The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew5:21–26

Anger and Reconciliation

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Matthew 5:21–26 — Anger and Reconciliation. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

21

You have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not murder’ and ‘Anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Ēkousate hoti errethē tois archaiois phoneuseis Ou d’ hos an phoneusē estai enochos tē krisei

Word by word15 · parsed
ἨκούσατεĒkousateYou have heardG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
ἀκούω: to hear, to receive by report Aorist indicative active, second plural. Gill documents that in rabbinic usage “to hear” was a technical term for receiving a text together with the elders' gloss on it, “being read in the schools, and heard by the scholars.” So the verb already contains the problem Jesus is about to expose: what the crowd possesses is not the commandment but the commandment as reported.
ὅτιhotithatG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ἐρρέθηerrethēit was saidG2046
√ ἐρέω — an alternate for G2036 (ἔπω) in certain tensesVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
ἐρέω: to say, to speak (aorist passive) The agentless passive is the hinge of the whole antithesis, because it makes the source of the saying a question rather than a statement. Poole observes that the Pharisaic preface “it was said by them of old time” conveniently “comprehended the law given by Moses ... and also their own traditions and false glosses,” blending God's word with their own under one formula. Jesus answers not with another passive but with an active first person.
τοῖςtoisto theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
ἀρχαίοιςarchaioisancientsG744
√ ἀρχαῖος — original or primevalAdjectiveDative Masculine Plural
ἀρχαῖος: original, primeval, of old Ellicott, reading the word by its use in Acts 15:21, takes “old time” to point to the era “when synagogues began to be established, i.e., after the return from Babylon,” and Gill likewise to “the ancestors of the Jews, since the times of Ezra.” The adjective sounds venerable and is meant to; the argument is that antiquity of custom is not the same as authority of God.
φονεύσειςphoneuseisDo not murderG5407
√ φονεύω — to be a murderer (of)VerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
φονεύω: to murder Future indicative active used with the negative as an absolute prohibition, the standard Septuagint idiom for the Decalogue's imperative. Barnes notes the specific force: “This properly denotes taking the life of another with malice, or with an intention to murder him. The Jews understood it as meaning no more.” The verb is narrow by design; the quarrel is over whether the law stops where the verb stops.
ΟὐOu. . .G3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
δ’d’andG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὃςhosAnyone whoG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἂνan. . .G302
√ ἄν — (what-, where-, wither-, who-)soeverParticle
φονεύσῃphoneusēmurdersG5407
√ φονεύω — to be a murderer (of)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
ἔσταιestaiwill beG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ἔνοχοςenochossubjectG1777
√ ἔνοχος — liable to (a condition, penalty or imputation)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἔνοχος: liable, held in, subject to A rare word, occurring in only eight verses in the Greek New Testament, and every one of them a courtroom. It will carry the entire structure of v. 22 (three times) and will be spoken over Jesus himself at Matthew 26:66. The adjective does not say a man has done a crime; it says a crime has hold of him.
τῇtētoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
κρίσειkriseijudgmentG2920
√ κρίσις — decision (subjectively or objectively, for or against)NounDative Feminine Singular
κρίσις: decision, judgment, tribunal Dative of the court one is liable to. Benson, Barnes and Cambridge take it of the local court of twenty three, which “could punish criminals with strangling or beheading.” Gill and Poole (following Lightfoot) take it of the judgment of God, since v. 22 distinguishes it from the Sanhedrin. The Pulpit resolves the tension by reading all three penalties as “grades of Divine judgment under the form of the Jewish processes of law.” The word itself will not settle which; the context of v. 22, where mere anger is tried, pushes hard toward God.
22

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to the fire of hell.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de egō legō hymin hoti pas ho orgizomenos tō autou adelphō estai enochos tē krisei d’ hos an eipē tō autou adelphō Rhaka estai enochos tō synedriō d’ hos an eipē Mōre estai enochos eis tēn tou pyros geennan

