“I Say Unto You That Whosoever Is Angry with His Brother Shall Be in Danger of His Judgment”

Alan C. Miner

According to John Welch, there's an interesting thing you should know a little about. Well, let me give you this example . . . In Matthew 5:21-22 there's the saying, "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill . . . But I say unto you , That whosoever is angry with his brother . . . shall be in danger." Now in your King James version you read, for "whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause," Okay? In other words, if you've got a good cause, then you're okay. But if you are angry with your brother without a good reason, then you are in danger of the council and the judgment. Now that phrase, without a cause, is this little Greek word eike . . . Now, [you notice an] interesting thing when you go to the earliest manuscripts, several of them--[such as] P64 and P67. This New Testament manuscript dates to around A.D. 200, among the earliest New Testament manuscripts we have. Also [there is] the original hand of the Codex Sinaiticus, one of the better of the New Testament codices, and several other minuscules and other early Christian Fathers. When they present this material, they drop this word [eike--without a cause]. I mean they don't drop it--it's just not there. So it just says whoever is angry is in trouble.

Now look at 3 Nephi 12:22, and you'll see that the phrase "without a cause" is not there. New Testament scholars have concluded that this is probably the original, the better reading, to drop this, because Jesus rarely gave people excuses or escape hatches. He doesn't say, whosever looks upon a woman to lust after with good cause is okay. No. The harder sayings of Jesus are the ones that are usually consistent with the rest of his preaching. So here we have one place in the Book of Mormon where the New Testament manuscripts make a difference in the meaning of how we understand what Jesus is saying, and the Book of Mormon conforms with what appears to me, and I thing most would agree, to be the stronger reading. [John W. Welch, "Sacrament Prayers, Implications of the Sermon at the Nephite Temple," in Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 4, pp. 150-151]

Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon: A Cultural Commentary

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