Matthew 5:22 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Matthew 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 brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
to speak or say (by word or writing) · verb — second aorist active subjunctive, 3rd person singular
Thou fool
μωρέ,mōre
G3474
dull or stupid (as if shut up) · adjective — vocative singular masculine
shall be
ἔσομαιésomai
G2071
will be
in danger
ἔνοχοςenochos
G1777
liable to (a condition · adjective — nominative singular masculine
of
εἰςeis
G1519
to or into (indicating the point reached or entered) · preposition
hell
γέεννανgeennan
G1067
valley of (the son of) Hinnom · noun — accusative singular feminine, a title
fire
πυρός.¶puros
G4442
"fire" (literally or figuratively · noun — genitive singular neuter
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 John 3:14-15 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
1 John 4:20-21 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God wh…
1 John 2:9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
Ephesians 4:26-27 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
Ephesians 4:31-32 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
James 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the…
Titus 3:2 To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.
Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Matthew 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 no longer their rulers, proceeds to expound the law in some particular instances, and to vindicate it from the corrupt glosses which those expositors had put upon it. He adds not any thing new, only limits and restrains some permissions which had been abused: and as to the precepts, shows the breadth, strictness, and spiritual nature of them, adding such explanatory statutes as made them more clear, and tended much toward the perfecting of our obedience to them. In these verses, he explains the law of the sixth commandment, according to the true i…
But I say unto you--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.
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--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"-…
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 wi…
The Church Fathers
But after He has supervened, and has united the grace of faith with patience, now it is no longer lawful to assail even with word, nor to say "fool" even, without "danger of the judgment.
Or, he who reproaches with emptiness one full of the Holy Spirit, will he arraigned in the assembly of the Saints, and by their sentence will be punished for an affront against that Holy Spirit Himself.
The Saviour here names the torments of hell, Gehenna, a name thought to be derived from a valley consecrate to idols near Jerusalem, and filled of old with dead bodies, and defiled by Josiah, as we read in the Book of Kings.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Anger — The emotion of instant displeasure on account of something evil that presents itself to our view. In itself it is an original susceptibility of our nature, just as love is, and is not necessarily…
Brother — (1.) In the natural and common sense (Matt. 1:2; Luke 3:1, 19). (2.) A near relation, a cousin (Gen. 13:8; 14:16; Matt. 12:46; John 7:3; Acts 1:14; Gal. 1:19). (3.) Simply a fellow-countryman (Matt.…
Chaldee language — Employed by the sacred writers in certain portions of the Old Testament, viz., Dan. 2:4-7, 28; Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26; Gen. 31:46; Jer. 10:11. It is the Aramaic dialect, as it is sometimes called, as…
Council — Spoken of counsellors who sat in public trials with the governor of a province (Acts 25:12). The Jewish councils were the Sanhedrim, or supreme council of the nation, which had subordinate to it…
Fire — (1.) For sacred purposes. The sacrifices were consumed by fire (Gen. 8:20). The ever-burning fire on the altar was first kindled from heaven (Lev. 6:9, 13; 9:24), and afterwards rekindled at the…
Gehenna — (originally Ge bene Hinnom; i.e., “the valley of the sons of Hinnom”), a deep, narrow glen to the south of Jerusalem, where the idolatrous Jews offered their children in sacrifice to Molech (2 Chr.…
Hinnom — A deep, narrow ravine separating Mount Zion from the so-called “Hill of Evil Counsel.” It took its name from “some ancient hero, the son of Hinnom.” It is first mentioned in Josh. 15:8. It had been…
Raca — Vain, empty, worthless, only found in Matt. 5:22. The Jews used it as a word of contempt. It is derived from a root meaning “to spit.”
Sanhedrim — More correctly Sanhedrin (Gr. synedrion), meaning “a sitting together,” or a “council.” This word (rendered “council,” A.V.) is frequently used in the New Testament (Matt. 5:22; 26:59; Mark 15:1,…
Sermon on the mount — After spending a night in solemn meditation and prayer in the lonely mountain-range to the west of the Lake of Galilee (Luke 6:12), on the following morning our Lord called to him his disciples, and…
Matthew 5:20-22
Matthew 5:20-22
20. For I say to you, That, unless your righteousness shall be more abundant [387] than that of the Scribes and the Pharisees, you shall not enter [388] into the kingdom of heaven. 21. You have heard that it was said to the ancients, [389] Thou shalt not kill: and he who shall kill shall be liable to judgment. [390] 22. But I say to you, That every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment: and he who shall say to his brother, Racha, shall be liable to the council: and he who shall say, Fool, shall be liable to the hell of fire. [391]
Matthew 5:20. Unless your righteousness shall be more abundant. He takes a passing notice of the Scribes…
judgment . . . the court . . . hell: The second and third punishments are more severe than would have been typical in Jesus’ day, emphasizing the surpassing righteousness of Jesus and his followers (see 5:20). They did not tolerate unreconciled relationships or any devaluation of others. • If you call someone an idiot: The Aramaic term reqa’ (transliterated as raca) means something like “empty head,” and the clause probably means the same as if you curse someone (literally if you say, ‘You fool’; cp. Jas 2:20). Devaluation of people is a sin that manifests itself in various ways.
Syriac — (2 Kings 18:26; Ezra 4:7; Dan. 2:4), more correctly rendered “Aramaic,” including both the Syriac and the Chaldee languages. In the New Testament there are several Syriac words, such as “Eloi, Eloi,…
Anger · 7:16; — 7:16;
Commandments · DISCOURSE — DISCOURSE
Courts Of Justice · The judgment of: Allusions to — The judgment of: Allusions to
Fraternity · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Hell · the following scriptures — the following scriptures
Homicide · 24:22; — 24:22;
Judaism · .To make room for the Gospel — .To make room for the Gospel
Murder · Explained by Christ — Explained by Christ
Raca · (Roughly translated “fool” but means “You good-for-nothing moron!”)) — (Roughly translated “fool” but means “You good-for-nothing moron!”))
Religion · TRUE — TRUE
Reviling And Reproaching · Punishment for — Punishment for
Speaking · EVIL — EVIL
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