Word by word39 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἐγὼegōIG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 1st Person Singular
ἐγώ: I (emphatic) The whole Sermon turns on this superfluous pronoun. Benson puts the question sharply: “Which of the prophets ever spake thus? Their language was, Thus saith the Lord.” The prophetic formula transmits; this one legislates. Barnes draws the inference that the speaker must be the original giver of the law, “and he that has a right to ordain and change laws in the government of God must be himself divine.”
λέγωlegōtellG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ὑμῖνhyminyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
ὅτιhotithatG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
πᾶςpasanyoneG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
πᾶς: all, every one With the articular participle (πᾶς ὁ ὀργιζόμενος) this builds the sweeping form Pulpit notes is “specially frequent in 1 John,” citing Westcott's observation that it appears where “some had questioned the application of a general principle in particular cases.” The construction forecloses exceptions before anyone can plead one.
ὁhowhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ὀργιζόμενοςorgizomenosis angry withG3710
√ ὀργίζω — to provoke or enrage, iVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
ὀργίζω: to provoke, to be enraged (present participle) The commentators are careful here, and the care is theologically load bearing. Barnes lists lawful anger (Psalm 7:11 of God, Mark 3:5 of Jesus, Ephesians 4:26 of believers) and Gill agrees that anger “is in God, in Christ, in the holy angels.” JFB likewise. With εἰκῇ absent from the best text, the restraint cannot come from the word “causeless”; it has to come from the object, which is the next noun.
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
αὐτοῦautouhisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἀδελφῷadelphōbrotherG80
√ ἀδελφός — a brother (literally or figuratively) near or remote (much like G1 (Α))NounDative Masculine Singular
ἀδελφός: brother Benson takes it of “any child of man, for we are all brethren”; Henry of “any person, though ever so much below us, for we are all made of one blood”; Gill “in a large sense, any man, of whatsoever country or nation.” Pulpit weighs whether the word means only a person in temporary relation, and concludes that “neighbour” would have said that, so “brother” must mean more. The point of the noun is that the target of the contempt is kin, which is precisely what contempt denies.
ἔσταιestaiwill beG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ἔνοχοςenochossubjectG1777
√ ἔνοχος — liable to (a condition, penalty or imputation)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
τῇtētoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
κρίσειkriseijudgmentG2920
√ κρίσις — decision (subjectively or objectively, for or against)NounDative Feminine Singular
δ’d’AgainG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὃςhosanyone whoG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἂνan. . .G302
√ ἄν — (what-, where-, wither-, who-)soeverParticle
εἴπῃeipēsaysG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
τῷtōtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
αὐτοῦautouhisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἀδελφῷadelphōbrotherG80
√ ἀδελφός — a brother (literally or figuratively) near or remote (much like G1 (Α))NounDative Masculine Singular
ῬακάRhakaRacaG4469
√ ῥακά — O empty one, iNounVocative Masculine Singular
ῥακά: O empty one A vocative of scorn, and the middle rung of the ladder. Henry sets the two insults side by side with real precision: “Raca, is a scornful word, and comes from pride: Thou fool, is a spiteful word, and comes from hatred.” Ellicott adds that dictionary meaning is not the whole of it, since “all words of abuse depend for their full force on popular association.”
ἔσταιestaiwill beG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ἔνοχοςenochossubjectG1777
√ ἔνοχος — liable to (a condition, penalty or imputation)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
τῷtōto theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Singular
συνεδρίῳsynedriōSanhedrinG4892
√ συνέδριον — a joint session, iNounDative Neuter Singular
συνέδριον: a joint session, council Ellicott notes the irony that “Sanhedrin,” though it looks Hebrew, “is really only a transliterated form of the Greek word for council.” Its distinguishing prerogative, as Ellicott and Barnes both record, was death by stoning. Matthew will use ἔνοχος once more, at 26:66, when this same body pronounces Jesus liable to death.
δ’d’ButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὃςhosanyone whoG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἂνan. . .G302
√ ἄν — (what-, where-, wither-, who-)soeverParticle
εἴπῃeipēsaysG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
ΜωρέMōreYou foolG3474
√ μωρός — dull or stupid (as if shut up), iAdjectiveVocative Masculine Singular
μωρός: dull, stupid, morally senseless Gill distinguishes it from Raca: “The word ‘fool’ does not signify a man of weak parts, one that is very ignorant in things natural; this the word Raca imports; but a wicked reprobate man.” Ellicott, weighing and rejecting the proposed Hebrew link to “rebel” in Numbers 20:10, prefers the sense of Psalm 14:1, “utter godlessness as well as lack of intellectual wisdom.” To say it is to pronounce a man damned, which is the Judge's word, not ours.
ἔσταιestaiwill beG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ἔνοχοςenochossubjectG1777
√ ἔνοχος — liable to (a condition, penalty or imputation)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
πυρόςpyrosfireG4442
√ πῦρ — "fire" (literally or figuratively, specially, lightning)NounGenitive Neuter Singular
γέεννανgeennanof hellG1067
√ γέεννα — valley of (the son of) HinnomNounAccusative Feminine Singular
γέεννα: Valley of Hinnom A geographical name doing eschatological work. Geneva, JFB and Cambridge all give the history: the ravine southwest of Jerusalem where children were burned to Molech, defiled by Josiah (2 Kings 23:10), afterward a place of refuse and (by Jewish report) perpetual fire. JFB notes that the Old Testament already described final punishment by allusion to this valley (Isaiah 30:33; 66:24) and that Jesus at Mark 9:43-48 simply quotes those descriptions. The ladder that began with a held grudge ends at a real address outside the city wall.
23

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

oun Ean prospherēs to sou dōron epi to thysiastērion kakei mnēsthēs hoti ho sou adelphos echei ti kata sou

Word by word19 · parsed
οὖνounSoG3767
√ οὖν — (adverbially) certainly, or (conjunctionally) accordinglyConjunction
ἘὰνEanifG1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
προσφέρῃςprospherēsyou are offeringG4374
√ προσφέρω — to bear towards, iVerbPresent Subjunctive Active2nd Person Singular
προσφέρω: to bear toward, to offer The sacrificial verb of the Septuagint, here in a present subjunctive that freezes the action mid rite. JFB, quoting Tholuck, sets the scene exactly: the Israelite waiting “at the rails which separate the place where he stands from the court of the priests, into which his offering will presently be taken.” The command of v. 24 lands at the least convenient moment liturgy allows.
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
δῶρόνdōrongiftG1435
√ δῶρον — a presentNounAccusative Neuter Singular
δῶρον: a gift, an offering Ellicott notes that “the most generic term seems intentionally used to represent any kind of offering.” Gill argues it is specifically a freewill offering rather than a trespass offering, which sharpens the point: the Jewish rule Gill and Pulpit cite from the Mishnah required restitution before a trespass offering, but Jesus applies the principle to the voluntary gift as well, where no legal debt is even in view.
ἐπὶepiatG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
θυσιαστήριονthysiastērionaltarG2379
√ θυσιαστήριον — a place of sacrifice, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
θυσιαστήριον: a place of sacrifice, altar Barnes: “To bring a gift to the altar was expressive of worshipping God, for this was the way in which he was formerly worshipped.” Geneva's marginal caution deserves recording alongside it: the altar belongs to “the state of his time, when there was then an altar standing in Jerusalem,” so the verse authorizes no reconstruction of altars. The principle outlasts the furniture.
κἀκεῖkakeiand thereG2546
√ κἀκεῖ — likewise in that placeConjunction
μνησθῇςmnēsthēsrememberG3403
√ μιμνήσκω — to remind, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Passive2nd Person Singular
μιμνήσκω: to remind, to be reminded (aorist passive) The passive voice matters. The worshipper does not summon the memory; it is brought to him at the rails. Pulpit remarks that “the spirit of recollection may well culminate with the culminating action,” and Henry draws the pastoral use: “when we are preparing for any religious exercises, it is good for us to make that an occasion of serious reflection and self-examination.”
ὅτιhotithatG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
ἀδελφόςadelphosbrotherG80
√ ἀδελφός — a brother (literally or figuratively) near or remote (much like G1 (Α))NounNominative Masculine Singular
ἔχειecheihasG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τιtisomethingG5100
√ τὶς — some or any person or objectInterrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
κατὰkataagainstG2596
√ κατά — (prepositionally) down (in place or time), in varied relations (according to the case (genitive, dative or accusative) with which it is joined)Preposition
κατά: down upon, against With the genitive σοῦ the preposition is adversarial, the same relation the noun ἀντίδικος will formalize in v. 25. The grammar of the objection is already the grammar of a lawsuit; v. 25 only names the court.
σοῦsouyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
24

leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

aphes to sou dōron ekei emprosthen tou thysiastēriou kai prōton hypage diallagēthi tō sou adelphō kai tote elthōn prosphere to sou dōron

Word by word22 · parsed
ἄφεςaphesleaveG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ἀφίημι: to send away, leave, release Aorist imperative, a single decisive act. Ellicott feels the scandal in it: the command “describes an act which would appear to men as a breach of liturgical propriety. To leave the gift and the priest, the act of sacrifice unfinished, would be strange and startling.” He compares the Talmudic rule at Pesachim 49 that a man remembering leaven in his house mid Passover must go home and remove it, and observes that “what the scribes laid down as a duty in regard to the ‘leaven of bread,’ our Lord applies to the leaven of malice.”
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
δῶρόνdōrongiftG1435
√ δῶρον — a presentNounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐκεῖekeithereG1563
√ ἐκεῖ — thereAdverb
ἐκεῖ: there Picks up κἀκεῖ from v. 23: the place where the memory struck is the place the gift is abandoned.
ἔμπροσθενemprosthenbeforeG1715
√ ἔμπροσθεν — in front of (in place (literally or figuratively) or time)Preposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
θυσιαστηρίουthysiastērioualtarG2379
√ θυσιαστήριον — a place of sacrifice, iNounGenitive Neuter Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πρῶτονprōtonFirstG4412
√ πρῶτον — firstly (in time, place, order, or importance)AdverbSuperlative
πρῶτον: first, in order of priority The adverb ranks two obligations that the hearers assumed could not compete, and ranks the horizontal above the vertical for the moment. JFB records the practice this produced: “the beautiful practice of the early Church, to see that all differences amongst brethren and sisters in Christ were made up, in the spirit of love, before going to the Holy Communion.”
ὕπαγεhypagego [and]G5217
√ ὑπάγω — to lead (oneself) under, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
διαλλάγηθιdiallagēthibe reconciledG1259
√ διαλλάσσω — to change thoroughly, iVerbAorist Imperative Passive2nd Person Singular
διαλλάσσω: to change thoroughly, to reconcile A New Testament hapax, aorist imperative passive. The root sense is exchange, a thorough changing of terms between two parties. Ellicott insists the passive is not merely inward: “There must be also confession of wrong and the endeavour to make amends, to bring about, as far as in us lies, reconciliation, or atonement.” Gill documents that the rabbis said as much about offences between man and neighbour, which “are never forgiven, until he has given his neighbour what he owed him, and has reconciled him.”
τῷtōtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
ἀδελφῷadelphōbrotherG80
√ ἀδελφός — a brother (literally or figuratively) near or remote (much like G1 (Α))NounDative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τότεtotethenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
ἐλθὼνelthōncome [and]G2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἔρχομαι: to come (aorist participle) Subordinate to the following imperative: the return is presupposed, the offering is the command. The sacrifice is not cancelled by the errand, only postponed by it.
πρόσφερεprosphereofferG4374
√ προσφέρω — to bear towards, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
προσφέρω: to offer Present imperative, the same technical verb as v. 23, now resumed. The frame is deliberate: offering, interruption, offering. Worship is not replaced by ethics here; it is released to proceed.
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
δῶρόνdōrongiftG1435
√ δῶρον — a presentNounAccusative Neuter Singular
25

Reconcile quickly with your adversary, while you are still on the way to court. Otherwise, he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Isthi eunoōn tachy met’ autou tō sou antidikō heōs hotou ei en tē hodō mē pote ho antidikos paradō se tō kritē kai ho kritēs tō hypēretē kai blēthēsē eis phylakēn

