Saturday 9th March
Read Matthew 5:21-22
“‘You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.” 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, “Raca,” is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, “You fool!” will be in danger of the fire of hell.” (NIVUK)
The repeated refrain, ‘You have heard that it was said to the people long ago’ (v21a), could be taken to mean that these are Moses’ words. Taken this way they would have the unfortunate effect of directly contradicting what Jesus has just declared to be His view that not even a single word of the law is to be abolished given He goes on to challenge everyone’s understanding of those ‘long ago’ words.
The alternative is that He is challenging what they have been told, by the Pharisees and law-teachers, those long ago words were. How is that possible? Remarkably simply in a number of ways. First, the Pharisees and law-teachers sought ways to hedge the words of Moses around so fully so as to not break them that they became twisted beyond their original meaning. Second, those ‘long ago’ words were written in Hebrew but were explained to the people in their native language, which was Aramaic. The only source the people would have to the original words was through the translation, and embellishment (?) of those who spoke Hebrew.
This is not as uncommon as we think. Prior to the Protestant Reformation, the church conducted all its ceremonies in Latin, a language unknown to most of those in the pews. The only source of knowledge of what the Christian faith involved was through images or pictures in glass or the translated words of the priests. Perhaps the greatest gift of the Reformation was the translation of the scriptures into the common language of the people. It would be wasteful to not accept that gift for what it is and continue to rely on what other people say the gospel is instead of studying it for ourselves. Whilst there are many great sources we can draw on today, the dangers of relying on what you heard was said long ago remain just as real.
