What Does Matthew 5:21 Mean?
You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be held to the judgment.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:THE KEY
The verb behind “kill” carries the specific shade of murder, and the verse places that act under judgment.
THE MEANING
You hear a clear boundary around taking another person’s life: the act named here is murder, and it places the one who does it under judgment. The verse speaks now of human life as something no act of violence can make unaccountable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that taking a life is a private act without consequence: the verse places it under judgment.
THE ROOT
φονεύσει
phoneusei
GROWS FROM
φον-
phon-
murder; the taking of a life
“shall kill” in this verse is phoneusei. The English “kill” can cover many kinds of killing; this Greek verb carries the specific shade of murder. Its related noun and agent words keep the act and the murderer in one word family, so the verse’s judgment attaches to the act itself.
ALSO GROWS
phonos: murder; a killing
φόνος
This noun names the act at the heart of the command and its judgment.
phoneus: murderer
φονεύς
This names the person who commits the act, keeping the deed and its agent within the same word family.
κρίσεως
kriseōs
GROWS FROM
κριν-
krin-
to judge, decide, distinguish
Judgment carries the sense of a decision that distinguishes and answers an act. The verse places murder within that reckoning: it is not left without a verdict.
ALSO GROWS
krinō: to judge; to decide
κρίνω
This verb shows judgment as an act of deciding, giving the verse’s warning a clear force.
kritēs: judge
κριτής
This related word names the one who judges, making the accountability in the verse concrete.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats the taking of life as a serious breach of a real boundary, whose reach extends from the act into hatred.
You shall not murder.For this, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not shed blood," "You shall not steal," "You shall not crave," and if there is any other command, it is gathered beneath one head in this word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."Everyone who hates his brother is a human-slayer. And you know that no human-slayer has the life of the ages remaining in him.THE THREAD
Everyone who hates his brother is a human-slayer. And you know that no human-slayer has the life of the ages remaining in him.The verb translated “shall kill” and the noun “murderer” share the Greek root φον- (phon-), meaning murder. Here that same word family reaches into hatred, revealing that the boundary around life concerns more than the visible act.
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