Word by word31 · parsed
ἴσθιIsthivvvG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
εὐνοῶνeunoōnReconcileG2132
√ εὐνοέω — to be well- minded, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
εὐνοέω: to be well minded toward A New Testament rarity, and the tense is the message: a participle of continuance, not a settlement signed once. Pulpit notes Margoliouth's conjecture that this confirms a proposed original reading of Ecclesiasticus 18:20, “Before judgment beg off,” which is worth recording and worth treating as conjecture, not evidence.
ταχὺtachyquicklyG5035
√ ταχύ — shortly, iAdverb
ταχύ: quickly, shortly Pulpit's gloss is the whole pastoral point in four words: “For such is not the tendency of the human heart.”
μετ’met’G3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
αὐτοῦautouG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τῷtōwithG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
ἀντιδίκῳantidikōadversaryG476
√ ἀντίδικος — an opponent (in a lawsuit)NounDative Masculine Singular
ἀντίδικος: opponent in a lawsuit Rare (four verses), and the four are instructive: here, the persistent widow's opponent at Luke 18:3, and the devil as “your adversary” at 1 Peter 5:8. Ellicott allows that last sense to hover here, “not excluded, though it is not prominent,” and adds the sharp line that “any evil deed becomes in the end as an accusing Satan.” Barnes and Gill flatly reject any allegory here. The word is a courtroom noun; the identification of who stands in the box is contested and should be left contested.
ἕωςheōswhileG2193
√ ἕως — a conjunction, preposition and adverb of continuance, until (of time and place)Preposition
ὅτουhotou. . .G3755
√ ὅτου — during which same time, iPersonal / Relative PronounGenitive Masculine Singular
εἶeiyou are stillG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
ἐνenonG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
ὁδῷhodōway [to court]G3598
√ ὁδός — a roadNounDative Feminine Singular
ὁδός: a road, way The figure's clock. Henry makes the application the commentators are unanimous about: “While we are alive, we are in the way to his judgement-seat; after death, it will be too late.” The road is short and it is the only place where terms can still be made.
μή‿mēOtherwiseG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ποτέpote. . .G4219
√ πότε — interrogative adverb, at what timeConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἀντίδικοςantidikos[he]G476
√ ἀντίδικος — an opponent (in a lawsuit)NounNominative Masculine Singular
παραδῷparadōmay hand you overG3860
√ παραδίδωμι — to surrender, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
παραδίδωμι: to hand over, surrender Aorist subjunctive after μήποτε. This is Matthew's word for betrayal and for delivering up to trial, and the chain here (plaintiff to judge, judge to officer) is a machine with no reverse gear. Each handover narrows the options of the man being handed.
σεse. . .G4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Singular
τῷtōto theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
κριτῇkritējudgeG2923
√ κριτής — a judge (genitive case or specially)NounDative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
κριτὴςkritēsjudge [may hand you over]G2923
√ κριτής — a judge (genitive case or specially)NounNominative Masculine Singular
τῷtōto theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ὑπηρέτῃhypēretēofficerG5257
√ ὑπηρέτης — an under-oarsman, iNounDative Masculine Singular
ὑπηρέτης: an under-oarsman, officer, attendant Literally a rower on the lower bench, hence any subordinate who executes another's orders. Barnes glosses “the executioner; or, as we should say, the sheriff”; Pulpit identifies him with the synagogue's chazzan, for which ὑπηρέτης is the technical rendering, and notes that Matthew 13:41 predicates similar duties of angels.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
βληθήσῃblēthēsēyou may be thrownG906
√ βάλλω — to throw (in various applications, more or less violent or intense)VerbFuture Indicative Passive2nd Person Singular
βάλλω: to throw, cast Future indicative passive, and violent: not “placed in custody” but thrown. The same verb will describe being cast into the Gehenna fire of v. 22 elsewhere in Matthew. The mood shift from subjunctive to indicative is the sentence landing.
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
φυλακὴνphylakēnprisonG5438
√ φυλακή — a guarding or (concretely, guard), the act, the personNounAccusative Feminine Singular
26

Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

amēn legō soi ou mē exelthēs ekeithen heōs an apodōs ton eschaton kodrantēn

Word by word13 · parsed
ἀμὴνamēnTrulyG281
√ ἀμήν — properly, firm, iHebrew Word
ἀμήν: firm, faithful, so be it A Hebrew word preserved untranslated, marking what follows as ratified rather than proposed. In the Sermon it functions as the counterweight to the ἐγώ of v. 22: the same speaker who replaces “it was said” with “I say” now seals his own saying with the word normally used to affirm someone else's.
λέγωlegōI tellG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
σοιsoiyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Singular
οὐouvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
οὐ: the absolute negative The first of the two negatives that together form the emphatic denial.
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ἐξέλθῃςexelthēsyou will not get outG1831
√ ἐξέρχομαι — to issue (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Singular
ἐξέρχομαι: to go out, issue forth Aorist subjunctive under οὐ μὴ. Every commentator here is arguing about one thing: whether the ἕως (“until”) implies a term that could expire. JFB, Ellicott and Pulpit all note that Roman expositors read release into it, and all three answer that the clause is designedly general. Pulpit's formulation is the most careful: the release “is probable; but as for the slightest hint of the second [that payment can be made], it is wholly wanting.” A stated gap is the right result here.
ἐκεῖθενekeithenG1564
√ ἐκεῖθεν — thenceAdverb
ἕωςheōsuntilG2193
√ ἕως — a conjunction, preposition and adverb of continuance, until (of time and place)Conjunction
ἂνan. . .G302
√ ἄν — (what-, where-, wither-, who-)soeverParticle
ἀποδῷςapodōsyou have paidG591
√ ἀποδίδωμι — to give away, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Singular
ἀποδίδωμι: to give back, pay in full The verb makes the prisoner the payer, and that is exactly where the passage refuses to go further. Ellicott's honest conclusion is that the tone of the passage is meant “to make men feel that they cannot pay their debt, though God may forgive it freely.” The verse states the demand; it does not state a payer who can meet it.
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ἔσχατονeschatonlastG2078
√ ἔσχατος — farthest, final (of place or time)AdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
κοδράντηνkodrantēnpennyG2835
√ κοδράντης — a quadrans, iNounAccusative Masculine Singular
κοδράντης: quadrans, a Roman bronze coin A word occurring in only two verses of the Greek New Testament, and the other is Mark 12:42, where the widow's two lepta are reckoned as one κοδράντης. The same negligible coin measures the outside limit of debt here and the whole of a life's offering there. Nothing in Matthew requires that pairing; the lexical rarity simply makes it visible.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. What you heard, and who is saying otherwise — 5:21

