty, he useth to deliver them to the gaoler to be carried to prison, until they have fully paid their fines for such offences. And forasmuch as not only the overt acts, but the passions which cause such acts, are culpable before God, and make men obnoxious to his righteous judgment, and God by them is made an adversary to the soul, as having violated his great command, Thou shalt do no murder; let all my disciples, who have been or may be overtaken with such faults, by repentance and faith in me make their peace with God in this life, lest dying in impenitency they be put under the eternal displeasure and wrath of God, from whence they shall never be delivered, Mat 6:15 18:35 .

Lightfoot: Mat 5:21 - -- Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:   [Y...

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:   

[Ye have heard.] That is, ye have received it by tradition. If they have heard [that is, learned by tradition], they speak to them. They learned by hearing; that is, by tradition; a saying very frequent in Maimonides.   

[That it was said by them of old time.] That is, "it is an old tradition." For the particular passages of the law which are here cited by our Saviour are not produced as the bare words of Moses, but was clothed in the Glosses of the Scribes; which most plainly appears above the rest, Mat 5:43, and sufficiently in this first allegation, where those words, "Whosoever shall kill shall be guilty of the judgment," do hold out the false paint of tradition, and, as we observe in the following verses, such as misrepresents the law, and makes it of none effect. If it be asked, why Christ makes mention of "those of old time?" it may be answered, that the memory of the ancienter Fathers of the Traditions was venerable among the people. Reverend was the name of the first good men; and the first wise men. Therefore Christ chose to confute their doctrines and Glosses, that he might more clearly prove the vanity of traditions, when he reproved their most famous men. But the sense which we have produced is plain, and without any difficulty; as if he should say, "It is an old tradition which hath obtained for many ages."

Lightfoot: Mat 5:22 - -- But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his bro...

But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.   

[But I say unto you.] But I say; the words of one that refutes or determines a question, very frequently to be met with in the Hebrew writers. To this you may lay that of Isaiah, Isa 2:3, "And he will teach us of his ways," etc. Where Kimchi writes thus, This teacher is king Messias. And that of Zechariah, Zec 11:8; where this great Shepherd destroys "three evil shepherds," namely, the Pharisee, and the Sadducee, and the Essene.   

[That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, etc.] first let us treat of the words, and then of the sentences.   

[With his brother;] the Jewish schools do thus distinguish between a brother and a neighbour; that a brother signifies an Israelite by nation and blood: a neighbour; an Israelite in religion and worship, that is, a proselyte. The author of Aruch, in the word A son of the covenant; writes thus; "The sons of the covenant, these are Israel. And when the Scripture saith, 'If any one's ox gore the ox of his neighbour,' it excludes all the heathen, in that it saith, 'of his neighbour.' " Maimonides writes thus: "It is all one to kill an Israelite and a Canaanite servant: for both, the punishment is death; but an Israelite who shall kill a stranger-inhabitant shall not be punished with death, because it is said, 'Whosoever shall proudly rise up against his neighbour to kill him' Exo 21:14; and it is needless to say he shall not be punished with death for killing a heathen." Where this is to be noted, that heathens and stranger-in-habitants, who were not admitted to perfect and complete proselytism, were not qualified with the title of neighbour; nor with any privileges.   

But under the Gospel, where there is no distinction of nations or tribes, brother is taken in the same latitude as among the Jews both brother and neighbour were; that is, for all professing the gospel: and is contradistinguished to the heathen; 1Co 5:11; "If any one who is called a brother": and Mat 18:15; "If thy brother sin against thee," etc., Mat 5:17; "If he hear not the church, let him be a heathen."   

But neighbour is extended to all, even such as are strangers to our religion: Luk 10:29-30; etc.   

[He shall be guilty;] [W]ords signifying guilt or debt [are] to be met with a thousand times in the Talmudists. Isa 24:23; "They shall be gathered together, as captives are gathered into prison." Where R. Solomon speaks thus, Guilty of hell unto hell; which agrees with the last clause of this verse.   

[Of the council;] Of the Sanhedrim; that is, of the judgment, or tribunal of the magistrate. For that judgment; in the clause before, is to be referred to the judgment of God; will appear by what follows.   

[Raca.] A word used by one that despiseth another in the highest scorn: very usual in the Hebrew writers, and very common in the mouth of the nation.   

"One returned to repentance: his wife said to him, Raca; if it be appointed you to repent, the very girdle wherewith you gird yourself shall not be your own."   

"A heathen said to an Israelite, Very suitable food is made ready for you at my house. What is it? Saith the other. To whom he replied, Swine's flesh. Raca (saith the Jew), I must not eat of clean beasts with you."   

"A king's daughter was married to a certain dirty fellow. He commands her to stand by him as a mean servant, and to be his butler. To whom she said, Raca; I am a king's daughter."   

"One of the scholars of R. Jochanan made sport with the teaching of his master: but returning at last to a sober mind, Teach thou, O master, saith he, for thou art worthy to teach: for I have found and seen that which thou hast taught. To whom he replied, Raca; thou hadst not believed, unless thou hadst seen."   

"A certain captain saluted a religious man praying in the way, but he saluted him not again: he waited till he had done his prayer, and saith to him, Raca; it is written in your law," etc.   

[Into hell-fire.] The Jews do very usually express hell; or the place of the damned; by the word Gehinnom; which might be shown in infinite examples; the manner of speech being taken from the valley of Hinnom; a place infamous for foul idolatry committed there; for the howlings of infants roasted to Moloch; filth carried out thither; and for a fire that always was burning, and so most fit to represent the horror of hell.   

"There are three doors of Gehenna; one in the wilderness, as it is written, 'They went down, and all that belonged to them, alive into hell' (Num 16:33). Another in the sea, as it is written, 'Out of the belly of hell have I called; thou hast heard my voice' (Jon 2:2). The third in Jerusalem, as it is written, 'Thus saith the Lord, whose fire is in Sion, and his furnace in Jerusalem,' Isa 31:9. The tradition of the school of R. Ismael; 'Whose fire is in Sion,' this is the gate of Gehenna."   

