Devotional: Matthew 5:22

Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim:
Matthew 5:22: “But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council, but whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.”
This passage has always baffled me.  Just reading this in the English translation sounds like it is a greater offense to call a brother a fool than it is to be angry with him or call him Raca, whatever that might be.   Why is one in danger of hell if he calls a brother a fool.  If that is the case, I have a few brethren who are should be feeling the heat right now, myself included.  How many times have I read something by some brother who just popped a verse out of context, devastated the original language, and spun his own agenda and I called him a fool.  Well, I may not have used that word “fool,” I may have found a more politically correct phrase like “he didn’t study it out” or “he does not have a good grasp of the original language,”  but what it boils down to is that I called him a fool.  As I am researching for my dissertation, I find I am led to review my studies of the Aramaic and this time in the New Testament.
But first note that the Greek word used here is “moros” where we get the word “moron” today.  It indicates someone who is uneducated or untrained but makes judgments as if he knew it all.   I remember as a kid hearing Dean Martin sing: “When the moon hits the sky like a great pizza pie, that’s a moron”  or at least that is the way I heard it and I figured anyone who thinks the moon is a pizza has got to be a moron.  Indeed, if you think the moon is made of pizza or cheese you would fit the definition of “moros.”  Still calling someone a moron should not condemn you to hell any more than being angry with you brother without reason.
The Aramaic Bible uses the word “lila” for fool which has the idea of calling someone a coward who is afraid of something unreasonable.  I drive a bus for senior citizens and the disabled.  Recently I picked up an elderly woman to take her to a doctor’s appointment.  She flew into a state of panic as I approached a bridge and insisted I take another route which was totally out of the way because she was afraid to cross the bridge.  I didn’t say it out loud, but in my mind I called her a lila or a fool. I drove over the bridge anyways and I began to feel the heat of hell’s fire as I saw how I purposely brought distress on this little lady who in no way did anything to me.  Should I be condemned to hell for such an act?
The word used for anger in the Greek is orizo which means to provoke into anger.  The Aramaic Bible uses a word parallel to the Hebrew word ka’aps which means to provoke to anger which ends in sorrow or is generated from sorrow.  This is the idea of provoking a crowd into unrest.  Telling them how awful their situation is and to rise against the government.  Such an act will bring one into judgment before the civil courts.  However, if you say “Raca”  to a brother you are in danger of being brought before the Sanhedrin, the religious court.  The word “Raca” is Aramaic meaning to spit upon, to say a person is worthless, no better than your spit.  This puts you in danger of the religious court because you are declaring that God created something that was worthless or of no value to Him.  You are literally in danger of blasphemy to declare that someone is worthless.  A doctor can legally perform an abortion and by that declare the unborn child is worthless and of no value and he would not be in danger of a civil or criminal court, but if he were a member of a God fearing church he could stand in judgment before his congregation and excommunicated.
If I called that little lady a fool  or coward and drove over the bridge, I would have broken no law that would put me before a criminal or civil court.  I could argue I was only trying to help her to confront her fears, I did not endanger her life in any way, I just brought mental distress upon her.   Also I would really have broken no religious law, at least according to the laws that would have brought me before the Sanhedrin.  But I would be in danger of hell’s fire.
Let me make this clear, if the Bible teaches that Hell is a place of eternal torment and fire, I believe it without a moment’s hesitation.  However, I do not believe this passage is referring to our eternal state.  For you see there is an old Aramaic Idiom still in use today by the people of the Mesopotamian area.  When you bring undo suffering, mental torment or misery upon another person they would say you are in danger of “the fires of Gahanna” or “hell’s fires.”
Gahanna is compound Aramaic word for Valley of Hinna which was a place outside of Jerusalem that was once the place that the people worshipped the God Moloch.  It was there that they sacrificed their babies in the outstretched arms of an idol of Moloch and set it on fire.  The people who perform this ritual were human after all, just as those who perform abortions.  As much as they tried to hide it or sugar coat it, they could not overcome their mental anguish over what they did.  It always came back to haunt them in their sleep.  The cries of the infants as they burned to death will torment many of these human beings.  Indeed some may have been hardened as abortionist are today, but many a former abortionist or mother who offered her unborn child in exchange for her own “freedom” will tell you of the mental torment they must endure. Consider that Muslim father who stoned his daughter in the name of his religion as the mother looked on, you can’t tell me that at some time they do not suffer the fires of Gahanna, or hell’s fires, that ancient idiomatic expression for the mental torment of bringing suffering upon another that you did not have to answer to in a court of law or a religious court.
Jesus was only stating a simple fact of human nature and the conscious God put within all of us.  If you call a dear elderly lady a fool for being fearful over crossing bridge and you cross it to save an extra fifteen minutes, you are indeed in danger of suffering the fires of Gahanna (Aramaic idiom for mental anguish or regret).