⚙ The unit opens on a report, not a text. Ἠκούσατε is aorist: you heard, on an occasion, from someone. Gill shows from rabbinic usage that “hearing” was the technical term for receiving a passage together with the elders' gloss, so the verb already contains the problem. Then the agentless passive ἐρρέθη leaves the speaker unnamed, and the commentators divide over what that silence covers. Ellicott judges the impersonal form “conclusive against referring the words ... to that Law as given by God through Moses.” JFB disputes the grammar but lands in the same place, that the one object is “to contrast the traditional perversions of the law with the true sense of it as expounded by Himself.” Poole sees the Pharisaic formula as a convenient blend: under “it was said by the ancients” they “comprehended the law given by Moses ... and also their own traditions and false glosses.” The decisive evidence is Ellicott's and Poole's alike, and it is textual: the second half of the quotation, “whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment,” is not in the Old Testament at all. Ellicott states it plainly, that the absence of these words “confirms the view that our Lord is speaking of the traditional comments on the Law, and not of the Law itself.” So the thing corrected is a composite: God's sixth word with a court's jurisdiction stapled to it, which quietly converts a commandment into a statute of limitations.

ii. Three words, three courts, and one unnecessary pronoun — 5:22

⚙ Everything turns on a pronoun Greek did not need. ἐγὼ is redundant beside λέγω; it is there for stress. Ellicott notes it is emphasized; Cambridge calls the formula one “which implies the authority of a lawgiver”; Pulpit says Christ “claims for his words the same authority, and more than the same authority, as for those spoken once by God.” Benson asks the question that exposes the scale of the claim: “Which of the prophets ever spake thus? Their language was, Thus saith the Lord.” Barnes draws the conclusion nobody in this tradition flinches from, that whoever has the right to ordain and change law in God's government “must be himself divine.”

⚙ Then the ladder. Cambridge sets the rungs out cleanly: “(1) Feeling of anger without words. (2) Anger venting itself in words. (3) Insulting anger,” with the penalties graded to match. Henry distinguishes the two insults by their roots: “Raca, is a scornful word, and comes from pride: Thou fool, is a spiteful word, and comes from hatred.” JFB warns against pressing the vocabulary too hard, since “every age and every country has its modes of expressing such things,” and notes that James 2:20 uses the very word answering to Raca and that Jesus himself calls the blind guides fools at Matthew 23:17. The commentators divide on the tribunals. Barnes, Benson and Cambridge read the judgment as the local court of twenty three; Gill and Poole, following Lightfoot, read it as the judgment of God, since v. 22 distinguishes it from the Sanhedrin in the very next clause. Pulpit's resolution is the strongest, because it names the inconsistency in both literal readings: they make the sentence “pass from literal to figurative language” midstream, and besides, “it is inexplicable how mere anger could be brought under the cognizance of a human court.” So all three are “grades of Divine judgment under the form of the Jewish processes of law,” which the Geneva gloss had already said in 1599. One honest textual note belongs here: the Berean text has no εἰκῇ, “without a cause.” Cambridge and Ellicott both record its absence from the oldest manuscripts. Barnes, Poole, Gill and Geneva all build on the longer reading, and Benson, quoting Wesley, argues against it on internal grounds, that if only causeless anger were forbidden “there was no manner of need of that solemn declaration, I say unto you; for the scribes and Pharisees themselves said as much as this.”

iii. The gift left at the rails — 5:23-5:24

⚙ The argument now moves from the court to the altar, and the grammar does the work. προσφέρῃς is a present subjunctive of the technical Levitical verb, so, as Pulpit says, “Christ implies that the action has already begun,” and JFB, quoting Tholuck, fixes the instant: the Israelite standing “at the rails which separate the place where he stands from the court of the priests,” waiting for the priest to take the gift from his hands. At that instant μνησθῇς, an aorist passive, brings the grievance to mind, and the thing remembered is not your complaint but his. Ellicott states the test exactly: the worshipper asks “not whether he has a ground of complaint against any one, but whether any one has cause of complaint against him.”

⚙ The command that follows would have looked like sacrilege. Ellicott says so: to leave the gift and the priest mid rite “would be strange and startling.” He finds the pattern in a Talmudic rule about remembering leaven mid Passover and turns it: “What the scribes laid down as a duty in regard to the ‘leaven of bread,’ our Lord applies to the leaven of malice and wickedness.” Gill documents from the Mishnah and Maimonides that the rabbis already held offences between neighbours unexpiated by the Day of Atonement “until he hath reconciled his neighbour,” so the intensification is real but not alien. What is new is the verb. διαλλάγηθι occurs only here in the New Testament, and it is passive. JFB draws the whole weight out of that voice: the meaning is “not, ‘dismiss from thine own breast all ill feeling,’ but ‘get thy brother to dismiss from his mind all grudge against thee.’” An inward decision cannot satisfy a passive imperative; another person has to act. Barnes therefore makes it concrete: “If you have wronged him, make restitution. If you owe him a debt which ought to be paid, pay it. If you have injured his character, confess it and seek pardon.” Geneva's caution about the altar is worth preserving alongside all this: the scene belongs “to the state of his time, when there was then an altar standing in Jerusalem,” and Poole extends the principle to hearing the word and to prayer, since “God accepteth no service, no homage, from an implacable, malicious heart.”