The Chaldee paraphrast upon Isaiah, Isa 33:14, Gehenna, eternal fire; etc. The Gehenna of eternal fire.   

We come now to the sentences and sense of the verse. A threefold punishment is adjudged to a threefold wickedness. Judgment to him that is angry... without cause. Judgment also, and that by the Sanhedrim, to him that calls Raca. Judgment of hell to him that calleth Fool.   

That which is here produced of the threefold Sanhedrim among the Jews pleases me not, because, passing over other reasons, mention of the Sanhedrim is made only in the middle clause.   

How the judgment in the first clause is to be distinguished from the judgment of the Sanhedrim in the second, will very easily appear from this Gloss and commentary of the Talmudists, "Of not killing": "he is a manslayer, whosoever shall strike his neighbour with a stone or iron, or thrust him into the water, or fire, whence he cannot come out, so that he die, he is guilty. But if he shall thrust another into the water or fire, whence he might come out, if he die, he is guiltless. A man sets a dog or serpent on another, he is guiltless." See also the Babylonian Gemara there; "Whosoever shall slay his neighbour with his own hand, striking him with his sword, or with a stone, so that he kills him; or shall strangle or burn him so that he die, in any manner whatsoever killing him in his own person; behold, such a one is to be put to death by the Sanhedrim. But he that hires another by a reward to kill his neighbour, or who sends his servants, and they kill him; or he that thrusts him violently upon a lion, or upon some other beast, and the beast kill him; or he that kills himself, every one of these is a shedder of blood; and the iniquity of manslaughter is in his hand, and he is liable to death by the hand of God; but he is not to be punished with death by the Sanhedrim."   

Behold a double manslayer! Behold a double judgment! Now let the words of our Saviour be applied to this Gloss of the ancients upon the law of murder: "Do ye hear," saith he, "What is said by the ancients, Whosoever shall kill, after what manner soever a man shall kill him, whether by the hand of one that he hath hired, or by his servants, or by setting a beast on him; he is guilty of the judgment of God, though not of the judgment of the Sanhedrim: and whosoever shall kill his neighbour by himself, none other interposing, this man is liable to the judgment of the Sanhedrim: but I say unto you, That whosoever is rashly angry with his brother, this man is liable to the judgment of God; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca; he is liable to the Sanhedrim."   

These words of our Saviour, perhaps, we shall more truly understand by comparing some more phrases and doctrines, very usual in the Jewish schools. Such as these, Absolved from the judgment of men, but guilty in the judgment of Heaven; that is, of God. Death by the Sanhedrim, and death by the hand of Heaven.   

And in a word, cutting off; speaks vengeance by the hand of God. They are very much deceived who understand... cutting off; of which there is very frequent mention in the Holy Bible, concerning the cutting-off from the public assembly by ecclesiastical censure; when as it means nothing else than cutting off by divine vengeance. There is nothing more usual and common among the Hebrew canonists, than to adjudge very many transgressions to cutting off; in that worn phrase... "If he shall do this out of presumption, he is guilty of cutting off; but if he shall do it out of ignorance, he is bound for a sacrifice for sin." When they adjudge a thing or a guilty person to cutting off, they deliver and leaven him to the judgment of God; nevertheless, a censure and punishment from the Sanhedrim sometimes is added, and sometimes not. Which might be illustrated by infinite examples, but we are afraid of being tedious. Let these two be enough on both sides.   

I. Of mere delivering over to the judgment of God, without any punishment inflicted by the Sanhedrim, those words speak, which were lately cited, "He is absolved from the judgment of men, but liable to the judgment of Heaven."   

II. Of the judgment of God and of the Sanhedrim joined together, these words in the same place speak: "If he that is made guilty by the Sanhedrim be bound to make restitution, Heaven [or God] doth not pardon him until he pay it." But he that bears a punishment laid on him by the Sanhedrim is absolved from cutting off. "All persons guilty of cutting off, when they are beaten are absolved from their cutting off: as it is said, 'And thy brother become vile in thy sight.' When he shall be beaten, behold, he is thy brother."   

Liable or guilty even to the hell-fire. He had said, guilty of judgment and of the council; before; but now he saith unto hell; and that in a higher emphasis; as if he should have said, "Whosoever shall say to his brother, Fool; shall be guilty of judgment, even unto the judgment of hell."   

But what was there more grievous in the word fool; than in the word Raca? Let king Solomon be the interpreter, who everywhere by a fool understands a wicked and reprobate person; foolishness being opposed to spiritual wisdom. Raca denotes indeed morosity; and lightness of manners and life; but fool judgeth bitterly of the spiritual and eternal state, and decreeth a man to certain destruction. Let the judgings and censures of the scribes and Pharisees concerning the common people serve us instead of a lexicon. They did not only suffer themselves to be styled wise men; but also arrogated it to themselves, as their merit and due. But what do they say of the common people? "This people, that knoweth not the law, is cursed," Joh 7:49.   

You have a form of speaking, not much unlike this which is now under our hands: He that calls his neighbour Servant, let him be in excommunication. The Gloss is, "They therefore excommunicate him, because he vilified an Israelite: him, therefore, they vilify in like manner." "If he call him bastard; let him be punished with forty stripes. If wicked man; let it descend with him into his life": that is, according to the Gloss, "into misery and penury."   

After this manner, therefore, our Saviour suits a different punishment to different sins by a most just parity, and a very equal compensation: to unjust anger, the just anger and judgment of God; to public reproach, a public trial; and hell-fire to the censure that adjudgeth another thither.

Lightfoot: Mat 5:23 - -- Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;   [That thy brother hath oug...

