John Lightfoot on Matthew 5:22

[But I say unto you.] But I say, the words of one that refutes or determines a question, very frequently to be met with in the Hebrew writers. To this you may lay that of Isaiah, chapter 2:3, "And he will teach us of his ways," &c. Where Kimchi writes thus, This teacher is king Messias. And that of Zechariah, chapter 11:8; where this great Shepherd destroys "three evil shepherds," namely, the Pharisee, and the Sadducee, and the Essene.

[That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, &c.] First let us treat of the words, and then of the sentences.

[With his brother:] The Jewish schools do thus distinguish between a brother and a neighbour; that a brother signifies an Israelite by nation and blood: a neighbour, an Israelite in religion and worship, that is, a proselyte. The author of Aruch, in the word A son of the covenant, writes thus; "The sons of the covenant, these are Israel. And when the Scripture saith, 'If any one's ox gore the ox of his neighbour,' it excludes all the heathen, in that it saith, 'of his neighbour.'" Maimonides writes thus: "It is all one to kill an Israelite and a Canaanite servant: for both, the punishment is death; but an Israelite who shall kill a stranger-inhabitant shall not be punished with death, because it is said, 'Whosoever shall proudly rise up against his neighbour to kill him' Exodus 21:14: and it is needless to say he shall not be punished with death for killing a heathen." Where this is to be noted, that heathens and stranger-in-habitants, who were not admitted to perfect and complete proselytism, were not qualified with the title of neighbour, nor with any privileges.

But under the Gospel, where there is no distinction of nations or tribes, brother is taken in the same latitude as among the Jews both brother and neighbour were; that is, for all professing the gospel: and is contradistinguished to the heathen, 1 Corinthians 5:11, "If any one who is called a brother": and Matthew 18:15, "If thy brother sin against thee," &c., verse 17, "If he hear not the church, let him be a heathen."

But neighbour is extended to all, even such as are strangers to our religion: Luke 10:29,30, &c.

[He shall be guilty:] [W]ords signifying guilt or debt [are] to be met with a thousand times in the Talmudists. Isaiah 24:23; "They shall be gathered together, as captives are gathered into prison." Where R. Solomon speaks thus, Guilty of hell unto hell: which agrees with the last clause of this verse.

[Of the council:] Of the Sanhedrim: that is, of the judgment, or tribunal of the magistrate. For that judgment, in the clause before, is to be referred to the judgment of God, will appear by what follows.

[Raca.] A word used by one that despiseth another in the highest scorn: very usual in the Hebrew writers, and very common in the mouth of the nation.

"One returned to repentance: his wife said to him, Raca, if it be appointed you to repent, the very girdle wherewith you gird yourself shall not be your own."

"A heathen said to an Israelite, Very suitable food is made ready for you at my house. What is it? saith the other. To whom he replied, Swine's flesh. Raca (saith the Jew), I must not eat of clean beasts with you."

"A king's daughter was married to a certain dirty fellow. He commands her to stand by him as a mean servant, and to be his butler. To whom she said, Raca, I am a king's daughter."

"One of the scholars of R. Jochanan made sport with the teaching of his master: but returning at last to a sober mind, Teach thou, O master, saith he, for thou art worthy to teach: for I have found and seen that which thou hast taught. To whom he replied, Raca, thou hadst not believed, unless thou hadst seen."

"A certain captain saluted a religious man praying in the way, but he saluted him not again: he waited till he had done his prayer, and saith to him, Raca, it is written in your law," &c.

[Into hell-fire.] The Jews do very usually express hell, or the place of the damned, by the word Gehinnom, which might be shown in infinite examples; the manner of speech being taken from the valley of Hinnom, a place infamous for foul idolatry committed there; for the howlings of infants roasted to Moloch; filth carried out thither; and for a fire that always was burning, and so most fit to represent the horror of hell.

"There are three doors of Gehenna; one in the wilderness, as it is written, 'They went down, and all that belonged to them, alive into hell' (Num 16:33). Another in the sea, as it is written, 'Out of the belly of hell have I called; thou hast heard my voice' (Jonah 2:2). The third in Jerusalem, as it is written, 'Thus saith the Lord, whose fire is in Sion, and his furnace in Jerusalem,' Isaiah 31:9. The tradition of the school of R. Ismael; 'Whose fire is in Sion,' this is the gate of Gehenna."

The Chaldee paraphrast upon Isaiah, chapter 33:14, Gehenna, eternal fire, &c. The Gehenna of eternal fire.

We come now to the sentences and sense of the verse. A threefold punishment is adjudged to a threefold wickedness. Judgment to him that is angry...without cause. Judgment also, and that by the Sanhedrim, to him that calls Raca. Judgment of hell to him that calleth Fool.

That which is here produced of the threefold Sanhedrim among the Jews pleases me not, because, passing over other reasons, mention of the Sanhedrim is made only in the middle clause.

