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Murder (2)

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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MURDER.—The observance of the Sixth Commandment, as of the rest, is taken for granted in the Christian system (Matthew 19:18, Mark 10:19, Luke 18:20). It concerns those who are outside of the society founded by Jesus. Thus the guilt of murder is predicated of Barabbas (Mark 15:7, Luke 23:19; Luke 23:25, John 18:40 ‘robber’), and of the unwilling guests (Matthew 22:7), and Satan is designated the original ἀνθρωποκτόνος (John 8:44). In the doctrine of Jesus, the crimes of the Mosaic codes are traced to their source in the heart (Matthew 15:19, Mark 7:21), and murder to the passion of anger. He who is angry with his brother, or who says to him ‘Raca,’ or ‘Thou fool,’ is accounted guilty of murder (Matthew 5:22). With this saying of Jesus may be compared one of Mohammed, ‘Whosoever shall say to his brother, Thou unbeliever, one of the two shall surfer as an unbeliever.’ It is also interesting to note that the Arabic verb katala means both to kill and to curse (Koran, lxxx. 16). In the Koran murder is atoned for by retaliation (cf. Matthew 5:38), a free man dying for a free, a slave for a slave; or the relatives of the slain may accept a money payment, which in practice does not exceed £500 (Koran, ii. 173; Lane’s Arabian Nights, vi. 8). The Jewish Rabbis distinguished between manslaughter and murder (Exodus 21:13-14): only in the latter case did capital punishment follow (Edersheim, History of the Jewish Nation, p. 375 f.; W. R. Smith, RS [Note: S Religion of the Semites.] ^{2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred]} p. 420). Self-murder is rare among Semitic peoples, though cases do occur (Matthew 27:5, Acts 1:18; Josephus BJ iii. viii. 5).

T. H. Weir.