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;   

[That thy brother hath ought against thee, etc.]...that which the Jews restrained only to pecuniary damages, Christ extends to all offences against our brother.   

"He that offers an oblation, not restoring that which he had unjustly taken away, does not do that which is his duty." And again; "He that steals any thing from his neighbour, yea, though it be but a farthing, and swears falsely, is bound to restitution, meeting the wronged party half way." See also Baal Turim upon Leviticus_6.   

"An oblation is not offered for a sin, unless that which is [wrongfully] taken away, be first restored either to the owner or the priest." In like manner, "He that swears falsely, either of the Pruta [small money], or what the Pruta is worth, is bound to inquire after the owner, even as far as the islands in the sea, and to make restitution."   

Observe, how provision is here made for pecuniary damages only and bare restitution, which might be done without a charitable mind and a brotherly heart. But Christ urgeth charity, reconciliation of mind, and a pure desire of reunion with our offended brother; and that not only in money matters, but in any other, and for whatever cause, wherein our neighbour complains that he is grieved.

Lightfoot: Mat 5:24 - -- Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.   [Leave the...

Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.   

[Leave there thy gift before the altar.] This business was altogether unusual in gifts offered at the altar, in such a cause. We read, indeed, of the drink-offering, delayed after the sacrifice was offered: "For the wise men say, That a man is not held in his sin, when the drink-offering is put off by some delay; because one may offer his sacrifice to-day, but his drink-offering twenty days hence." We read also that the oblation of a sacrifice presented even at the altar, in some cases hath not only been delayed, but the sacrifice itself hath been rejected; that is, if, in that instant, discovery was made, in sacrificing the best, either of a blemish, or of somewhat else, whereby it became an illegal sacrifice; or if some uncleanness or other cause appeared in the offerer, whereby he was rendered unfit for the present to offer a gift. Of which things, causing the oblation of the sacrifice already presented at the altar to be deferred, the Hebrew lawyers speak much. But among those things we do not meet at all with this whereof our Saviour is here speaking: so that he seems to enjoin some new matter, -- and not new alone, but seemingly impossible. For the offended brother might perhaps be absent in the furthest parts of the land of Israel, so that he could not be spoke with, and his pardon asked in very many days after: and what shall become of the beast in the mean time, which is left at the altar? It is a wonder indeed that our Saviour, treating of the worship at the altar, should prescribe such a duty, which was both unusual (in such a case) and next to impossible. But it is answered: --   

I. It was a custom and a law among the Jews, that the sacrifices of particular men should not presently, as soon as they were due, be brought to the altar, but that they should be reserved to the feast next following, whatsoever that were, whether the Passover, or Pentecost, or Tabernacles, to be then offered. "Teeming women, women that have the gonorrhea, and men that have the gonorrhea, reserve their pigeons until they go up to the feast." -- "The oblations which were devoted before the feast shall be offered at the feast: for its is said, These things shall ye do in their solemnities," etc. But now all the Israelites were present at the feasts; and any brother, against whom one had sinned, was not then far off from the altar. Unto which time and custom of the nation it is equal to think Christ alluded.   

II. He does silently chastise the curiosity used in deferring of a sacrifice brought about lesser matters, when this that was greater was unregarded. And he teacheth, that God is worshipped in vain without true charity to our brother. The same also, in effect, do the Gemarists confess.

Lightfoot: Mat 5:25 - -- Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge d...

Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.   

[Whilst thou art in the way with him.] That is, "while thou goest with him to the magistrate;" Luk 12:58; where there is a clear distinction between the magistrate; and the judge; so that by magistrate; or ruler; one may understand the judges in the lower Sanhedrims; by judge; the judges in the highest. That allusion is here made to contentions about money matters, sufficiently appears from the following words, Mat 5:26; "Thou shalt by no means come out of prison till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." Now it was the business of the bench, that consisted of three men, to judge of such matters.   

The words, therefore, of the verse have this sense: 'Does your neighbour accuse you of some damage, or of money that is due to him? And are ye now going in the way to the bench of three to commence the suit? Compound with your adversary, lest he compel you to some higher tribunal, where your danger will be greater.' "For if the lender say to the debtor, 'Let us go, that judgment may be had of our case from the chief Sanhedrim,' they force the debtor to go up thence with him. In like manner, if any accuse another of something taken away from him, or of some damage done him, and he that is the accuser will have the higher Sanhedrim to judge of the suit; they force the debtor to go up thence with him. And so it is done with all other things of that nature."   

Before, Christ had argued from piety; that men should seek to be reconciled; now he argues from prudence; and an honest care of a man's self.   

[And the judge deliver thee to the officer.] A word answering to an executioner, a whipper; among the Rabbins. Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates; Deu 16:18...."vergers and scourge-bearers [executioners] who stand before the judges. These go through the lanes and streets and inns, and take care about weights and measures; and scourge those that do amiss. But all their business is by the order of the judges. Whomsoever they see doing evil, they bring before the judges," etc. And Whosoever goes out into the street, let him reckon concerning himself, as if he were already delivered over to the officer; that is, as the Gloss hath it, "Contentions and contentious men will there be met with Gentiles and Israelites: so that let him reckon concerning himself, as though he were already delivered over to the officer, ready to lead him away before the judges." The Gloss upon Babylonian Joma writes thus; "is the executioner of the Sanhedrim, whose office is to whip."

Lightfoot: Mat 5:26 - -- Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.   [Farthing.] According to th...

Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.   

[Farthing.] According to the Jerusalem Talmud, it is Kordiontes; according to the Babylonian, Kontrik. For thus they write:   

"Two assars make a pondion.   

Two semisses make an assar.   

Two farthings a semissis.   

Two prutahs a farthing.   

A pondion is in value two assars.   

An assar is two semisses.   

A semissis is two farthings.   

A kontric; or a farthing; is two prutahs."   

