The Fool May Say but Dare We/

Meditation May, 20 2020

21“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, ^a and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister ^{b c} will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ ^d is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Well, my dear, we have spent far more time on two verses than I would ever have thought we might. If it seems we have passed the same tree more than once, we have. Sometimes you just need to circle the block until you have seen the tree from different angles. I needed to circle until I felt satisfied I hadn’t missed anything of importance. Thanks for riding along.

Now we come to the last of the instances of murder as a sin of the heart; i.e. calling someone a fool. The text, in both the textus receptus and the Byzantine majority text (my personal preference) says “angry with a brother…says to a brother….” Sister is added by NIV since brother here is to be taken as a general reference to any fellow human.

We have learned that it is sinful, a violation of the sixth commandment, to be angry with a fellow human without cause, i.e. to be angry for any reason but those for which God would be angry. Further, we have learned it is a worse violation to be angry and say of them ”raca”; i.e. intellectually disgusting empty-head, something of that sort. To do that is to impugn their intellect, their industriousness etc. thus implying they are incapable of productivity, if not dangerous to society, and thereby obstructing their ability to pursue gainful employment by which they may provide for themselves and their families.

We see in these verses a progression from the lesser to the greater both in the offense and in the punishment due the offense. Unjust anger left unresolved (do not let the sun go down on your anger – Eph. 4:26) is the beginning of the pathway the end of which is the actual taking of the life of another human.

The Westminster Larger Catechism fleshes out the ramifications of the sixth commandment. This would be a good place to insert that. Perhaps I should have inserted it at the beginning.

Q. 135. What are the duties required in the sixth commandment?
A. The duties required in the sixth commandment are, all careful studies, and lawful endeavours, to preserve the life of ourselves and others by resisting all thoughts and purposes, subduing all passions, and avoiding all occasions, temptations, and practices, which tend to the unjust taking away the life of any; by just defence thereof against violence, patient bearing of the hand of God, quietness of mind, cheerfulness of spirit; a sober use of meat, drink, physic, sleep, labor, and recreation; by charitable thoughts, love, compassion, meekness, gentleness, kindness; peaceable, mild, and courteous speeches and behavior: forbearance, readiness to be reconciled, patient bearing and forgiving of injuries, and requiting good for evil; comforting and succoring the distressed, and protecting and defending the innocent.

Q. 136. What are the sins forbidden in the sixth commandment?
A. The sins forbidden in the sixth commandment are, all taking away the life of ourselves, or of others, except in case of public justice, lawful war, or necessary defence; the neglecting or withdrawing the lawful and necessary means of preservation of life; sinful anger, hatred, envy, desire of revenge; all excessive passions, distracting cares; immoderate use of meat, drink, labor, and recreations; provoking words; oppression, quarreling, striking, wounding, and whatsoever else tends to the destruction of the life of any.

We have heard Jesus say that unjust anger is a violation of the sixth commandment. At that point it is in the strictest sense a sin of the heart. Only you know it but it is sin nonetheless. To let unjust anger spill out to unkind, disparaging words is yet a greater violation. At that point, anger has gone from the heart into action and, although it has not entailed the actual taking of a life, Jesus says it is nonetheless to be considered under the command against homicide.

For homicide, the shedding of blood, the killing of a brother (i.e. another human) God requires punishment in kind. "'Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man." (Genesis 9:6)  From this we may rightly conclude murder is a sin against both God and man. It is the destruction of life and the destruction of the image of God; thus, an attack on God.

 Thus when one says, raca, he is already showing contempt for both man and God who created him. And yet worse than raca, worse than calling man an empty-headed worthless human, and of still greater worthiness of judgment and severe punishment was to say of a another, “you fool”. Whoever says that “will be in danger of the fire of hell”

Some question whether more’ (fool) is a Greek word. Because more’ bears the same consonants as the Hebrew for ‘fool’ it is thought Jesus is referring to a Hebrew word that is found in the Deut. 21:18, Psalm 14 and other places where it refers to idolators, those who are rebellious or without morals. More’ in the Greek, according to the lexicons, means basically the same as raca – stupid, blockhead, empty-head etc. – but Jesus is clearly using it differently as he assigns to it a different judgment. I think, then, Jesus, whether using Greek or Hebrew, used it to mean as it did in the Hebrew, a rebellions person; i.e. one without morality. To call a man a fool was call him not simply an ungodly wretch but to imply a creature devoid of the image of God. Thus, in anger, calling a person a fool was to reduce them to beasts and thus declaring that the taking of their life would be not more sinful than the killing of a wild beast. I wonder if we are not today guilty of the same sin in reverse when we put the killing of beasts on the same moral plane as the killing of humans.

It is said there was a saying among the Jews that “everyone that calls his neighbour ‘a wicked man’, shall be brought down to hell.” It is unclear whether that is hell as we understand it or sheol, the abode of the dead. I am inclined to think the saying, assuming there was such a saying, referred to sheol or the grave. It is said in other places the saying was such a man who calls his neighbor a fool “deserves to go, not to the seven or the seventy, but to hell, his sin altogether damnable.” The meaning of that being such a person need not be adjudicated by the courts but may be summarily put to death. However all that may be, Jesus says such a person as calls his fellow man a fool is in danger, not simply of death, but Gehenna or as it is translated ‘hell of fire.’

It is worth a little of the history of the word Gehenna to understand the reference. Gehenna was Greek for gehinnom or the valley of Hinnom, a valley to the south of Jerusalem, where children were sacrificed to the Caananite god Moloch – a practice in which the Jews engaged against God’s command (Jeremiah 32:35). When revival came for a time, Josiah, in his religious reforms, defiled the valley – probably by casting bodies of enemies and criminals into it. When the Jews returned from captivity, they displayed their remorse and hatred of the idolatry of their forefathers by making the valley of Hinnom a garbage dump. It is said that fires there were burned incessantly to consume the garbage. Thus, before Jesus time, the valley of Hinnon (Gehenna) had become a metaphor for the final resting place of those were of such moral character to be considered garbage or vile refuse.

The anger condemned to Gehenna is that which has gone unchecked from the heart to words that provoke bias and oppression against a brother to no longer recognizing a fellow human in the person against whom we have taken offense but now see him a no more worthy of our consideration than a beast of the field. Thus, we dishonor and impugn God Himself. Such as do so, Jesus says, are in danger of hell fire. Even for the one who against whom we have taken the greatest offence we must hold our reverence for humanity.

Jesus is clearly saying then that any unjust anger against a fellow human is an attack on the image of God, the taking away, if only in the heart, the moral image of God in man and seeing him as no more than the beast of the field.

We must be careful to guard our tongues and our hearts out of which our tongues speak lest we be found guilty murder.