“Idiot dwiver” was one of my daughter’s earliest expressions. Something she learned from riding in the car with me. (Whoops.) I told my wife that this was better than profanity. Is it? What does Jesus mean in Matt 5:21 – 22?
"You have heard that the ancients were told, 'You shall not commit murder' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.' "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, 'Raca,' [empty head] shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into Gehenna.”
Background: In the immediate context, Jesus
has said that he came to correctly fulfill (apply) the Law and the Prophets.* His following example uses hyperbole by
shockingly putting anger and name-calling in the category of murder! He is a attacking a casuistic approach to applying
God’s law; that is: in the case of A, do X; in the case of B, do Y; in the case
of C, do Z.# Instead, Jesus is pointing
to the heart, the moral foundation, from which murder comes. Submitting to God, as properly learned
through the Law, was to address the heart.
This text got me thinking about name-calling.
Names were important in this culture.
Parents might give an aspirational name (Eleazar, “God [is] helper”). A person’s name might be changed to accompany
a change of character or calling (Abram to Abraham). Not naming someone in a story was a slur (the
unnamed kinsman redeemer in Ruth who rejects his responsibility). I think, too, of the lawyer, who refused to
say “Samaritan” in answer to Jesus’ question (Luke 10:36 – 37). In terms of magic/witchcraft, knowing and using
someone’s name gave some leverage. And,
as mentioned in a previous post, “How is the Bible the Word of God” (July 30,
2023), words were important in this culture.
They were uttered by a person’s breath=spirit and, therefore, had some efficacious
force to them. Cursing and taking an
oath were quite serious.
Application: As I move to personal application, I am reminded that name-calling (“idiot dwiver”) reveals more about me than it does about the other person. It reveals that I am willing to belittle other people and dehumanize them by reducing them to a pejorative label, one that undoubtedly makes me feel superior – “Surely, I am not like that (blank) person!” Such a heart/moral foundation is moving me away from the cultivation of mercy, empathy, and compassion, moving me away from the intended fulfillment of the Law and Prophets. I think that was what Jesus was getting at.
Lord, what I say reveals – to my shame -- my heart. Forgive me. Please cleanse my heart and my words. Grant that I might grow in the fruit of the Spirit. Amen.
*I found an interesting open-source article by Michal Bar-Asher
Seigal, “Matthew 5:22: The Insult ‘Fool’ and the Interpretation of the Law in
Christian and Rabbinic Sources.” The
author concludes that in the context of Second Temple debates about Torah that
Jesus is speaking about ridiculing someone for their interpretation of Torah. That is possible but seems too specific in
light of the other teachings in Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” (Matt 5 – 7).
#To see that Jesus is using exaggeration for shock value here, one
might note that Jesus does call someone a “fool” (moros) in Mt 23:17.
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