That which is here said by the Jerusalem Talmud, Two prutahs make a farthing; is the very same thing that is said, Mar 12:42; Two mites, which make a farthing. A prutah was the very least piece among coins. So Maimonides, That which is not worth a prutah, is not to be reckoned among riches. Hence are those numberless passages in the Talmudic Pandects relating to the prutah: "He that steals less than a prutah is not bound to pay five-fold." "No land is bought for a price less than a prutah;" that is, given as an earnest.   

You have the value of these coins in the same Maimonides: "Selaa (saith he) is in value four-pence: a penny, six meahs. Now a meah, in the days of Moses our master, was called a gerah; it contains two pondions; a pondion, two assars; and a prutah is the eighth part of an assar. The weight of a meah, which is also called a gerah, is sixteen barleycorns. And the weight of an assar is four barleycorns. And the weight of a prutah is half a barleycorn."   

Luke hath, the last mite; Mat 12:59; that is, the last prutah; which was the eighth part of the Italian assarius. Therefore, a farthing; was so called, not that it was the fourth part of a penny; but the fourth part of an assar; which how very small a part of a penny it was, we may observe by those things that are said by both Gemaras in the place before cited.   

"Six silver meahs make a penny.   

A meah is worth two pondions.   

A pondion is worth two assars."   

Let this be noted by the way; a meah; which, as Maimonides before testifies, was anciently called a gerah; was also commonly called zuz; in the Talmudists. For as it is said here, six meahs of silver make a penny; so in Rambam, a penny contains six zuzim.   

The prutah; as it was the least piece of money among the Jews, so it seems to have been a coin merely Jewish, not Roman. For although the Jews, being subjects to the Romans, used Roman money, and thence, as our Saviour argues, confessed their subjection to the Romans; yet they were permitted to use their own money, which appears by the common use of the shekels and half-shekels among them: with good reason, therefore, one may hold the farthing was the least Roman coin, and the prutah; the least Jewish. Whilst our Saviour mentions both, he is not inconstant to his own speech, but speaks more to the capacity of all.

PBC: Mat 5:21 - -- " it was said" Jesus appeals to Jewish tradition at two levels- " It has been written" and " it has been said." I believe, normally, when you look ...

" it was said"

Jesus appeals to Jewish tradition at two levels- " It has been written" and " it has been said." I believe, normally, when you look up the references to " it has been written," Jesus is appealing or referring to scripture but probably to a mis-interpretation of Old Testament scripture or to His statement that " I have not come to destroy that passage, I have come to fulfill it."

" It has been said" -there was a whole body of oral traditions the Jews adopted that they layered over scripture and they respected it almost as if it were scripture but Jesus says, " it’s been corrupted, it does not have the appeal of scripture." Here’s the point -repeatedly in the sermon on the mount, after referring to these references, Jesus says, " but I say unto you."

Haydock: Mat 5:21 - -- Shall be liable to the judgment. That is, shall deserve to be punished by that lesser tribunal among the Jews, called the judgment, which took cog...

Shall be liable to the judgment. That is, shall deserve to be punished by that lesser tribunal among the Jews, called the judgment, which took cognizance of such crimes. (Challoner) ---

Among the Jews at the time of Christ, there were three sorts of tribunals: the first composed of three judges to try smaller causes, as theft; there was one in each town: the second of twenty-three judges, who judged criminal causes, and had the power of condemning to death. This was called the Little Sanhedrim, and of this it is supposed Jesus Christ speaks: the third, or Great Sanhedrim of seventy-two judges, who decided on the most momentous affairs, relating to religion, the king, the high priest, and the state in general. It is this last that is designated under the name of council in the next verse. (Haydock)

Haydock: Mat 5:22 - -- Whosoever is angry [2] with his brother. In almost all Greek copies and manuscripts we now read angry without a cause: yet St. Jerome, who correc...

Whosoever is angry [2] with his brother. In almost all Greek copies and manuscripts we now read angry without a cause: yet St. Jerome, who corrected the Latin of the New Testament from the best copies in his time, tells us that these words, without a cause, were only found in some Greek copies, and not in the true ones. It seems at fist to have been placed in the margin for an interpretation only, and by some transcribers afterwards taken into the text. This as well as many other places may convince us, that the Latin Vulgate is many times to be preferred to our present Greek copies. ---

Roca. [3] St. Augustine thinks this was no significant word, but only a kind of interjection expression a motion of anger. Others take it for a Syro-Chaldaic word, signifying a light, foolish man, though not so injurious as to call another a fool. ---

Shall be guilty of the council: [4] that is, shall deserve to be punished by the highest court of judicature, called the council, or sanhedrim, consisting of seventy-two persons, where the highest causes were tried and judged, and which was at Jerusalem. ---

Thou fool; this was a most provoking injury, when uttered with contempt, spite, or malice. ---

Shall be in danger of hell fire. [5] Gehennom was the valley of Hinnom, near to Jerusalem, where the worshippers of the idol Moloch used to burn their children, sacrificed to that idol. In that place was a perpetual fire, on which account it is made use of by our Saviour (as it hath been ever since), to express the fire and punishments of hell. (Witham) ---

Here is a plain difference between sin and sin; some mortal, that lead to hell; some venial, and less punished. (Bristow)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Greek: eike, sine causa, is in most Greek copies at present, as also in St. John Chrysostom; and so it is in the Protestant translation. But St. Jerome, who examined this reading, says positively that Greek: eike was wanting in the true copies. In quibusdam Codicibus additur sine causa , Cæterum in veris definita sententia est, et ira penitus tollitur.

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Raca. St. Augustine (Serm. Domini in Monte. p. 174) affirms it to be, non vocem significantem aliquid, sed indignantis animi motum, &c.

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

reus erit Concilii, Greek: to sunedrio.

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

gehennæ ignis, Greek: enochos estai eis ten geennan tou puros.

