I find it extremely baffling (and somewhat irritating) that four of the five popular translations, to which I refer in study—NASB, ESV, NIV and CEV—leave out the phrase "without a cause" from Jesus' teaching on anger in Matthew 5:22.
Such an omission can cause one to miss the mark. Conversely, such an inclusion could do the same. Maybe that is why Christians debate the topic as fervently as they do.
Further, the NLT, NCV, NIRV, HCSB, Darby, ASV, WYC, DRA, NIVUK, TNIV do not contain it.
All 3 versions of the King James quote the phrase; as do Young's Literal Translation and the Worldwide English ("without good reason"). The score, in case you're keeping track is now 5-14.
The Amplified Bible offers its own twist:
"But I say to you that everyone who continues to be angry with his brother or harbors malice (enmity of heart) against him shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court; and whoever speaks contemptuously and insultingly to his brother shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, You cursed fool! [You empty-headed idiot!]1 shall be liable to and unable to escape the hell (Gehenna) of fire."
Ah, 6-14 now!
I prefer the New King James Translation of this verse:
"But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’2 shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire."
I'm no Biblical scholar; don't want to be one; and, may hold only a candle (maybe about the size of a re-igniting birthday candle, at that) to those torchlights who have studied Scripture for their entire lives.
But, this wandering, wondering soul believes that God has gifted us with all our emotions for the purpose of completing our nature. Anger is one of those emotions. Yes, it, like all our other emotions, is a gift.
There are days that I am thankful for it. Sometimes, anger can serve a good and perhaps godly purpose. For instance, anger can be rather nourishing when we need to display, enkindle or defend a passion for something good. Most times, unfortunately, unbridled anger takes us to places where not one of us want to go.
Given free reign, each and every one of our emotions can lead us to sin and devastation. Anger is no exception.
Ergo, I believe that we need to learn to control each emotion, using our moral compasses and the Spiritual guidance with which we are blessed. We need to learn how to practice what we have been taught and to do what we preach, guarding our attitudes—especially towards others. You know, it's centered around that command concerning love for neighbors.
But don't just take my word for it. John MacArthur explains it much better this way:
"Though anger is a serious sin, there is a righteous anger that we need to talk about, even though that is not what Jesus means here. For example, there was a time when Jesus took a cord and started driving people out of the Temple (Jn. 2:13-17). There are times when God's indignation reaches its absolute limit and explodes in vengeance. There are also times when a believer has a right to be angry. In fact, I believe that the holier we get, the angrier we should be getting about some things. I think we need a little more of this latter kind of anger, especially in a day when everybody wants to talk about love, togetherness, and the absence of conflict. We begin to get so mealymouthed about everything that we won't stand for anything. Some of us ought to learn how to express a little bit of righteous indignation about some of the things that are going on in our country, our churches, and our schools. We also ought to be angry about some of the things our children are exposed to, some of the trends our society is promoting, and some of the things that come waltzing into our homes on television. We ought to have the kind of anger that is not sin: "Be ye angry, and sin not..." (Eph. 4:26a). There is a right kind of anger.
"However, the anger Jesus is talking about here in verse 22 is selfish anger. "To be angry" in the Greek is orgizesthai, and its root is orge, which is a sort of a brooding, nursed anger that is not allowed to die--it's a smoldering, long-lived kind of thing, for the most part. When you bitterly hold a grudge against somebody, no matter how small, Jesus says that you are as guilty as the person who takes a life, and consequently, you deserve the same judgment. There shouldn't be any difference, because they are both just as serious. In fact, the same Greek word for "judgment" is used at the end of verse 21 to refer to the sentence meted out by a civil court for murder. Likewise, Jesus says, "If you are angry, then you are in danger of execution. Capital punishment should belong to you for anger just as much as for murder." This is a devastating statement, because it forces us to evaluate our attitudes. It isn't what we do so much as what we are and what we feel. I don't know a civil court in the world that would give the death penalty to somebody for getting angry. But if God is the One sitting on the throne and calling the verdicts, then we had better accept the fact that the one who is angry is as guilty as the one who kills."
It's worth your time to read the full discertation here: http://www.gty.org/Resources/Study+Guide+Chapter/2214.
I concur. Do you?
IBG / JF
1 Young's Literal Translation "Empty fellow!"
2 Young's Literal Translation "Rebel!"
Great post Jim. The omission of "without cause" is thought provoking.
ReplyDeleteWithout undue rationalization or intellectualizing, anger is inherent to man's and God's emotional nature. To say that we can exorcise anger, is denial of our sinful nature. Like desires, one must first recognize what such emotions are, and repent. I could not find in Bible where it is said that it was going to be easy, at least in practice.
Re: "without cause"
ReplyDeleteIn Matthew 5:22, the words "without cause" are not in any of the latest Greek manuscripts. It came about because the word "lightly" appears in the Greek text from which the KJV was translated. While the KJV was translated from the best texts of its day, they were not as good as the ones we have today.
However, setting aside the issue of whether "without cause" belongs in the text for the moment, we can unravel exactly what Jesus was saying by looking at the bigger picture. He uses a threefold parallelism to make His point. A parallelism is a device used in Hebrew thought and teaching. You see them all over the O.T. especially the Psalms. In this particular type of parallelism the same basic topic is talked about three times such that in each repetition something is changed to advance the idea in order to drive home a central point.
First Jesus lays a starting point.
"You have heard that it was said to the ancients, "You shall not commit murder, and whoever commits murder shall be liable to judgment."
Then He begins the threefold parallelism: "But I, I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother is guilty to judgment."
