Matthew 5:22 is the twenty-second verse of the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament and is part of the Sermon on the Mount. It is the first of what have traditionally been known as the 6 Antitheses. In this one, Jesus compares the current interpretation of "You shall not murder" from the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17) with his own interpretation.
This verse asserts that just as great a crime as murder itself is the anger that leads to it. Schweizer notes that this view is not particularly new to Jesus, appearing in the Old Testament at places such as and in works such as Sirach, the Slavonic Enoch, Pesahim, and Nedraim.
Content
The Koine Greek text, according to Westcott and Hort, reads:
:εγω δε λεγω υμιν οτι πας ο οργιζομενος τω αδελφω αυτου
:ενοχος εσται τη κρισει ος δ αν ειπη τω αδελφω αυτου
:ρακα ενοχος εσται τω συνεδριω ος δ αν ειπη μωρε
:ενοχος εσται εις την γεενναν του πυρος
In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:
: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.
The World English Bible translates the passage as:
:But I tell you, that everyone who is angry with his
:brother without a cause shall be in danger of the
:judgment; and whoever shall say to his brother, 'Raca!'
:shall be in danger of the council; and whoever shall say,
:'You fool!' shall be in danger of the fire of Gehenna.
For a collection of other versions see BibleHub Matthew 5:22
Analysis
This verse asserts that just as great a crime as murder itself is the anger that leads to it. Schweizer notes that this view is not particularly new to Jesus, appearing in the Old Testament at places such as and in works such as Sirach, the Slavonic Enoch, Pesahim, and Nedraim. Gundry notes that "I say to you" is one of Matthew's favourite phrases, used 68 times. Schweizer feels it is used here to link to the word of God in the previous verse. Harrington notes that brother does not literally refer to sibling, or even to just the small group of followers or disciples. Rather he states that the verse should be read as referring to all Israelites or all human beings. France disagrees, feeling that in this particular verse Jesus is referring only to the group of disciples.
Early manuscripts are divided between whether this verse should read "whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment" or "whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment." The two versions are significantly different in implication and most modern scholars feel that "without a cause" was a later addition by a copyist trying to make the statement less radical. This was also the view of some Church Fathers, while Augustine of Hippo for example believed that "without cause", which many copies in his time included, was correct and that it should even be added to the three following statements since otherwise Paul the Apostle would be condemned, for "he calls the Galatians fools, though he considers them his brethren; for he did it not without cause." while France thinks it was a minor slur. The word translated as fool is the Greek moros, which has a similar meaning to the Aramaic reka. However moros also was used to mean godless, and thus could be much more severe a term than reka.<!-- It is very similar to the Greek word for "apostate", and Albright and Mann feel that this word was originally intended, but the current version might be a typo.--> The reading of godless can explain why the punishment is more severe. Jesus uses the term himself in when he is deriding the Pharisees.
This verse has also recently become part of the debate over the New Testament view of homosexuality. Some scholars have argued that raca can mean effeminate, and was a term of abuse for homosexuals. Similarly moros can also refer to a homosexual aggressor; as . From Semitic cognates Warren Johansson argued that the word was an Aramaic pejorative, similar to the English words faggot or fairy.
Punishments
While some scholars have searched for one, the offenses in the verse do not seem to increase in severity. By contrast the verse contains an escalating scale of punishment. Those that are angry with their brother are said to be subject to judgment. This is often interpreted as the judgement of the local council, which would mete out justice in a community. The council is generally seen as a reference to the Sanhedrin, the council of leading religious thinkers that acted as the central court in Jerusalem. Most controversial is what fate is implied by the third punishment. In Greek the word used is Gehenna, it refers to a valley south of Jerusalem where there was an ever-burning rubbish fire, and where in the past human sacrifices were committed. However, Hermann Strack and Paul Billerbeck state that there is neither archaeological nor literary evidence in support of this claim, in either the earlier intertestamental or the later rabbinic sources. Also, Lloyd R. Bailey's "Gehenna: The Topography of Hell" from 1986 holds a similar view.
In the Old Testament, followers of various Ba'als and gods in the Canaanite pantheon, including Moloch, sacrificed their children by fire, especially in the area Tophet (, ). Thereafter it was deemed to be cursed (Jeremiah 7:31, 19:2–6).
Some scholars believe this to be a metaphor for damnation and for Hell, and traditionally it was translated this way. Albright and Mann reject this view and conclude that Jesus was here literally referring to the valley and the potential of being thrown in there as punishment.