Haydock: Mat 5:23 - -- He commands us to leave unfinished any work we may have begun, though in its own nature most acceptable to God, in order to go and be reconciled to ou...

He commands us to leave unfinished any work we may have begun, though in its own nature most acceptable to God, in order to go and be reconciled to our brother; because God will have mercy and not sacrifice. Thus he in a manner seems to prefer the love of our neighbour to the love of himself. (Menochius)

Haydock: Mat 5:24 - -- Leave thy offering. This is not to be understood, as if a man were always bound to go to the person offended; but it is to signify, that a man is bo...

Leave thy offering. This is not to be understood, as if a man were always bound to go to the person offended; but it is to signify, that a man is bound in his heart and mind to be reconciled, to forgive every one, and seek peace with all men. (Witham) ---

Beware of coming to the holy table, or to any sacrament, without charity. Be first reconciled to your brother, and much more to the Catholic Church, which is the whole brotherhood of Christian men. (Hebrews xiii. 1.) (Bristow)

Haydock: Mat 5:25-26 - -- Agree whilst you are in the way, or wayfaring men, i.e. in this life, lest you be cast into prison, i.e. according to Sts. Cyprian, Ambrose, and Orige...

Agree whilst you are in the way, or wayfaring men, i.e. in this life, lest you be cast into prison, i.e. according to Sts. Cyprian, Ambrose, and Origen, into purgatory; according to St. Augustine, into hell, in which, as the debt is to be paid to inflexible justice, it can never be acquitted, and of course no release can be hoped for from that prison. (Haydock)

Gill: Mat 5:21 - -- Ye have heard,.... That is, from the Scriptures being read to them, and the explanations of the ancients, which were called שמעתא, "hearing", be...

Ye have heard,.... That is, from the Scriptures being read to them, and the explanations of the ancients, which were called שמעתא, "hearing", being read in the schools, and heard by the scholars o; so that to "hear", was along with the recital of the text, to receive by tradition, the sense the elders had given of it: of this kind is the instance produced by Christ. Thus Onkelos, and Jonathan ben Uzziel, render the phrase, "him shall ye hear", in Deu 18:15 by מניה תקבלין, "from him shall ye receive"; so those phrases p, למדו מפי השמועה, "they learn from hearing", or by report from others; and אמרו מפי השמועה "they speak from hearing", or from what they have heard, are often used for receiving and reporting things as they have them by tradition. That "it was said", or "it hath been said"; this is also a Talmudic form of expression; often is this phrase to be met with in the Talmud, איתאמר, "it has been said" q; that is, by the ancient doctors, as here, "by them of old time", or "to the ancients", לקדמונים so in Munster's Hebrew Gospel; not to the Israelites in the time of Moses, but to the ancestors of the Jews, since the times of Ezra; by the elders, who were contemporary with them; and who by their false glosses corrupted the law, when they recited any part of it to the people; or "by the ancients", the ancient doctors and commentators, which preceded the times of Christ, whom the Jews often call קדמונינו, "our ancients" r. Now, upon that law, "thou shalt not kill", they put this gloss, or added this by way of interpretation,

and whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judgment; which they understood only of actual murder, either committed in their own persons, or by the means of others. Their rules for the judgment of such persons were these;

"everyone that kills his neighbour with his hand; as if he strikes him with a sword, or with a stone that kills him; or strangles him till he die; or burns him in fire; seeing he kills him in any manner, in his own person, lo! such an one must be put to death בבית דין, "by the house of judgment", or the sanhedrim s.''

Not that which consisted of three persons only, but either that which consisted of twenty three, or the supreme one, which was made up of seventy one; which two last had only power of judging capital offences. Again,

"if a man hires a murderer to kill his neighbour, or sends his servants, and they kill him, or binds him, and leaves him before a lion, or the like, and the beast kills him, everyone of these is a shedder of blood; and the sin of slaughter is in his hand; and he is guilty of death by the hand of heaven, i.e. God; but he is not to be put to death by the house of judgment, or the sanhedrim t.''

A little after, it is said, "their judgment" is delivered to heaven, i.e. to God; and this seems to be the sense of the word "judgment" here, namely, the judgment of God, or death by the hand of God; since it is manifestly distinguished from the council, or sanhedrim, in the next "verse". The phrase,

in danger of judgment, is the same with u חייב דין, "guilty of judgment", or deserves condemnation.

Gill: Mat 5:22 - -- But I say unto you,.... This is a Rabbinical way of speaking, used when a question is determined, and a false notion is refuted; it is a magisterial f...

But I say unto you,.... This is a Rabbinical way of speaking, used when a question is determined, and a false notion is refuted; it is a magisterial form of expression, and well suits with Christ, the great teacher and master in Israel; who spake as one having authority, opposing himself, not to the law of "Moses, thou shalt not kill"; but to the false gloss the ancient doctors had put upon it, with which their later ones agreed. You say, that if one man kills another himself, he is to be put to death by the sanhedrim; and if he does it by proxy, he is to be left to the judgment of God, so wholly restraining the law to actual murder; but I affirm, that

whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of judgment. By "brother" is meant, not in a religious sense, one that is of the same faith, or in the same church state; nor, in a strict natural sense, one that is so in the bonds of consanguinity; but in a large sense, any man, of whatsoever country or nation: for we are to be angry with no man; that is, as is rightly added,

without a cause: for otherwise there is an anger which is not sinful, is in God, in Christ, in the holy angels; and is commendable in the people of God, when it arises from a true zeal for religion, the glory of God, and the interest of Christ; and is kindled against sin, their own, or others, all manner of vice, false doctrine, and false worship: but it is causeless anger which is here condemned by Christ, as a breach of the law, "thou shalt not kill"; and such persons are

in danger of judgment; not of any of the courts of judicature among the Jews, as the sanhedrim of three, or of twenty three, or of seventy one, which took no notice of anger, as a passion in the mind, only of facts committed; but of the judgment of God, as in the preceding "verse", it being distinguished from the sanhedrim, or council, in the next clause.

