Skip to main content

An Angry Person Should be Tried in Court like a Murderer

After Yeshua made it clear that an important part of his mission was to correctly interpret the Torah (see August 30, 2013 blog, “Yeshua Came to Fulfill the Law not Abolish It”) he does just that. He will use the method of teaching, which is called “Fence Building” (see September 5, 2013 blog, “Yeshua Master Fence Builder”), along with other popular methods used by Jewish teachers of that time period. Now, let’s listen to a master teacher teach the Torah. It will become very clear that knowledge of the Torah is essential to digging much deeper into the words he used whenever he taught. This lesson is just as applicable for Jews and non-Jews today as it was to his Jewish audience almost 2,000 years ago.

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subjected to the Bet Din.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother will be subjected to the Bet Din.’”

Yeshua began by connecting a heavy or serious commandment with a light or lesser serious commandment.

Heavy Commandment = You shall not murder.
Light Commandment = You shall not be angry with your brother.

“You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13) is a commandment that most people recognize from the Ten Commandments, but where is the commandment “you shall not be angry with your brother”? As we study the teachings of Yeshua, we will discover that some of his most important interpretations of the Torah are linked to a specific section in the Torah -- Leviticus 19:17-18:

You shall not hate your brother in your heart.
You shall reason with your neighbor lest you bear sin because of him.
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your people.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
I am YAHWEH.

The link to anger in this section is the Hebrew word translated “grudge.” The same word is used in the following verses and I have underlined its translations.

(1) Will He remain angry forever? (Jeremiah 3:5a)
(2) I will not remain angry forever. (Jeremiah 3:12b)
(3) Nor will He keep His anger forever.

It will take several blogs to cover this one lesson Yeshua taught and points he made by just connecting the two commandments. However, before we can understand the points he will make about anger, we must turn our attention to the term “Bet Din.” Your translation probably has the word “judgment” instead.  But, Yeshua provides us with the clue that will reveal the correct meaning here. The clue is found in the next sentence:

Again, anyone who says to a brother, ‘RAKA,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. (Matthew 5:22)

Yeshua uses many parallelisms in his teachings and they always help us understand his words much more accurately. In the above verse, he used “answerable to the Sanhedrin,” while in the previous sentence he used “subjected to the X (Bet Din or judgment).” “Bet Din” literally means “house of judgment” and was a reference to the court system of Judea.

(1) The lowest court was a Bet Din of three judges.
(2) Cases involving capital punishment were decided by a Bet Din of twenty-three judges.[i]
(3) The highest court of the land was the Sanhedrin of 71 judges.

Since Yeshua used the heavy commandment of murder, which would be tried in a Bet Din, and a reference to the Sanhedrin in parallel -- we know that he was referring to the twenty-three judge Bet Din here. This was Yeshua’s attention grabbing opening for the lesson:

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be tried in the second highest court in the land, the 23 judge Bet Din.’ But I tell you – anyone who is angry with a brother would also be tried by the 23 judge Bet Din.’”

I will continue Yeshua’s lesson in the next blog.

If you like our posts on The Real Yeshua Blog, please go to Facebook and “Like” our page -- https://www.facebook.com/therealyeshua?ref=hl -- also share it with your friends.

If you consider this information important and valuable, help fund the work it takes to produce it. Donate at -- http://www.biblicalheritage.org/yeshua_donate.htm



[i] Mishnah; Sanhedrin 1:4

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It’s a Yod -- NOT a Jot and Tittle!

Not only did Yeshua read and speak Hebrew, so did his followers and disciples! Two very well known, but not accurately understood words in the Gospel of Matthew prove it – jot and tittle . For some reason jot and tittle stick in the minds of Christian Bible readers. But when you ask them what jot or tittle mean, you get a lot of conflicting and some really weird answers. Today, you are going to get the facts about what Yeshua originally said and how they ended up in English translations of the Bible as jot and tittle . Let’s begin by reading Matthew 5:18 from the King James translation: For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. If you have not read the article “ From Yeshua to Jesus ” in Yeshua’s Kingdom Handbook please take a moment to read it online by clicking here before you continue. In it you will see how we began with the name “ Jesus ” and traced it through Lati...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do Not Say RAQA! - Yeshua on Anger (Part 2)

In the last blog, we covered the first part of Yeshua’s lesson on Anger -- An Angry Person Should be Tried in Court like a Murderer – keep in mind that “anger” is the focus of Yeshua’s lesson. “Whoever says to a brother, ‘ RAKA ,’ shall be answerable to the Sanhedrin.” [i] Yeshua reveals that the seriousness of the offense has become greater by elevating the crime to the next highest court – the Sanhedrin . It is the highest court in the nation and would be the equivalent of our Supreme Court. What makes this offense more serious than murder, to keep things in the context established by Yeshua? It is because of what the angry person said out of anger – “ RAKA !” RAKA is the English transliteration of the Greek word found in the ancient manuscripts of Matthew. Interestingly, the Greek word is also a transliteration of a Hebrew word into Greek. Keep in mind that when a translator working on a translation of a Greek manuscript transliterates a Greek word, he only finds ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Prayer Yeshua Prayed Twice Every Day

One of Jesus’s earliest memories was no doubt watching and listening to his family when they gathered to pray the Shema at sunrise before the day’s work began and after the working work day was over at sunset . He also heard and participated in praying the Shema at their synagogue. He was surrounded by neighbors who also prayed the same prayer in their homes every day. The Hebrew word for prayer is tefilah . It is derived from the root Pe-Lamed-Lamed and the word l'hitpalel, meaning “ to judge oneself .” This surprising word origin provides insight into the purpose of Jewish prayer. The most important part of any Jewish prayer, whether it be a prayer of petition, of thanksgiving, of praise of God, or of confession, is the introspection it provides, the moment that we spend looking inside ourselves, seeing our role in the universe and our relationship to God. [1] Most of Jewish prayers are expressed in the first person plural, "us" instead of "me," an...
Post a Comment
Read more