That last phrase can be translated as "will be judged guilty". But however you translate it, since it is the same exact Greek phrase that ended the statement about murder, the point He is making here is that in His view a person who is angry at another person deserves the same punishment as if they had murdered the person. John was present and he got it. Years later he wrote in 1 John 3:15 "Everyone who hates [literally "goes on hating"] his brother is a murderer;..."
Jesus then advances the thought:
"and whoever says to his brother "Raca" shall be guilty to the Sanhedrin"
Raca is a transliteration (just brought the sound into Greek then into English) of an Aramaic insult that expresses displeasure, anger and contempt, usually addressed to a foolish, thoughtless or presumptuous person. As you know, the Sanhedrin was the national religious court, something like the American Supreme Court. Jesus is upping the severity of the crime by saying it will come before the supreme court of the land while at the same time giving us a hint about the real nature of the offense by using the word Raca in place of anger.
Now the iron is hot so He strikes with His main point: "and whoever says "You fool" shall be guilty to the fire of Gehenna."
This was meant to shock. This time "fool" is a Greek word from which we get "moron" and means something similar - fool. Gehenna is the place outside town where the trash is thrown into an almost perpetual fire and is a symbol of what we call Hell.
In one sense He's made a play on words. If you trivialize other human beings by calling or treating them as beneath you - or worthless, you run the risk of having God put you out with the really worthless trash - for eternity.
Jesus has just told us what God thinks about anyone who trivializes and shows contempt for another human. Since only God determines a persons worth we can't put ourselves in that position without facing utter ruin.
This is such a serious issue that Jesus adds two "suggestions": 1) don't even bother bringing an offering to God before you've tried to reconcile with people whom you have offended and 2) even make friends with your legal opponents before they go to court.(Regardless of whether you think you're in the right)
Now we can understand the type of anger he is addressing. It's an anger that puts us in the right at the expense of others. It's an anger that judges and belittles others. And it seems to me that the reason for such anger is immaterial. In my experience when I get angry at someone, I'm always right - for awhile.
In light of this analysis of Jesus' main point I think that the phrase "without cause" is actually misleading and should be left out as it is in the best Greek manuscripts.
I really appreciate the processing everyone is doing on this subject this week. As we get further into James, I hope to surface some principles that will give us even more perspective.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that anger is a God-given emotion. Anger is a reaction that gets us moving in the face of conflict or threat. We are made in God's image and God gets angry.
But God's anger accomplishes righteousness. Jesus' anger was addressed to people who had contempt for God. Either they were using the place of worship as a means of making money, or they refused to respond to God (the cities who refused to repent when God came and did mighty miracles in them) or they rebelled against God (the Pharisees who said the Spirit in Jesus was Satan and sought to kill Jesus). But Jesus also showed exemplary compassion, restraint and submission.
I can say that I often get angry at the pain a suffering caused by Satan in this world and by the willingness of people to live in and love the darkness instead of coming to the light. I find myself angry at the fact that so many Christians have settled for mediocrity and the world's way of doing things in their discipleship while convincing themselves that they are really doing what the Scripture tells them to. I think that's having at least a bit of a heart after God's own heart. But I try to take these things to God and ask for His leadership and for Him to accomplish what He wants, when He wants because every time my anger runs me I find myself looking down at people and end up hurting them instead of bringing about the righteousness that I want.
Re James 1:19
ReplyDeleteDon't know if this helps, but I thought I'd pass on what Vine's says this about two of the Greek words used for anger or wrath in the New Testament.
The word in James 1:19 is orge (pronounced orgay).
Excerpt from Vine's:
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Notes: (1) Thumos, wrath (not translated “anger”), is to be distinguished from orge, in this respect, that thumos indicates a more agitated condition of the feelings, an outburst of wrath from inward indignation, while orge suggests a more settled or abiding condition of mind, frequently with a view to taking revenge. Orge is less sudden in its rise than thumos,but more lasting in its nature. Thumos expresses more the inward feeling, orge the more active emotion. (W.E. Vine and F.F. Bruce, Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 2:55-56 (Old Tappan NJ: Revell, 1981.)
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10 out of the 18 uses of Thumos are in the book of Revelation. Seven of those references concern the wrath/indignation of God.
I just came across this. It's pretty good. (It reminds me of Jay's observation last Thursday)
ReplyDeleteThere is some ambivalence in James’ teaching about anger. On the one hand, just as slow to speak does not mean ‘never speak’, but ‘speak with due thought and care’, so slow to anger is not the same as ‘never be angry’. On the other hand, to say that human anger does not forward God’s righteous purposes is pretty unequivocal. Paul evidences the same duality when he says, ‘Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger’ (Eph. 4:26). Both writers imply the possibility of a righteous anger; both give a straight warning that anger and sin are never far apart; both counsel great watchfulness. It is an aspect of James’ style to say things bluntly and not to pause to spell out details or make refinements. He contents himself, therefore, with the general truth about human anger. It is not a pure emotion; it is usually heavily impregnated with sin—self-importance, self-assertion, intolerance, stubbornness. Most of us would have to confess that holy anger belongs in a state of sanctification to which we have not attained. James is writing of us and to us: your anger does not bring about the righteous plans of God. It is a salutary reminder and a merited rebuke. At any rate, an angry spirit is never an attentive one. When anger comes in, listening flies out. The courts of men are our drill-ground for the courts of the Lord. Those who would listen to him must train themselves to be listeners and, to that end, they must covet and cultivate a reticent tongue and a calm temper. For nothing must militate against—rather, everything must be made an adjunct to—that great, fundamental practice, hearing God’s Word.
J. A. Motyer, The Message of James : The Tests of Faith, The Bible speaks today, 65 (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill., U.S.A.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1985).