And whosoever shall say to his brother Raca, shall be in danger of the council, or "sanhedrim". The word Raca is expressive of indignation and contempt; it was used as a term of reproach. Some derive it from רקק to "spit upon"; as if the person that used it thought the man he spoke to deserved to be spit upon, and treated in the most contemptuous manner: but rather the word signifies "empty" and "vain", and denotes a worthless, empty headed man; a man of no brains; a foolish, witless, fellow: so it is often used in Jewish writings. Take a few instances, as follow:

"a certain person said to R. Jochanan w, Rabbi, expound, for it becomes thee to expound; for as thou hast said, so have I seen: he replied to him, ריקא Reka, if thou hadst not seen, thou wouldst not have believed.''

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, ריקה Reka, how many are the deformed sons of "Abraham our father?" Many more instances might be given y. Now I do not find that the use of this reproachful word was cognizable by the Jewish sanhedrim, or great council; nor is it our Lord's meaning that it was, only that it ought to have been taken notice of in a proper manner, as well as actual murder. He adds,

but whosoever shall say thou fool, shall be danger of hell fire. The word "fool" does not signify a man of weak parts, one that is very ignorant in things natural; this the word Raca imports; but a wicked reprobate man; in which sense Solomon often uses the word. The Persic version renders it here "wicked". There is a manifest gradation in the text from causeless anger in the breast, or reproachful words; and from thence to a censorious judging of a man's spiritual and eternal estate, which is what is here condemned. "Thou fool", is, thou wicked man, thou ungodly wretch, thou graceless creature, whose portion will be eternal damnation. Calling a man by such names was not allowed of by the Jews themselves, whose rules are:

"he that calls his neighbour a servant, let him be excommunicated; a bastard, let him be beaten with forty stripes; רשע, "a wicked man", let him descend with him into his life or livelihood z.''

The gloss upon it is,

"as if he should say, to this the sanhedrim is not obliged, but it is lawful to hate him, yea to lessen his sustenance, and exercise his trade,''

which was done to bring him to poverty and distress. So, it seems, the sanhedrim were not obliged to take notice of him. Again, they say,

"it is forbidden a man to call his neighbour by a name of reproach a everyone that calls his neighbour רשע, "a wicked man", shall be brought down to hell;''

which is pretty much what Christ here says,

shall be in danger of hell fire; or deserving of hell fire; or liable to, and in danger of punishment, even "unto hell fire". An expression much like this may be observed in Jarchi, on Isa 24:23 where he speaks of some persons מחוייבי גהנם לגהנם, "who are guilty", deserving, or in danger of "hell unto hell". The word γεεννα, here used, and which is often used in the New Testament for "hell", is but the Hebrew גיא הנם, "Ge-Hinnom", the valley of Hinnom, where the children were caused to pass through the fire to Mo. This place, the Jewish writers b say,

"Was a place well known, near to Jerusalem, a valley, whose fire was never quenched; and in which they burned the bones of anything that was unclean, and dead carcasses, and other pollutions.''

Hence the word came to be used among them, as might be shown in innumerable instances, to express the place and state of the damned; and very fitly describes it.

Gill: Mat 5:23 - -- Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar,.... The Jews obliged such who had done any damage to their neighbours, by stealing from them, to make ...

Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar,.... The Jews obliged such who had done any damage to their neighbours, by stealing from them, to make satisfaction before they brought their offering; concerning which they say c,

"he that brings what he has stolen, before he brings his trespass offering, is right; he that brings his trespass offering, before he brings that which he has stolen, is not right.''

Again d,

"they do not bring the trespass offering before the sum of what is stolen is returned, either to the owners, or to the priests.''

Some have thought Christ refers to this; only what they restrained to pecuniary damages, he extends to all sorts of offences. But not a trespass offering, but a freewill offering, seems to be designed by "the gift": which, when a man either intended to bring, or was going to bring, or had already brought, as a voluntary sacrifice to be offered unto God; and it came into his mind, that he had offended any man by showing any undue passion, or by any reproachful words, then he was to do what is advised in the following verse: "and there", whilst going, or when at the altar,

rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee: hath anything to charge thee with; any just ground of complaint against thee; if thou hast done him any injury, or given him any offence: particularly, if he had at any time said Raca to him, or called him "fool" for those words have reference to what goes before, and are a corollary, or conclusion from them, as appears from the causal particle "therefore".

Gill: Mat 5:24 - -- Leave there thy gift before the altar,.... This might easily be done, and the business soon dispatched, at some seasons; particularly, at their public...

Leave there thy gift before the altar,.... This might easily be done, and the business soon dispatched, at some seasons; particularly, at their public feasts, as the passover, pentecost, and feast of tabernacles, when all the Israelites were together:

and go thy way; make what haste thou canst,

first be reconciled to thy brother: use all means to reconcile him; acknowledge the offence; ask his pardon; assure him that thou wishest well to him, and not ill;

and then come and offer thy gift, by putting it on the altar, before which it was left. This shows, that acts of love and friendship are preferable to sacrifices; and that sacrifices offered up in wrath, and whilst unreconciled to others, are unacceptable to God, and of no avail: and so much the Jews themselves seem to acknowledge; when they say e:

"that transgressions, which are between a man and God, the day of atonement expiates; the transgressions which are between a man and his neighbour, the day of atonement does not expiate, עד שירצה את חבירו, "until he hath reconciled his neighbour."''

