Matthew 5:21-22

The context

This is the first antithesis of the sermon, and it follows the statement that Jesus has come to fulfill the law rather than loosen it. The pattern is repeated six times: what was said, then what I say to you. The contrast is between the command and its inner reach.

What it establishes

It establishes that contempt and insult fall under the same prohibition as the act they precede, and that the liability escalates with the severity of the speech. The point is the direction of travel, from deed back to disposition.

What it does not establish

It does not supply a penal code. The judgments named are not a schedule of human sentences, and the terms for the insult and for the fire are both disputed. Nor does the verse distinguish righteous anger from contempt, a distinction the sermon assumes but does not define here.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• Should we really be stoning homosexuals, disobedient children, adulterers and witches, as the Old Testament commands? What an all-loving god you serve, Christians!

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.