Matthew 5:22

I say A most emphatic formula, which implies the authority of a lawgiver.

without a cause The Greek word is omitted in the oldest MSS., and has probably been inserted by a copyist desirous of softening the expression.

the judgment = the local court: see next note.

Raca A word of contempt, said to be from a root meaning to "spit." The distinction between Racaand Thou foolis lost, and naturally, for they belong to that class of words, the meaning of which depends entirely on the usage of the day. An expression innocent and unmeaning in one age becomes the watchword of a revolution in another. There is, however, clearly a climax. (1) Feeling of anger without words. (2) Anger venting itself in words. (3) Insulting anger. The gradation of punishment corresponds; liable (1) to the local court; (2) to the Sanhedrin; (3) to Gehenna.

council i. e. the Sanhedrin. See note ch. Matthew 26:3.

hell fire Lit. Gehenna of fire, i. e. "burning Gehenna." Gehennais the Greek form of the Hebrew Ge-Hinnom or "Valley of Hinnom," sometimes called "Valley of the son of Hinnom," also "Tophet" (Jeremiah 7:31). It was a deep narrow glen S. W. of Jerusalem, once the scene of the cruel worship of Moloch; but Josiah, in the course of his reformation, "defiled Tophet, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Moloch" (2 Kings 23:10). Cp. Milton, Paradise Losti.:

"First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood

Of human sacrifice and parents" tears;

Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud,

Their children's cries unheard that passed through fire

To his grim idol."

After that time pollutions of every kind, among them the bodies of criminals who had been executed, were thrown into the valley. From this defilement and from its former desecration Gehenna was used to express the abode of the wicked after death. The words "of fire" are added, either because of the ancient rites of Moloch, or, if a Rabbinical tradition is to be credited, because fires were always burning in the valley, or, further, as a symbol of everlasting punishment.