Which is enlarged upon, and explained by Maimonides f, after this manner:

"the day of atonement does not expiate any transgressions, but those that are between a man and God, as when one eats anything that is forbidden, and lies with anything that is forbidden, or the like; but transgressions which are between a man and his neighbour, as he that hurts his neighbour, or curses his neighbour, or steals from him, and the like, are never forgiven, until he has given his neighbour what he owed him, and has "reconciled" him; yea, though he has returned to him the money he owed him, he ought to "reconcile" him, and desire him to forgive him; yea, even though "he has only provoked him by words", (which is the very case in the text before us,) צריך לפייסו, "he ought to reconcile him", and to meet him until he forgives him: if his neighbour will not forgive, he must bring with him three of his friends, and meet him, and entreat him; and if he will not be reconciled by them, he must bring them a second, and a third time.''

So that he was to use all means to obtain a reconciliation.

Gill: Mat 5:25 - -- Agree with thine adversary quickly,.... These words are not to be understood in an allegorical sense, as if "the adversary" was the justice of God, de...

Agree with thine adversary quickly,.... These words are not to be understood in an allegorical sense, as if "the adversary" was the justice of God, demanding payment of debts; "the way", this present life; "the judge", God himself; "the officer", the devil; "the prison", the pit of hell; and "the uttermost farthing", the least sin, which will never be remitted without satisfaction: but the design of them is to prevent lawsuits about debts, which may be in dispute; it being much better for debtor and creditor, especially the former, to compose such differences among themselves, than to litigate the matter in a court of judicature. By "the adversary" is meant not an enemy, one that bears hatred and ill will, but a brother that has ought against a man; a creditor, who demands and insists upon payment of what is owing to him; and for this purpose has taken methods towards bringing the debtor before a proper magistrate, in order to oblige him to payment: wherefore it is better for him to make up and agree the matter directly, as soon as possible,

whilst thou art in the way with him; that is, whilst the creditor and debtor are going together to some inferior magistrate, or lesser court, as the sanhedrim, which consisted of three persons only, before whom such causes might be tried: for דיני ממונות בשלושה, pecuniary causes, or causes relating to money matters, were tried "by the bench of three" g: and the selfsame advice is given in the Talmud h, as here, where it seems to be a common proverb; for it is said,

"there are men that say, or men usually say, אגב אורחך לבעל דבבך אישתמע, "whilst thou art in the way with thine adversary, be obedient".''

Lest at any time the adversary should deliver thee to the judge, a superior magistrate in a higher court; for if the creditor would, he could oblige the debtor to go with him to the supreme court of judicature, and try the cause there; for so say the Jewish i; canons:

"if the creditor says we will go to the great sanhedrim, they compel the debtor, and he goes up with them, as it is said, "the borrower is servant to the lender",''

where it might go harder with the poor debtor; and therefore it was advisable to prevent it by an agreement, lest

the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison,

"It was an affirmative command in the law, says Maimonides, to appoint "judges" and "officers" in every country and province, as it is said, Deu 16:18. שופטים, "judges" they are the judges that are fixed in the sanhedrim, and such that engage in law suits come before them: שוטרים, "officers"; these are the masters of the rod and scourge, i.e. who beat and scourge delinquents; and these stand before the judges--and all they do, is by the order of the judges.''

Now it is one of these that is meant by "the officer"; in Munster's Hebrew Gospel, he is called שוטר; who, when he had authority from the judge, could cast into prison, and that for debt; of which we have no account in the law of Moses.

Gill: Mat 5:26 - -- Verily, I say unto thee,.... This may be depended upon, you may assure yourself of it, that thou shalt by no means come out thence, from prison, ...

Verily, I say unto thee,.... This may be depended upon, you may assure yourself of it, that

thou shalt by no means come out thence, from prison,

till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing, or "last farthing"; or as the Ethiopic version reads it, "till thou hast exactly paid all"; which seems to express the inexorableness of the creditor, and the impossibility of the debtor's release.

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Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Mat 5:21 A quotation from Exod 20:13; Deut 5:17.

NET Notes: Mat 5:22 The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinno...

NET Notes: Mat 5:25 Grk “the accuser.”

NET Notes: Mat 5:26 The penny here was a quadrans, a Roman copper coin worth 1/64 of a denarius (L&N 6.78). The parallel passage in Luke 12:59 mentions the lepton, eq...

Geneva Bible: Mat 5:21 ( 5 ) Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: ( 5 ) The...

Geneva Bible: Mat 5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be ( i ) in danger ( k ) of the judgment: and whosoever shall say t...

Geneva Bible: Mat 5:23 ( 6 ) Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the ( o ) altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; ( 6 ) The covetous Pharise...

Geneva Bible: Mat 5:25 ( p ) Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge...

Geneva Bible: Mat 5:26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast ( q ) paid the uttermost farthing. ( q ) You will be dealt with in thi...

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Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Mat 5:1-48 - --1 Christ's sermon on the mount.3 Who are blessed;13 the salt of the earth;14 the light of the world.17 He came to fulfil the law.21 What it is to kill...

Maclaren: Mat 5:17-26 - --The New Form Of The Old Law Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18. For verily I sa...

MHCC: Mat 5:21-26 - --The Jewish teachers had taught, that nothing except actual murder was forbidden by the sixth commandment. Thus they explained away its spiritual meani...

Matthew Henry: Mat 5:21-26 - -- Christ having laid down these principles, that Moses and the prophets were still to be their rulers, but that the scribes and Pharisees were to be n...

Barclay: Mat 5:21-22 - --Here is the first example of the new standard which Jesus takes. The ancient law had laid it down: "You shall not kill" (Exo 20:13); but Jesus lay...

Barclay: Mat 5:21-22 - --First of all, the man who calls his brother Raca is condemned. Raca (see rhaka, 4469 and compare 07386) is an almost untranslatable word, because ...

Barclay: Mat 5:23-24 - --When Jesus said this, he was doing no more than recall the Jews to a principle which they well knew and ought never to have forgotten. The idea behi...

