After Yeshua addresses that the Pharisees and Scribes are not as righteous as the people have been led to believe, He begins correcting some misinterpreted command in Torah:
You have heard it said to the ancients, “Not you shall murder. Whoever now shall murder shall be liable to judgement.”
– Matthew 5:21
Before jumping into the next verse, let’s clarify some things.
Yeshua is obviously referring to Exodus 20:13, number six of the Aseret Ha’Davrim– the Ten Words.
But notice- He says “You have heard it said to the ancients” rather than “It has been written” or “The Law/ Moses says”
- The Greek phrase used is Ekousate tois archaiois
- Ekousate is not only physical hearing, but also what has been understood by hearing.
- tois archaiois– to/ for/ by- the ancestors/ those of old
This means what He’s saying is not directly addressing Torah, but pointing toward received teaching and interpretation. This is why what He says seems abrupt, but the meaning becomes clearer when we clarify it by the verse before- being more righteous than the Pharisees and Scribes.
“You shall not murder” is written in Torah; but the common understanding had effectively become:
“As long as I do not physically kill someone, I am righteous.”
Yeshua exposes the incompleteness of that interpretation:
I however say to you that all being angry with his brother will be liable to judgement.
– Matthew 5:21 (a)
He is bringing the listener back to the heart-level intent already embedded within Scripture. Not just physical bloodshed, but any orgizo– anger, hostility or grudge holding.
Qayin (Cain) didn’t just murder his brother one day; first, he had jealousy, offense, wounded pride and bitterness.
YHVH warned him when He saw Qayin’s charah– burning anger:
“Sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
— Genesis 4:7
Yeshua is exposing this same biblical pattern demonstrated throughout the Tanakh (Old Testament)
- Genesis 37 Yosef’s brothers hate and envy him and plan to murder him
- 1 Samuel 18-19 Shaul is jealous of David’s popularity and later becomes hostile toward him, wanting to kill him
- 2 Samuel 13 After Amnon violates Tamar, Absalom holds a grudge for years and ends up arranging for his murder
- 1 Kings 21 Achav becomes angry and sullen because Navot refuses to give up his inheritance. This turns into murderous conspiracy through Izevel
Even Proverbs states:
An angry man engages in contention; a master of fury abounds in transgression.
– Proverbs 29:22
The act of murder is rarely the beginning of sin. It is usually the final manifestation of a heart already corrupted beforehand. The more one lets those feelings rule them, the more corrupt they become.
Yeshua teaches His followers that “Do not murder.” is the bare minimum of righteousness; they must confront sin at the root before it matures into destruction.
Whoever shall now say to his brother, “Rhaka”, liable will be to the Sanhedrin. Whoever shall now say “fool ” liable will be to the Gehenna of Fire.
– Matthew 5:22 (b)
Rhaka is an Aramaic insult- it means worthless and empty. There any many versions that translate this words a simply “stupid”, but the insult being addressed here was much worse. It was a severe phrase that expressed contempt and scorn for someone deemed inferior. This moves beyond inward anger into spoken degradation of another person.
That matters because in Torah, slander and destructive accusations were covenant violations:
Not you shall go about a slanderer among your people. nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor. I AM YHVH
– Leviticus 19:16
Once inner contempt becomes verbalized publicly, it enters the realm of communal judgment and legal consequence of Torah.
Whoever shall now say “Fool”:
Worthless and Fool seem like similar insults, so why is the judgement different?
The Greek word used is more– from the same root as the word used in verse 5:13-
In our teaching on “The Salt of the Earth“, we went over that moros means foolish; but it can also mean
- Morally corrupt
- Spiritually empty
- Godless
This is how the word is used in Scripture; one example we can see is in the Greek Septuagint (The Greek Old Testament)
Has said the moros in his heart, “there is no God”.
– Psalm 14:1
In the Hebrew, the word used for “fool” is nabal, and it carries the same understanding; morally corrupt and rejecting God by heart and outwards actions.
We see this idea in 1 Samuel 25– Abigayil’s husband Nabal is depicted as
- harsh and evil in his deeds
- arrogant (25:10)
- selfish (25:11)
- Beliyyaal– without profit/ use (25:17)
- repaying good with evil (25:21)
And after treating David and his men with respect and hospitality, Abigayil says “As his name is Nabal, so is he nabal, and nabalah (disgrace) is with him”.
So, in context, the translation “fool” is an incomplete understanding; Yeshua is saying that if you slander someone, you are liable to legal judgement; but if you call someone “moros“, you are doing far worse.
Not only are you breaking Torah by slandering an image bearer; you are also usurping judgement and condemning them by saying they are outside covenant; you are claiming they are Godless in their hearts (Psalm 14:1).
There is also a profound irony here:
The person condemning another as moros actually embodies the very heart of Psalm 14 -which describes corruption and abominable behavior flowing from a heart disconnected from God- themselves.
So the ones declaring “You are outside covenant” actually reveals their own heart condition instead.
The Gehenna of Fire
Gehenna refers to He’Gei Ben Hinnom- The Valley (of the son of) Hinnom, a real place outside of Jerusalem, which became infamous because of child sacrifice.
- 2 Kings 16 King Achaz (A Davidic King) violates Leviticus 18:21 and sacrifices his son to Molech.
- 2 Kings 21:6 Manasseh commits the same sin
YHVH responded to this later through the Prophet Jeremiah:
“They have built… In the valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into My mind.”
– Jeremiah 7:31
In 2 Kings 23, Josiah’s reforms include purging child sacrifice sites:
“And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, so that no one might make his son or daughter pass through the fire to Molech.”
– 2 Kings 23:10
- 2 Kings 23:14 “He smashed the pillars… and filled their places with human bones.”
- 23:16 “He took the bones from the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it…”
- Because of the impurity of handling dead bodies and bones (Numbers 19) he effectively corrupts the site for future worship
So The Valley of the Son of Hinnom became a symbol of covenant corruption, desecration of life and place of judgment.
By phrasing it this way, Yeshua is pointing at a deeper, sobering parallel His followers would have understood- that both Child sacrifice and contempt towards a brother carry the same meaning in the eyes of God:
“Your life has no value.”
He connects contempt with Gehenna, because both participate in the same heart posture: devaluing human beings made in the image of God.
Leviticus 19, in addition to slander, already says:
Not you shall hate your brother in your heart.
Surely you shall rebuke your neighbor and not sin on his account.
Not you shall take vengence, nor keep anger against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I AM YHVH
– Leviticus 19:17-18
But the problem is that the “lesser” commands of Torah were being more or less pushed aside. Love wasnt as important as not murdering someone in the eyes of the Jewish authorities- Yeshua is correcting that understanding.
The instruction against murder is inseparable from the command not to slander, hate, or hold anger/grudge against a brother, but instead to love your neighbor as yourself.
Torah was never merely about avoiding outward violence; it was about preserving the dignity of those made in the image of God and maintaining covenant faithfulness within the community. Yeshua therefore calls His followers beyond external righteousness into the deeper fulfillment of Torah, by transforming the heart posture first; confronting the anger, contempt and hatred that can give birth to sin.
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