This is another large chunk of scripture to exegete. Beginning with verse 21, Jesus begins a series of comparisons of the letter of the Law and the spiritual intention behind it. These take the form, “Ye have heard it said...But I say unto you….” In these comparisons we see that the external regulations of the Old Testament Law are a window into the internal attitudes that make compliance with it reflexive. Let’s look at the first passage of these comparisons:
“21 Ye have herd that it was said of them of old time, Thou shall not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. 22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement: 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.
23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember that thy brother hath ought against thee; 24 leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. 25 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.”
Jesus took on the biggie first. A special note that most people who read the Bible only in English seldom know, the word that is often rendered kill is specific to killing in an unlawful manor or circumstance. The taking of a life is always traumantic to the soul of the one doing it. But sometimes it is justified to do so. I won’t go into circumstances in which it would be OK to kill. Instead I will tell of the damage murder does to the people related to the victem. When your loved one is murdered, you have a horrible trauma that can cause psychological damage for the rest of your life. The anger over this can cause some to enter into a cycle of revenge killing that lasts for centuries.
But Jesus goes further than that. He tells us that even an insult is equivalent to murdering the victem. One would think that so long as they still have their life, people can recover from the injury to their souls when they are insulted. I know from experience that this is not so. That kind of hurt is lifelong. The injured party will never be able to treat the perpetrator the same.
The Greek word rendered kill is φονεύω, the same one used in the Septuagent translation of Exodus for the Ten Commandments. In Hebrew, רצת can also mean to dash to pieces. The denotation of murder is in the context as much as the word itself. The Septuagent is a good source of understanding the meaning of the Hebrew as read by the Jewish scribes at the time of Christ. A plug for a good English translation of the Septuagent is the Saint Athanasius Academy Septuagent included in the Ortodox Study Bible published by Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN.
The Greek word rendered in danger, ͗ένοχος, denotes a legal liability. This applies not only to the criminal courts, but to civil courts as well. In ancient Israel the courts were one and the same. So if you were tried for a criminal infraction, you could be given civil penalties as well. Thus the liability in the Greek word covers both civil and criminal penalties.
Jesus tells us that even unwarented anger toward another is the same as murder. The Greek word, ͗οργίζω, comes form the noun that we get our English word orgy from. It means to enrage or provoke to rage. So Jesus said that we are not to become enraged at our brother. The phrase without a cause is added by the translators of the King James Bible. They wanted to have an exuse to be angry. Jesus made no such distinction.
We need to enter into every human interaction with a clear head devoid of anger and avoid name calling or provokation. To do otherwise is just as bad in the eyes of God as murder. That is the primary reason I grieve over today’s political environment. The rage and name calling, usually over something that has little to no effect on the perpetrator, is endangering the souls of the ones who engage in it. Polite discourse, on the other hand, does not perpetuate the cycle of distruction of the souls of those involed.
Think carefully before you speak. No one is worthy of the self-inflicted wounds you gain in your soul by flaming and name calling. Be aware, hate is murder. And hate does more harm to the hater than to the hated. Let go of the anger that pops up in your heart when someone does things you do not like. This is foreign to your spirit in the first place, and should have no permanent place in the heart of a Christian.
Ol’ Fuzzy is not employable and was denied for disability benefits. The only thing I have is the blogs. But I don’t qualify for ads on the blogs until September. If you like the scribbles I post, please help me keep it going. You can leave me a gratuity by dropping a buck or two in Ol' Fuzzy's Tip Jar. This is a PayPal account I opened on Wednesday, April 5, 2017.
No comments:
Post a Comment