A Very Progressive Punishment for Murder

Mat 5:21 You have heard that it was said by the ancients, You shall not kill; and whoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.

This is the first "commandment" in which Christ fulfils his promise made earlier in this sermon, that he will "fill up" the law. Why is this commandment first? Because it is considered the most serious of sins by "earthly" judgment. In my opinion, the purpose of this who section is to tell us how differently Christ defines our shortcomings from the way that the world views them. In that sense, starting with the most serious sin makes sense.

On the surface, what originally strikes me about this verse is how lightly it seems to treat killing. Christ does not say that killers are condemned, but that they are in danger of judgment. In the Greek, the punishment is even less threatening. The Greek enochos krisis means literally, "bound to judgment." Enochos doesn't mean danger but being bound or obligated to something, with the sense that guilt is an obligation. Krisis is a familar word, meaning, trial or judgment with the sense of separating things and distinguishing between them.

And what is being judged is not all killing but specifically "murder" from the Greek phoneuô and originally ratsach in the original Hebrew from the Old Testament. Both terms are different from those used for justified killing, such as killing people in war.

This lightness is intentional on the part of Christ. He wanted to make it clear that even murderers sometimes get away with it according to our worldly laws (O.J. anyone?). In many ways, he is predicting our modern era, where murderers are routinely pardoned and a progressive section of the population objects to judging criminals so harshly. This is very different from his own era, where punishment (if caught) was more certain and more severe.

The point here is to provide the basis of contrast for the next verse by which Christ proposes a different standard for our behavior.

"Danger" is from enochos, which means "having sworn" and "being bound by oath."

"Judgment" is from krisis, which means "separating," "distinguishing," "decision," "choice," and "judgement."