How the judgment in the first clause is to be distinguished from the judgment of the Sanhedrim in the second, will very easily appear from this Gloss and commentary of the Talmudists, "Of not killing": "he is a manslayer, whosoever shall strike his neighbour with a stone or iron, or thrust him into the water, or fire, whence he cannot come out, so that he die, he is guilty. But if he shall thrust another into the water or fire, whence he might come out, if he die, he is guiltless. A man sets a dog or serpent on another, he is guiltless." See also the Babylonian Gemara there; "Whosoever shall slay his neighbour with his own hand, striking him with his sword, or with a stone, so that he kills him; or shall strangle or burn him so that he die, in any manner whatsoever killing him in his own person; behold, such a one is to be put to death by the Sanhedrim. But he that hires another by a reward to kill his neighbour, or who sends his servants, and they kill him; or he that thrusts him violently upon a lion, or upon some other beast, and the beast kill him; or he that kills himself, every one of these is a shedder of blood, and the iniquity of manslaughter is in his hand, and he is liable to death by the hand of God; but he is not to be punished with death by the Sanhedrim."

Behold a double manslayer! Behold a double judgment! Now let the words of our Saviour be applied to this Gloss of the ancients upon the law of murder: "Do ye hear," saith he, "What is said by the ancients, Whosoever shall kill, after what manner soever a man shall kill him, whether by the hand of one that he hath hired, or by his servants, or by setting a beast on him; he is guilty of the judgment of God, though not of the judgment of the Sanhedrim: and whosoever shall kill his neighbour by himself, none other interposing, this man is liable to the judgment of the Sanhedrim: but I say unto you, That whosoever is rashly angry with his brother, this man is liable to the judgment of God; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, he is liable to the Sanhedrim."

These words of our Saviour, perhaps, we shall more truly understand by comparing some more phrases and doctrines, very usual in the Jewish schools. Such as these, Absolved from the judgment of men, but guilty in the judgment of Heaven, that is, of God. Death by the Sanhedrim, and death by the hand of Heaven.

And in a word, cutting off, speaks vengeance by the hand of God. They are very much deceived who understand...cutting off, of which there is very frequent mention in the Holy Bible, concerning the cutting-off from the public assembly by ecclesiastical censure, when as it means nothing else than cutting off by divine vengeance. There is nothing more usual and common among the Hebrew canonists, than to adjudge very many transgressions to cutting off, in that worn phrase..."If he shall do this out of presumption, he is guilty of cutting off; but if he shall do it out of ignorance, he is bound for a sacrifice for sin." When they adjudge a thing or a guilty person to cutting off, they deliver and leaven him to the judgment of God; nevertheless, a censure and punishment from the Sanhedrim sometimes is added, and sometimes not. Which might be illustrated by infinite examples, but we are afraid of being tedious. Let these two be enough on both sides.

I. Of mere delivering over to the judgment of God, without any punishment inflicted by the Sanhedrim, those words speak, which were lately cited, "He is absolved from the judgment of men, but liable to the judgment of Heaven."

II. Of the judgment of God and of the Sanhedrim joined together, these words in the same place speak: "If he that is made guilty by the Sanhedrim be bound to make restitution, Heaven [or God] doth not pardon him until he pay it." But he that bears a punishment laid on him by the Sanhedrim is absolved from cutting off. "All persons guilty of cutting off, when they are beaten are absolved from their cutting off: as it is said, 'And thy brother become vile in thy sight.' When he shall be beaten, behold, he is thy brother."

Liable or guilty even to the hell-fire. He had said, guilty of judgment and of the council, before; but now he saith unto hell, and that in a higher emphasis; as if he should have said, "Whosoever shall say to his brother, Fool, shall be guilty of judgment, even unto the judgment of hell."

But what was there more grievous in the word fool, than in the word Raca? Let king Solomon be the interpreter, who everywhere by a fool understands a wicked and reprobate person; foolishness being opposed to spiritual wisdom. Raca denotes indeed morosity, and lightness of manners and life: but fool judgeth bitterly of the spiritual and eternal state, and decreeth a man to certain destruction. Let the judgings and censures of the scribes and Pharisees concerning the common people serve us instead of a lexicon. They did not only suffer themselves to be styled wise men, but also arrogated it to themselves, as their merit and due. But what do they say of the common people? "This people, that knoweth not the law, is cursed," John 7:49.

You have a form of speaking, not much unlike this which is now under our hands: He that calls his neighbour Servant, let him be in excommunication. The Gloss is, "They therefore excommunicate him, because he vilified an Israelite: him, therefore, they vilify in like manner." "If he call him bastard, let him be punished with forty stripes. If wicked man, let it descend with him into his life": that is, according to the Gloss, "into misery and penury."

After this manner, therefore, our Saviour suits a different punishment to different sins by a most just parity, and a very equal compensation: to unjust anger, the just anger and judgment of God; to public reproach, a public trial; and hell-fire to the censure that adjudgeth another thither.