Biblical commentary on the New Testament - The Christian ...

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Matthew V. 21, 22.
the Pharisaical Rabbins checked this development, by retaining on
principle the undeveloped form. The command : ov (f)ovev(jei^, tJiou
shalt not murder (Exod. xx. 13), they interpreted simply of ordinary
death by violence, and referred crimes of that sort to the inferior
courts. All shortening of a neighbour's life by vexation, or in whatever
way it might take place, they set aside, as not included under
this commandment. The Mosaic command is, therefore, here connected
with the doctrinal interpretation of the Pharisees. From
ver. 22, it is plain that KpioLq, judgment, = taff a, is to be distinguished
from the sanliedrim. While this latter denotes the last court of
appeal in judicial affairs in Jerusalem itself (see observation on
Matth. xxvi. 57), Kpioi^ refers to the inferior courts in the provincial
towns, which were constituted in conformity with Deut. xvi. 18, and
consisted of seven persons.
Ver, 22,—In opposition to this pharisaical exjjlanation, by which
murder was understood but of the outward act, and reckoned among
minor crimes, the Saviour unfolds the comprehensive meaning of the
commandment, " Thou shalt not kill ;" which forbids not only
the outward act, but also the inward disposition of hatred.
Our Lord thus seizes the act in its spiritual origin, and attacks
sin in its source, which the Pharisees hypocritically spared. Hatred
is moral murder. (1 John iii. 15.) The Saviour evidently intends,
therefore, to forbid hatred in general, and the reading, eM]
= without a cause, should be regarded as a mere correction
^'^'V'-j
(FritzscJie on the passage justly removes it from the text), which
arose from the idea that there may even be good reason for anger.
But this anger ought to be directed against the sin only, not against
our brother; against the person (in whom God's creature is ever to
be honoured) there is no pure anger.—The one main thought, that the
fellow-subject of the kingdom admits no hatred into his heart, is ex-
pressed in a three-fold gradation. 'Ogyii^eGdai, to he angry, denotes,
in general, the rising of wrath in the soul, the admission of the murderous
spirit into the mind. In el-elv paKa, saying raca, the inward
emotion is conceived in its external manifestation against the
but Jesus does not go beyond the mental action—the word
brother ;
—purposely in order to make the contrast more striking with the
pharisaical spirit, which laid stress upon the outward act only. But
the words of the angry man may attack human dignity itself : this
latter is expressed by elnelv jxc^pi. (According to Tholuck's investi-
gations, paKa is to be derived from p;5-i to he thin; whence p^':, np^-^n
was formed and used among the inhabitants of Palestine as a gentle
reproach = " stupid," Mwpd^ = Va;, is a stronger term of reproach,
involving the added idea of abandoned, impious.) The parallel
gradation in the punishment, Kpiaig, aweSpiov, yeevva -nvpog,judgment,
sanhedrim, gehenna, is further remarkable. These earthly punish-