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Mat 5:22. Πᾶς, κ.τ.λ., every one, etc.) This is opposed to the lax rule[201] of the Scribes.-ὁ ὀργιζόμενος, who is angry) either with a lasting feeling or a sudden emotion.-τῲ ἀδελφῷ αὐτοῦ, with his brother) This appellation shows the unworthiness of anger.-εἰκῆ, without a cause) This gloss[202] evidently betrays its human origin.[203] He who is angry without a cause is superfluously angry: not even the Pharisees taught that it was lawful to be angry without a cause. Even if there be a cause for being angry, there ought to be no anger. God also forbids us to hate even with cause, in that He commands us to love our enemies.-Tertullian de Spectaculis, ch. 16. On the other hand, the magistrate, in killing those who ought to be killed, does rightly, and yet it is never said, Thou shalt not kill without a cause.-ἔνοχος ἔσται τη κρίσει, shall be criminal as far as belongs to the judgment or municipal tribunal) i.e. he is a murderer. Cf. Mat 5:21.[204] As he who looks upon a woman to lust after her is an adulterer, so he that hateth his brother (1Jn 4:15) is a murderer. This verse does not indicate three degrees of human or temporal punishment; for neither was it the part of the municipal tribunal and the Sanhedrim to punish the emotion of anger or the utterance of Raca, nor was the valley of the son of Hinnom the place for any punishment, much less for any punishment inflicted by any other power than that of the municipal tribunal or the Sanhedrim, still less for punishment on account of the abusive epithet of Fool. The judgment, therefore, and the council, are assigned to the emotion of anger and the utterance of Raca, as to the first and second degree of murder, deserving the first and second degree of punishment in hell: and the fiery Gehenna[205] is appropriately assigned to the third degree of murder, the abusive epithet of Fool, and indicates a more fiery punishment in hell. There is, therefore, a metonymy of the consequent for the antecedent. “He is criminal as far as belongs to the tribunal,” etc.; signifying, he is a murderer in the first, second, and third degree. Civil guilt denotes spiritual guilt, both as to the fault and the punishment.-εἴπῃ, shall say) in his heart or with his lips once or continually.-Ῥακὰ, Raca) A Hebrew word, frequently used by Hebrews according to Lightfoot, the force of which no Greek word expresses. It denotes a sort of middle term between anger and the appellation of Fool.[206] Chrysostom on this passage says, that Raka denotes in Syriac the same as “thou,” uttered contemptuously: others derive it from the Syrian “RAK,” he spits. An old English Version renders it Fie. Light persons are called ריקים in Jdg 9:4; Jdg 11:3; 2Ch 13:7; and ΚΕΝῸς, empty or vain, is thus used in Jam 2:20. Reproof should reach even the trivial expressions and common manners of mankind, and that specifically; see Mat 5:34-35, etc.; 1Co 15:32; Jam 2:3; Jam 4:13.-τῷ συνεδρίῳ, the Sanhedrim) or Great National Council of seventy-two Judges, which was held at Jerusalem, and decreed the more severe punishments.-ΜΩΡῈ, thou fool) A most harsh taunt denying common sense, without which a man is incurable and utterly deplorable; cf. μωρανθῇ, in Mat 5:13, and the note upon it. The LXX. used the word μωρὸς very sparingly, the Son of Sirach frequently.-ἜΝΟΧΟς ἜΣΤΑΙ ΕἸς ΤῊΝ ΓΈΕΝΝΑΝ ΤΟῦ ΠΥΡΌς, he shall be criminal for the fiery Gehenna) An elliptical mode of speech[207] for, so that he may be consigned to the fiery Gehenna-sc. the valley of the Son of Hinnom, where carrion and carcases lie unburied, and at length are burnt. The word γέεννα, Gehenna, does not occur in the Septuagint; in the New Testament it is used by St Matthew, St Mark, St Luke, and St James; but not by either St John, St Paul, St Peter, or St Jude. Hiller (in his Onomata Sacra, p. 811) derives it from the Hebrew נֵּי הַנִּי, the Valley of Lamentation. Concerning the fire of that valley, see Jer 7:31-32, etc.-εἰς, etc., is used with the same force as in the expression ΕἸς ΚΌΡΑΚΑς, to the ravens.[208]
[201] In the original “sanctione,” a somewhat peculiar expression.-(I. B.)
[202] “Which Luther rightly omitted.”-Not. Crit.
[203] It is retained by E. M.-(I. B.) B Vulg. Origen, omit it, and Lachm. and Tisch. read accordingly. But Dabc Iren. 242, 247, Cypr. 306, Lucf. 121, and after ὀργιζομ., Iren. 165, Hilary 128 (625) retain εἰκῆ.-ED.
[204] For whatever is repugnant to meekness and love, is a principle rising up against life, and so breathes the spirit of murder.-Vers. Germ.
[205] “γέενναν-גֵיאְ (vallis), חִגו̇ב Hinnom, the valley at the foot of Moriah, and in which Siloa flows (Jerome on x. 28), on the east of Jerusalem, desecrated by the idolatrous fires of Moloch (Jer 7:31; Isa 30:33), and called Topheth, from Tuph, the tympanum used to drown the cries of children there immolated.”-Wordsworth in loc.
[206] Dreamy indolence (oscitantia) was the reproach usually meant to be conveyed by it, or else a headlong and hasty mode of action.-Vers. Germ.
[207] See, on the Locutio Concisa, Appendix.-ED.
[208] A phrase used by the Greeks to denote not only the disgrace of the gallows, but the still greater one of remaining unburied.-Liddell and Scott.-(I. B.)
“Josiah therefore polluted it (2Ki 23:10); and thenceforward it was the place for casting out and burning all offal and the corpses of criminals; and therefore its name, ἡ γέεννα τοῦ πυρός, was used to signify the place of everlasting punishment.”-Alford in loc.-(I. B.)