Barclay: Mat 5:25-26 - --Here Jesus is giving the most practical advice; he is telling men to get trouble sorted out in time, before it piles up still worse trouble for the ...

Constable: Mat 5:1--8:1 - --B. Jesus' revelations concerning participation in His kingdom 5:1-7:29 The Sermon on the Mount is the fi...

Constable: Mat 5:17--7:13 - --3. The importance of true righteousness 5:17-7:12 Jesus had just been speaking about the importa...

Constable: Mat 5:17-48 - --Righteousness and the Scriptures 5:17-48 In His discussion of righteousness (character a...

Constable: Mat 5:21-26 - --God's will concerning murder 5:21-26 5:21 In each of these six cases Jesus first related the popular understanding of the Old Testament, the view advo...

College: Mat 5:1-48 - --MATTHEW 5 D. SERMON ON THE MOUNT: MINISTRY IN WORD (5:1-7:29) The Sermon on the Mount (= SM ) is the first of five major discourses in Matthew, each...

McGarvey: Mat 5:17-48 - -- XLII. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. (A Mountain Plateau not far from Capernaum.) Subdivision D. RELATION OF MESSIANIC TEACHING TO OLD TESTAMENT AND TRADIT...

Lapide: Mat 5:1-48 - --CHAPTER 5 Went up into a mountain. Let us inquire what mountain this was? "Some simple brethren," says S. Jerome, "think that Christ taught the Beat...

Lapide: Mat 5:13-47 - --ye are the salt, &c. That is, you, 0 ye Apostles, who are sitting here next to Me, to whom I have spoken primarily the eight Beatitudes—ye are, by M...

Lapide: Mat 5:23-47 - --Leave there thy gift, &c. This is a precept both of law and of natural religion, which has been by Christ in this place most strictly sanctioned, both...

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Commentary -- Other

Evidence: Mat 5:21 God sees the thought-life : He weighs our motives and judges the intent of the hearts: " Whoever hates his brother is a murderer" ( 1Jo 3:15 ). See ...

Evidence: Mat 5:22 SPIRITUAL NATURE OF THE LAW "Herein is the Law of God above all other laws, that it is a spiritual law. Other laws may forbid compassing and imagining...

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Introduction / Outline

Robertson: Matthew (Book Introduction) THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW By Way of Introduction The passing years do not make it any plainer who actually wrote our Greek Matthew. Papias r...

JFB: Matthew (Book Introduction) THE author of this Gospel was a publican or tax gatherer, residing at Capernaum, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. As to his identity with t...

JFB: Matthew (Outline) GENEALOGY OF CHRIST. ( = Luke 3:23-38). (Mat. 1:1-17) BIRTH OF CHRIST. (Mat 1:18-25) VISIT OF THE MAGI TO JERUSALEM AND BETHLEHEM. (Mat 2:1-12) THE F...

TSK: Matthew (Book Introduction) Matthew, being one of the twelve apostles, and early called to the apostleship, and from the time of his call a constant attendant on our Saviour, was...

TSK: Matthew 5 (Chapter Introduction) Overview Mat 5:1, Christ’s sermon on the mount; Mat 5:3, Who are blessed; Mat 5:13, the salt of the earth; Mat 5:14, the light of the world; Mat...

Poole: Matthew 5 (Chapter Introduction) CHAPTER 5

MHCC: Matthew (Book Introduction) Matthew, surnamed Levi, before his conversion was a publican, or tax-gatherer under the Romans at Capernaum. He is generally allowed to have written h...

MHCC: Matthew 5 (Chapter Introduction) (Mat 5:1, Mat 5:2) Christ's sermon on the mount. (Mat 5:3-12) Who are blessed. (Mat 5:13-16) Exhortations and warnings. (Mat 5:17-20) Christ came t...

Matthew Henry: Matthew (Book Introduction) An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Gospel According to St. Matthew We have now before us, I. The New Testament of our Lord and Savior...

Matthew Henry: Matthew 5 (Chapter Introduction) This chapter, and the two that follow it, are a sermon; a famous sermon; the sermon upon the mount. It is the longest and fullest continued discour...

Barclay: Matthew (Book Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SAINT MATTHEW The Synoptic Gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke are usually known as the Synoptic Gospels. Synopt...

Barclay: Matthew 5 (Chapter Introduction) The Sermon On The Mount (Mat_5:1-48) As we have already seen, Matthew has a careful pattern in his gospel. In his story of the baptism of Jesus he s...

Constable: Matthew (Book Introduction) Introduction The Synoptic Problem The synoptic problem is intrinsic to all study of th...

Constable: Matthew (Outline) Outline I. The introduction of the King 1:1-4:11 A. The King's genealogy 1:1-17 ...

Constable: Matthew Matthew Bibliography Abbott-Smith, G. A. A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament. Edinburgh: T. & T. Cl...

Haydock: Matthew (Book Introduction) THE HOLY GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST, ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW INTRODUCTION. THIS and other titles, with the names of those that wrote the Gospels,...

Gill: Matthew (Book Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO MATTHEW The subject of this book, and indeed of all the writings of the New Testament, is the Gospel. The Greek word ευαγγελ...

College: Matthew (Book Introduction) INTRODUCTION HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION It may surprise the modern reader to realize that for the first two centuries of the Christian era, Matthew's...

College: Matthew (Outline) OUTLINE I. ESTABLISHING THE IDENTITY AND ROLE OF JESUS THE CHRIST - Matt 1:1-4:16 A. Genealogy of Jesus - 1:1-17 B. The Annunciation to Joseph...

Lapide: Matthew (Book Introduction) PREFACE. —————— IN presenting to the reader the Second Volume [Matt X to XXI] of this Translation of the great work of Cornelius à Lapi...

Advanced Commentary (Dictionaries, Hymns, Arts, Sermon Illustration, Question and Answers, etc)


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