iv. The short road, and the coin that ends it — 5:25-5:26

⚙ The imagery snaps back to the courts of v. 22, and the pressure changes from holiness to time. ἴσθι εὐνοῶν is periphrastic and durative; Cambridge renders it “be friendly with” and notes the participle “conveys the idea of continuance,” and Pulpit insists it is “not a merely formal reconciliation, but reconciliation based on a permanent kindly feeling.” Then the chain of handings over, each aorist subjunctive, until the mood changes: βληθήσῃ is future indicative, flat, “you will be thrown.” Barnes records the striking fact that the same counsel stands in the Roman law of the Twelve Tables, “in via, rem uti pacunt orato,” while himself declining to claim Jesus alluded to it. Ellicott takes the figure allegorically, judge as God, officers as those who execute his judgment, adversary as those we have wronged; Gill flatly refuses the allegory and reads it as advice about debt suits, and Barnes explicitly denies the popular use of the verse that makes God the adversary. Pulpit holds both: the adversary is primarily human here, but in the Lucan parallel the reference is to God, and both conceptions “are true, and can be kept quite distinct.”

⚙ Verse 26 then closes the door with the strongest negative Greek has, οὐ μὴ with the aorist subjunctive, and a Latin coin. κοδράντην is a quadrans, and Ellicott notes the mite was half of it and “the smallest coin in circulation.” The commentators are unanimous that the language here is deliberately unresolved and nearly unanimous about which way it leans. Ellicott canvasses the possibility of a terminable sentence with real seriousness and then says the utmost that can be said is “there may be.” JFB says the remedilessness “is not in so many words expressed, and still less is its actual cessation taught. The language on all these points is designedly general.” Pulpit concedes that release on payment is probable in the figure but that of the possibility of payment “the slightest hint ... is wholly wanting.” Gill hears in it “the inexorableness of the creditor, and the impossibility of the debtor's release.” The passage does not tell us whether the debt can be paid. It tells us the road is short.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested by Scripture. The sixth commandment named an act, and the gloss the crowd had heard named a court with jurisdiction over that act, which is how a commandment becomes survivable: you can keep a statute you have no occasion to break. Jesus does not add new prohibitions. He removes the jurisdictional limit. The rare adjective ἔνοχος, “held liable,” falls three times in v. 22, and each time the court named is higher and the offence smaller, until a word spoken in contempt stands in a valley of fire. Read as legislation this is monstrous; no court could enforce it, and Pulpit is right that no human court could even take cognizance of the first offence. Read as diagnosis it is exact. Anger held against a brother is already the act, done in the only place the act is ever really done.

⚙ And notice where the remedy is put. Not in feeling, not in intention, but in a passive imperative, διαλλάγηθι, which no one can obey alone, and in an errand that interrupts worship at the most inconvenient possible moment. The man at the rails is told to leave the gift and go find the person who has something against him. Then the road, then the coin. The passage ends without naming anyone who can pay the last quadrans, and I think that silence is the point rather than a gap. The sequence it builds is the sequence of the gospel run backwards: liability, an unpayable debt, a demand for reconciliation that must be received from another. Matthew's book will supply what this paragraph withholds. The word ἔνοχος returns exactly once more in this Gospel, at 26:66, where the council that v. 22 invoked pronounces its verdict over Jesus, and the sentence that no debtor could discharge is discharged by the one who owed nothing. I hold that last connection loosely, as a reading and not as a claim of the text; the fallible part is mine, and the reader should test it.

The law named an act so that a court could reach it; he named the heart so that no court could. (⚙ synthesis, not Scripture.)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

ἔνοχος: the word that holds a man, and the word spoken over the Judge verbal / quotation: confirmed

The adjective ἔνοχος (G1777) is rare, standing in only eight verses of the Greek New Testament, and every one of them is a courtroom. Matthew 5:22 uses it three times in a single sentence, grading offences against a brother. Its one other appearance in Matthew is at 26:66, where the Sanhedrin answers, “He is liable to death,” and the parallel at Mark 14:64 uses the same word. James 2:10 applies it to the man who keeps the whole law and stumbles at one point; Mark 3:29 to blasphemy against the Spirit; 1 Corinthians 11:27 to unworthy participation at the Table, which is the very setting JFB says the early Church applied Matthew 5:23-24 to. The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme in each case. ⚙ The rarity is what makes the shape visible: the same courtroom adjective covers the contemptuous word, the single stumble, the unworthy communicant, and the verdict on Christ.

Matthew 26:66 · Mark 14:64 · James 2:10 · 1 Corinthians 11:27 · Mark 3:29

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1777 ἔνοχος, a rare word occurring in only 8 verses; all refs are Greek New Testament, so the verbal link is directly computable and not a quotation claim in either direction

The last quadrans and the widow's two coins verbal / quotation: confirmed

κοδράντης (G2835), the Latin quadrans carried into Greek, occurs in only two verses in the New Testament: here, as the last fraction of an unpayable debt, and Mark 12:42, where the widow casts in two lepta, “which make a quadrans.” Ellicott notes in his comment on this verse that the mite of Mark 12:42 was half a quadrans and “the smallest coin in circulation,” and that the “farthing” of Matthew 10:29 is a different word entirely. The Verifier records both the shared κοδράντης and the shared verb G906 βάλλω, the throwing that puts a man in prison here and puts the coins in the treasury there. ⚙ The same negligible bronze measures the furthest reach of a debt in this paragraph and the whole of a life's offering in Mark. The pairing is lexical fact; what one makes of it is inference.

