The Sermon on the Mount
Part 5
(Mat. 5:22-24)
By Jonathan Mitchell
22. "However, I Myself am now saying to YOU people that everyone, who - from internal swelling or agitated emotions of his natural disposition, or from the fruition of his mental bent - is habitually being randomly impulsive to, or without cause repeatedly intensely angry with, his brother (= fellow member of this society) will continue being held within the decision (= under control of the judging of the local court). Now whoever may at some point say to his brother, 'Raca (an Aramaic word of verbal abuse: contemptible imbecile; worthless good-for-nothing; senseless empty-head; brainless idiot; blockhead)!' will continue being held within (= accountable to) the Sanhedrin (the ruling Jewish council). Yet whoever may at some point say, 'Inept moron (Stupid scoundrel; Despicable fool; Perverse idiot)!' will continue being held within (= accountable to) [placement] into the [part of] the Valley of Hinnom which pertains to the fire (i.e., the incinerator for refuse in the dump outside of Jerusalem).
[note: Dallas Willard, in his book The Divine Conspiracy, HarperSanFrancisco, 1998, p. 151-2, points out that raca was a word of contempt, and contempt, he says, is "a studied degradation of another," or, it is meant to "mark [someone] out" as being "contemptible." He further shows that using expressions of contempt "breaks the social bond" and excludes, pushes a person away, and leaves him isolated. Willard cites Prov. 14:16; 18:2 and 26:11 as Biblical definitions of a "fool;" he states that this word "is a combination of stupid perversity and rebellion against God"]
Jesus' teaching is given as a contrast to what His contemporaries had "heard" from the Law, but what He was saying obviously did not either do away with, or discount, hearing and understanding the Torah on a literal, or physical, level. He was actually taking them into the heart of the Law, which was Christ. The Christ-Life would say none of these things to another person.
Note, again, that Jesus emphasizes that what He was about to say had direct application to THEM, His audience. The first item -
"habitually being randomly impulsive to, or without cause repeatedly intensely angry with, his brother"
- receives the same consequence as that which results from a murder (vs. 21, above). We imagine Jesus pausing, before continuing with the next item, in order to let this extreme statement sink it. We also imagine that His audience would have been stunned. But what did He mean by this? In neither of these two verses, above, does Jesus specify what the decision, the control of the crisis, or the judging, would entail. What God said to Noah, in Gen. 9:6, indicated that it would be the death penalty:
"Whoever sheds a man's blood, by a man shall his blood be shed."
Nu. 35:11-33 gave instructions to Israel regarding murder and manslaughter. It is interesting that when Cain murdered his brother, Abel, the penalty was not death, but rather exile, poor crop yields, and a wandering life-style (Gen. 4:11-16). But here, Jesus sets behavior that arises from
"internal swelling or agitated emotions of his natural disposition, or from the fruition of his mental bent"
on a par with murder.
We find some clarity on this issue, in 1:Jn. 3:14b-15,
"The person not habitually loving [some MSS add: his brothers] continues remaining (dwelling; abiding; staying) within the Death. Everyone, who (or: All humanity, which) in constantly hating (or: regarding with ill-will or detaching from) his brother, constantly exists being a person-slayer (a murderer), and you have seen so as to be aware that every person-slayer does not presently have (or: is not continuously holding) life having its source in, or having the quality of, the Age (or: eonian life) presently remaining within him (or: continuously dwelling and abiding in union with him)."
So Jesus, and His apprentices, have moved the issue into the realm of the heart and attitude, but still has an eye to personal behavior.
Here, we see an escalation of judicial controls upon anti-social behavior. Impulsive anger would be handled by the "local court" - most likely in a local synagogue; the next category of offense might be handled by the Sanhedrin (Judea's Jewish "supreme court"); the final category holds the most extreme penalty, where death is implied, and then not being honorably buried, but rather, having one's body cast into Jerusalem's local dump -- the place where dead criminals or other carcasses might likely end up.
The second and third offenses are discussed in the note that attends my translation, in brackets, above, citing the work of Dallas Willard. Now to our modern sensibilities, all three of these misbehaviors - and their attending consequences may seem to be "much ado about nothing." Is there irony or sarcasm in this presentation? Is Jesus critiquing His own contemporary culture? Is He indicating that social mores had been taken to an extreme - like straining at a gnat, but then swallowing a camel?
Or, was He pointing out that negative thinking and unloving attitudes can lead to more and more serious situations? Was He preparing His audience and His apprentices for having God's Law written in their hearts (Heb. 10:16)? We suggest that these three examples of bad form, and the escalating "penalties," were simply hyperbole: "the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna)" equated to "remaining (dwelling; abiding; staying) within the Death," as John stated it, in 1 Jn. 3:14, above. These phrases are comparable to Jesus saying to the scribes and Pharisees,
23. "So if you folks should happen to be in the process of offering your gift (or: bearing forward your gift [to be placed]) upon the altar, and there you should be reminded that your brother continues holding something against you (or: continues to have something [written] down pertaining to you, or possesses [evidence] that could bring you down),
24. "at once abandon your gift - there, in front of the altar - and proceed on your way to bring things under control: first be reconciled with your brother (or: have the situation thoroughly changed by your brother), and then coming, continue offering (bearing forward) your gift. [comment: an example of anathema: placing the offering up upon a receptacle]
[note: beginning with vs. 22, above, Jesus uses the word brother in its wider semantic range, in His teaching, to indicate the sense of solidarity, membership of a group, or fellow human being; other NT writers do the same - it often means "fellow believer," or "member of God's family, but here would likely mean "fellow countryman"]
This scenario places good, loving relationship above religious performance. This was certainly above and beyond the requirement of the Law. But let us consider the thinking that we find in 1 Pet. 3:7,
"Continuously dwelling together... as [with] co-heirs of Life's grace and favor, into the [situation where] your thoughts, words and actions projected toward goodness (or: prayers) continue not to be hindered or blocked, as if by a trench being cut in their path to impede their progress."
We read Peter's admonition as an applied application of Jesus' example (vs. 23-24, above) for how one should live and behave within the called-out, covenant communities. Doing religious "good works" of any sort will be diminished or thwarted if we are not "dwelling together with the grace of the Christ-Life." Once again, we see matters of the heart being Jesus' core elements of His teaching. Jesus' admonition was to engender peace, a joining of estranged brothers. Dan Kaplan brought to mind that it was over an issue of bringing an offering to God that Cain killed his brother (Gen. 4:5-16). That was a seed sown into the earth that produced a root of bitterness that then grew into a thorn-bush which spawned religious wars, down through history. Heb. 12 warned of this:
14. You folks be continuously pursuing peace and joined-harmony [= shalom] with all mankind (or: with everyone) - as well as the process and resultant state of being different and set-apart (or: sacredness; the sanctification; or: = the situation of being set aside for God's use), apart from which not even one person will proceed in seeing (or: continue perceiving) the Lord [= Yahweh or Christ] - [cf Mat. 5:8]
15. while overseeing (looking diligently and carefully watching upon and seeing to it) [that] no one be lacking (be falling short; be living behind or in the rear; = misses out), [by wandering] away from God's grace and joyous favor; [that] not any "root of bitterness" [Deut. 29:18], progressively sprouting upward, would be crowding in to cause disturbance like the spirit of a mob, and then, through means of it, many folks may be stained (polluted; defiled; = the whole community could be contaminated). Cf Heb. 6:4-8
Prov. 4:23 comes to mind, in regard to relationships:
"More than any guarding, preserve your heart, for from it spring the outflowings of life" (CVOT).
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