you that un less your righ teous ness surpass es that of the Phar i sees and the teachers of the law, you will cer tain ly not en ter the king dom of heav en.
Murder 5:25,26pp— Lk 12:58,59
21“ You have heard that it was said to the
peo ple long ago,‘ You shall not mur der, a a and any one who mur ders will be sub ject to judg ment.’ 22 But I tell you that any one who is an gry with a broth er or sis ter b, c will be sub ject to judg ment. b Again, any one who says to a broth er or sis ter,‘ Raca,’ d is an swer able to the court. c And any one who says,‘ You fool!’ will be in dan ger of the fire of hell. d
23“ There fore, if you are of fer ing your gift
at the al tar and there re mem ber that your broth er or sis ter has some thing against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the al tar. First go and be rec on ciled to them; then come and of fer your gift.
25“ Set tle mat ters quick ly with your adver sary who is tak ing you to court. Do it while you are still to geth er on the way, or
5:21 a Ex 20:13; Dt 5:17 5:22 b 1Jn 3:15 c Mt 26:59
d Jas 3:6
5:27 e Ex 20:14; Dt 5:18 5:28 f Pr 6:25 5:29 g Mt 18:6, 8, 9; Mk 9:42‐47
Matthew 5:30 | 1619
your ad ver sary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the of fi cer, and you may be thrown into pris on. 26 Tru ly I tell you, you will not get out un til you have paid the last pen ny.
Adultery
27“ You have heard that it was said,‘ You
shall not com mit adul tery.’ e e 28 But I tell you that any one who looks at a wom an lust ful ly has al ready com mit ted adul tery with her in his heart. f 29 If your right eye caus es you to stum ble, g gouge it out and throw it away. It is bet ter for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand caus es you to stum ble, cut it off and throw it away. It is bet ter for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
a 21 Exodus 20:13 b 22 The Greek word for brother
or sister( adelphos) refers here to a fellow disciple, whether man or woman; also in verse 23. c 22 Some manuscripts brother or sister without cause d 22 An Aramaic term of contempt e 27 Exodus 20:14 the demand that people free a mother bird( Dt 22:7), but that whoever kept this command received life, the same reward as one who kept the greatest command, honoring father and mother( Dt 5:16). The titles of least or greatest in the kingdom are also graphic and hyperbolic. A rabbi could, e. g., praise one pupil as wiser than the entire rest of the world, and the next day praise another pupil in the same terms; such statements were graphic ways of making the point, not invitations to calculate an individual’ s precise merit. 5:20 the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. Pharisees belonged to a movement scrupulous in understanding and obeying the law according to the traditions of their predecessors( the“ tradition of the elders”; see 15:2; Mk 7:3,5). Far more than the aristocratic Sadducees, Pharisees were also popular with the people and respected for their piety. They tithed meticulously, were careful about ritual purity, and at least during the dry season, they often fasted twice a week. The term for“ teachers of the law” can refer even to executors of legal documents in villages, but in the Gospels it normally refers to those who were literate and formally trained in the Law of Moses, often teaching others the law. Jesus’ words are again designed to shock his hearers, since Pharisees and teachers of the law would be among the people most respected for piety. But Jesus demands a deeper form of righteousness( see vv. 21 – 48). 5:21 heard that it was said. Sometimes Jewish teachers would say something like,“ You have heard it said, but I say,” meaning,“ You thought it meant only this, but it actually means also this...”( cf. 1Co 7:12). murder. The prohibition against murder was one of the cardinal commandments( Ex 20:13; Dt 5:17). 5:22 anyone who is angry. The law limited sin, but Jesus’ kingdom demands go deeper; the law said,“ You shall not murder,” but Jesus demanded,“ You shall not want to murder.” Some other ancient teachers agreed that desiring to kill someone revealed the same sort of heart that actually could commit murder. The insult,“ Raca”( essentially meaning,“ empty,”“ devoid of value”) was roughly equivalent to the common insult,“ Fool.” The punishments might also be equivalent, if the“ judgment” and the“ court” refer to the tradition, attested in later Jewish literature, of a heavenly court( cf. vv. 25 – 26). Jesus’ word for“ hell” here is a Greek rendering of Gehinnom( Gehenna), a place of fiery torment for the damned( see note on 3:12); by adding explicit mention of“ fire,” Jesus underlines the warning even more strongly. Jesus might have employed an element of hyperbole to drive home the point( cf. his use of“ fools” in 23:17). 5:23 – 24 God welcomed offerings only from those who acted justly( Ge 4:4 – 7; Pr 15:8; Isa 1:11 – 17; Jer 6:20; Am 5:21 – 24). 5:26 paid the last penny. The term for“ penny” here refers to the quadrans, a Roman coin equivalent to only several minutes’ wages. Some think this parable uses the image of debt imprisonment, a Gentile custom forbidden in Jewish circles in this period. 5:27 adultery. The prohibition against adultery was one of the cardinal commandments and allowed no exceptions( Ex 20:14; Dt 5:18). 5:28 anyone who looks at a woman lustfully. Whereas the law merely said,“ You shall not commit adultery,” Jesus demanded,“ You shall not want to commit adultery.” Many ancient Jewish moralists condemned lust; some later rabbis even compared extreme lust to adultery. Jesus’ warning here develops the context of the prohibition against adultery in the law: the seventh commandment prohibited adultery, but the tenth commandment warned that one should not even covet one’ s neighbor’ s wife( Ex 20:17; Dt 5:21). Jesus uses here the same verb as in the standard Greek translation of the tenth commandment. He refers, then, to wanting to have one’ s neighbor’ s wife. The principle, of course, extends beyond Jesus’ illustration, applying to both genders and to single people, coveting one who might be someone else’ s spouse someday. 5:30 cut it off. Corporal punishment in which a member was cut off was better than capital punishment or eternal torment. Because cutting off an offending member would not necessarily end one’ s sin, Jesus here uses hyperbole, or rhetorical overstatement, to graphically