Mark 12:42

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2835 κοδράντης (in 2 vv, the two verses being this one and Mark 12:42) and G906 βάλλω (in 107 vv); both refs are Greek, so the rare-lexeme link is confirmable

The same counsel on the same road in Luke verbal / quotation: confirmed

Luke 12:58-59 gives this saying in another setting and in closely related words. The Verifier records three shared lexemes: G5217 ὑπάγω, G2923 κριτής and G3860 παραδίδωμι. The Pulpit Commentary weighs the relationship at length and concludes that “the verbal differences seem to be such as would hardly have been made on purpose, and to be rather due to memory; yet the agreement is too minute to be the result of memory of a Gospel only oral. Perhaps memory of a document best satisfies the conditions.” Pulpit further observes that two of Luke's words, ὑπάγεις and ἀπήλλαχθαι, seem to recall Matthew's v. 24, which argues that Matthew's sequence of vv. 24-26 is the original one. ⚙ The two evangelists also point the figure differently: Pulpit notes that in Luke the adversary is God, while in Matthew the primary reference is the injured man.

Luke 12:58

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2923 κριτής (in 17 vv), G5217 ὑπάγω (in 75 vv), G3860 παραδίδωμι (in 117 vv); both refs Greek. Pulpit independently judges the agreement too minute for oral transmission. κριτής is only moderately rare, so the strength here rests on the recognized synoptic parallel as much as on frequency

The sixth word, quoted but not cited as a quotation structural / thematic: confirmed

“Do not murder” is the sixth commandment, Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17, and the Greek of Matthew 5:21 reproduces the Septuagint form Οὐ φονεύσεις. Poole names the source directly: “this was spoken by God in Mount Sinai, it was the sixth of the ten words then spoke.” Barnes cross-references Exodus 20:13 and notes that Moses' law declared the murderer should be put to death (Leviticus 24:21; Numbers 35:16) without specifying by whom, “and it was left to the Jews to organize courts” under Deuteronomy 16:18. ⚙ That gap in the Mosaic text is exactly where the gloss Jesus corrects was inserted. The second clause quoted in v. 21, about being liable to the judgment, is not in the Old Testament at all, a point Ellicott makes decisive for reading the whole antithesis.

Exodus 20:13 · Deuteronomy 5:17 · Deuteronomy 16:18

basis: Cross-Testament link (Greek New Testament to Hebrew Old Testament), so no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed and the tier cannot be verbal even though Matthew reproduces the Septuagint wording of the commandment. Basis is the explicit identification by Poole and Barnes plus the shared Decalogue frame

Gehenna: a ravine with an address structural / thematic: confirmed

γέεννα (G1067) is the Greek form of Ge-Hinnom, the Valley of Hinnom. Cambridge describes it as “a deep narrow glen S. W. of Jerusalem, once the scene of the cruel worship of Moloch,” defiled by Josiah at 2 Kings 23:10 and afterward a dumping ground; Geneva gives the same history and cites Jeremiah 7:31 for Topheth. JFB adds the decisive observation that the Old Testament itself already described the final punishment of the wicked “by allusions to this valley of Tophet or Hinnom (Isa 30:33; 66:24),” and that at Mark 9:43-48 Jesus describes it “by merely quoting these terrific descriptions of the evangelical prophet.” ⚙ The place-name is doing theology: the end of the ladder of contempt is the place where Israel burned its own children.

2 Kings 23:10 · Jeremiah 7:31 · Isaiah 66:24 · Isaiah 30:33

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's number is computable and the tier cannot be verbal. Basis is the transliterated place name Ge-Hinnom attested by Cambridge, Geneva and JFB, plus JFB's identification of Isaiah 30:33 and 66:24 as the Old Testament sources of the fire imagery

Gift and altar: the same pairing, the other way up structural / thematic: confirmed

The Verifier records that Matthew 23:18-19 shares both nouns of this scene: G1435 δῶρον (in 17 vv) and G2379 θυσιαστήριον (in 21 vv). There Jesus attacks the scribal casuistry that ranked the gift above the altar that sanctifies it. ⚙ Here the ranking is challenged from the other direction: the gift and the altar together yield, for the moment, to the brother. Both passages refuse to let the cultus be used as a way of settling accounts cheaply. This is a shared motif with a real lexical overlap, not a quotation, and the two lexemes are only moderately infrequent, so the link should be held as pattern rather than citation.

Matthew 23:18 · Matthew 23:19

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1435 δῶρον (in 17 vv) and G2379 θυσιαστήριον (in 21 vv). Both refs are Greek, so a verbal tier is formally available, but the frequencies are only moderate and there is no quotation in either direction, so the link is recorded as thematic and deliberately under-claimed

Who is the ἀντίδικος? A disputed identification flagged: verify source

ἀντίδικος (G476) occurs in only four verses: here, Luke 12:58, Luke 18:3 (the widow's opponent), and 1 Peter 5:8, where the devil is “your adversary.” The lexeme is genuinely rare and the Verifier confirms the shared root. What is disputed is whether 1 Peter's sense is in play at Matthew 5:25. Ellicott allows that it is “perhaps, not excluded, though it is not prominent,” and adds that “any evil deed becomes in the end as an accusing Satan.” Gill explicitly rejects the whole allegorical scheme (“the devil” as officer, “hell” as prison), and Barnes says there “is no propriety in the use sometimes made of this verse, in representing God as the adversary of the sinner.” Pulpit holds a middle position: human adversary primary in Matthew, divine in Luke. ⚙ The lexical link is solid; the theological identification behind it is contested among the sources themselves and is flagged here rather than asserted.

