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Matthew 5:21 is the twenty-first verse of the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament and is part of the Sermon on the Mount.It opens the first of what have traditionally been known as the Antitheses in which Jesus compares the current interpretation of a part of Mosaic Law with how it should actually be understood.
A similar teaching also appears at 1 John 3:15. [2] Gundry notes that "I say to you" is one of Matthew's favourite phrases, used 68 times. [3] Schweizer feels it is used here to link to the word of God in the previous verse. [1] Davies and Allison note that the references to brothers is probably an allusion to the story of Cain and Abel. [2]
In those other places the verse is an attack on the Pharisees, but here it targets false Christian prophets. Matthew also differs in wording from Luke 6:44. In Luke Jesus' words are a declarative statement, while in Matthew they are a rhetorical question. Matthew reverses the order of the grapes and figs from Luke.
Jesus does not use the language of a judge. The word translated as profess/tell is a specific legal term that was used by a witness in a court of law while making a statement. [1] France and Schweizer disagree, and believe that in these verses Jesus is presenting himself as the judge at the Last Judgment. [2] [3]
This verse, which appears in a similar form in Luke's Sermon on the Plain, begins a discussion about how a person should relate to their fellows. Daniel Patte feels that this is a natural progression from the earlier discussion of how one should have a positive outlook for oneself to how one should also have a positive opinion of others. [1]
In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads: 36:But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 37:For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. The New International Version translates the passage as:
In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads: For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. The World English Bible translates the passage as: For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.
Others see these words in the context of Psalm 22 and suggest that Jesus recited these words, perhaps even the whole psalm, "that he might show himself to be the very Being to whom the words refer; so that the Jewish scribes and people might examine and see the cause why he would not descend from the cross; namely, because this very psalm ...