1 Peter 5:8 · Luke 18:3

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G476 ἀντίδικος (in 4 vv), a rare and secure verbal link. The flag is not on the lexeme but on the interpretation: Ellicott entertains the satanic or divine referent, Gill and Barnes expressly reject it, Pulpit distinguishes Matthew from Luke. Provenance of the identification is disputed within the sources

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The passive imperative and the one who supplies it ancient/widely-held

⚙ διαλλάγηθι is a passive imperative: be reconciled. JFB reads its force as a demand that cannot be met from inside, “get thy brother to dismiss from his mind all grudge against thee.” Pulpit notes that the verb differs in no essential way from καταλλάσσω, which is Paul's word for what God does in Christ at 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 and Colossians 1:20 and Ephesians 2:16, where the same reconciliation is not achieved by the offender but received by him. Matthew Henry makes the connection explicitly at this passage: “What is here said is very applicable to our being reconciled to God through Christ.” Poole reads the closing verses the same way, urging his readers “by repentance and faith in me make their peace with God in this life.” ⚙ The horizontal command and the vertical gift share a grammar. In both, reconciliation is something done to you before it is anything you perform.

2 Corinthians 5:19 · Colossians 1:20 · Ephesians 2:16

The uttermost farthing and the Surety ancient/widely-held

⚙ The unit ends with a debt stated and no payer named. Ellicott, having weighed the alternatives honestly, concludes that the whole tone of the passage is meant “to make men feel that they cannot pay their debt, though God may forgive it freely, accepting faith in Him in lieu of payment.” Gill hears “the impossibility of the debtor's release.” Benson closes his note on v. 25 with Doddridge's prayer, which names what the text leaves open: “Lord, we are all the debtors, and, in one sense, the prisoners of thy justice, and of ourselves were most incapable, not only of paying the uttermost farthing, but even of discharging the least part of the debt! We bless thee for that generous Surety who has taken and discharged it for us.” ⚙ This is the historic reading and it is candid about its own logic: the text supplies the arithmetic of the debt, and the gospel supplies the Surety. Colossians 2:14, the bond of debt nailed to the cross, is where that supply is located.

Colossians 2:14 · Matthew 18:34

ἔνοχος θανάτου: the verdict he received novel

⚙ Within Matthew, the rare adjective ἔνοχος (G1777, in 8 verses) falls three times in 5:22 and exactly once more, at 26:66, where the council that 5:22 named as the second tribunal answers, “He is liable to death.” Mark 14:64 uses the same word at the same moment. The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme. ⚙ So the man who is held by the verdict of the contemptuous word, and the man held by the council's verdict, are described in the one Gospel by the same rare term, and the second is the speaker of the first. No commentator in this brief draws that particular lexical line, and I offer it as a reading rather than as the text's own argument. The underlying doctrine, that Christ stood condemned in the place of the condemned, is ancient and universal; the word-level hinge is mine and should be weighed as such.

Matthew 26:66 · Mark 14:64

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

⚙ Honesty notes for this unit. (1) Text: the Berean interlinear underlying this unit does not contain εἰκῇ, “without a cause,” at 5:22. Cambridge and Ellicott both record its absence from the oldest manuscripts; Ellicott adds that if it was an insertion, it was an early one, “before the fourth century.” Barnes, Poole, Gill and Geneva expound the longer reading throughout, so their comments on “causeless” anger are commentary on a text this edition does not print, and are quoted here with that noted. Benson (quoting Wesley) argues against the word on internal grounds. Readers should know the sentence is harder without it.

⚙ (2) The three tribunals of 5:22 are genuinely disputed among the sources printed here, not merely nuanced: Barnes, Benson and Cambridge read the first as a human local court; Gill and Poole (following Lightfoot) read it as the judgment of God; Pulpit and Geneva read all three as figures of divine judgment. This synthesis leans to the last, for the reason Pulpit gives, that no human court can try an emotion, but the reading is an inference and the alternatives are live.

⚙ (3) Rabbinic and Talmudic material quoted by Gill (Mishnah Yoma 8:9, Maimonides, Bava Kama, Sanhedrin) and by Ellicott (Pesachim 49) is reported from those commentators, who wrote in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; the citations have not been independently verified against the sources here, and the dating of any given rabbinic ruling relative to the first century is a separate question this brief does not settle.

⚙ (4) 5:26 is doctrinally contested and the contest is left open here. Whether ἕως implies a terminable sentence is argued by Ellicott with real hesitancy, denied in effect by Gill, called “designedly general” by JFB, and handled by Pulpit as probable within the figure but unsupported as to any actual payer. This synthesis states the gap rather than filling it.

⚙ (5) Thread tiers: cross-Testament links here (the sixth commandment, Gehenna) cannot be tiered verbal, because shared Strong's numbers are not computable between Greek and Hebrew, and they are marked structural even where Matthew reproduces the Septuagint wording. The Matthew 23:18-19 link has a formally available verbal tier and has been deliberately under-claimed as thematic, since the shared lexemes are only moderately infrequent and no quotation is in view. The ἀντίδικος thread is flagged because the sources disagree over the referent, not because the lexical link is weak.

⚙ (6) The ἔνοχος hinge between 5:22 and 26:66 is the synthesis author's own observation. It rests on a verified rare-lexeme link, but no commentator in this brief draws it, and it is marked novel in the Christ section accordingly.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)