The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.9–1.13

“For I say to you, unless your righteousness abounds more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven”: that is, unless you fulfil not only those least precepts of the Law which set a man on his way, but also these which are added by me, who have not come to abolish the Law but to fulfil it, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. But you say to me: if, when he was speaking above about those least commandments, he said that whoever abolishes one of them and teaches according to his abolishing is called least in the kingdom of heaven, but that whoever does them and teaches so is called great, and is therefore already going to be in the kingdom of heaven because he is great, what need is there for anything to be added to the least precepts of the Law, if whoever does them and teaches so can already be in the kingdom of heaven because he is great? Wherefore that saying, “But whoever does and teaches so shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven,” is to be taken thus: not according to those least things, but according to the things that I am about to say. And what are these? “That your righteousness,” he says, “may abound beyond that of the scribes and Pharisees; for unless it abounds, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Therefore he who abolishes those least things and teaches so shall be called least; but he who does those least things and teaches so is not yet to be held great and fit for the kingdom of heaven, though he is not so least as he who abolishes them. But to be great and fit for that kingdom, he must do and teach as Christ now teaches, that is, so that his righteousness abounds beyond that of the scribes and Pharisees. The righteousness of the Pharisees is not to kill; the righteousness of those who are to enter the kingdom of God is not to be angry without cause. Not to kill, then, is the least thing; and whoever abolishes it shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever fulfils it so as not to kill will not forthwith be great and fit for the kingdom of heaven, but yet he climbs some step; and he will be made perfect if he is not even angry without cause; and if he achieves this, he will be much further removed from murder. Wherefore he who teaches that we should not be angry does not abolish the Law that we should not kill, but rather fulfils it, so that we may keep innocence both outwardly, by not killing, and in the heart, by not being angry.

“You have heard, then,” he says, “that it was said to those of old, You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable to judgment; and whoever says to his brother, Racha, shall be liable to the council; and whoever says, Fool, shall be liable to the gehenna of fire.” What is the difference between being liable to judgment, liable to the council, and liable to the gehenna of fire? For this last sounds most grave, and suggests that certain steps have been made from lighter to graver, until the gehenna of fire is reached. And therefore, if it is lighter to be liable to judgment than to be liable to the council, and likewise lighter to be liable to the council than to be liable to the gehenna of fire, it must be understood that it is lighter to be angry with a brother without cause than to say Racha, and again lighter to say Racha than to say Fool. For the guilt itself would not have steps unless the sins too were mentioned step by step. Now one obscure word has been set down here, because Racha is neither Greek nor Latin; the rest are in common use in our speech. Some have wished to draw the interpretation of this word from the Greek, thinking that a ragged person is called Racha, since in Greek a rag is called ῥάκος. Yet when they are asked what the Greek is for “ragged,” they do not answer Racha; and further, the Latin translator, where he put Racha, could have put “ragged,” and not used a word which both does not exist in the Latin language and is unusual in the Greek. More probable, then, is what I heard from a certain Hebrew when I asked him about it: he said that it is a word not signifying anything, but expressing the movement of an indignant mind. Grammarians call these interjections, parts of speech signifying the feeling of a stirred mind, as when “Alas!” is said by one in pain, or “Hem!” by one who is angry. These words belong properly to each language and are not easily carried over into another; and this reason certainly compelled both the Greek and the Latin translator to set down the word itself, since he could not find how to translate it.

There are, therefore, steps in these sins: first, one is angry and keeps that movement conceived in the heart; then, if the agitation itself wrings out an indignant sound, not signifying anything but testifying by its very outburst to that movement of the mind, by which the one with whom he is angry is struck, this is certainly more than if the rising anger were held down in silence; and if not only an indignant sound is heard, but also a word by which he now marks and brands a definite reproach of the one at whom it is uttered, who would doubt that this is more than if only the sound of indignation were let out? So in the first there is one thing, that is, anger alone; in the second two, both anger and a sound that signifies anger; in the third three, anger, and a sound that signifies anger, and in the sound itself the expression of a definite reproach. See now also the three liabilities: of judgment, of the council, of the gehenna of fire. For in judgment room is still given for defence; and in the council, although there is usually also a judgment, yet because the very distinction compels us to admit that there is some difference here, the pronouncing of sentence seems to belong to the council, when it is no longer a question with the accused himself whether he is to be condemned, but those who judge confer among themselves with what punishment he ought to be condemned who is agreed to be condemned. But the gehenna of fire has neither a doubtful condemnation, as judgment has, nor a doubtful punishment of the condemned, as the council has; for in the gehenna of fire both the condemnation and the punishment of the condemned are certain. There seem, then, to be some steps in sins and in liability; but in what ways they are invisibly allotted to the deserts of souls, who can say? We must hear, then, how great the difference is between the righteousness of the Pharisees and this greater one which leads into the kingdom of heaven: that, although it is graver to kill than to inflict an insult by word, there killing makes one liable to judgment, but here anger makes one liable to judgment, which is the lightest of those three sins; because there they were conducting the inquiry into murder among men, but here everything is handed over to divine judgment, where the end of the condemned is the gehenna of fire. And whoever says that, if insult is punished by the gehenna of fire, murder is punished with a heavier penalty under the greater righteousness, compels us to understand that there are differences of gehennas.

Certainly in these three sayings we must notice that words are to be supplied. For the first saying has all the necessary words, so that nothing need be supplied: “Whoever is angry,” he says, “with his brother without cause shall be liable to judgment.” But in the second, when he says, “And whoever says to his brother, Racha,” “without cause” is understood, and so it is joined, “shall be liable to the council.” Then in the third, where he says, “And whoever says, Fool,” two things are understood, both “to his brother” and “without cause.” This is how the Apostle is defended for calling the Galatians foolish, whom he also names brothers: for he does not do it without cause. And the reason “brother” is to be understood here is that it is said afterward of an enemy how he too is to be treated by the greater righteousness.

Next there follows here: “So if you offer your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go, first be reconciled to your brother; and then come and offer your gift.” From this it certainly appears that what was said above was said of a brother, since the saying that follows is connected by a conjunction such that it bears witness to the preceding: for he does not say, “But if you offer your gift at the altar,” but, “So if you offer your gift at the altar.” For if it is not lawful to be angry with one’s brother without cause, or to say Racha, or to say Fool, much less is it lawful to hold something in the mind so that indignation is turned into hatred. To this pertains also what is said in another place, “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” We are commanded, then, when about to bring a gift to the altar, if we remember that a brother has something against us, to leave the gift before the altar and go and be reconciled to the brother, then come and offer the gift. If this is taken literally, perhaps someone may believe that it ought to be done so if the brother is present; for it cannot be put off long, since you are commanded to leave your gift before the altar. If, then, something of the kind comes to mind concerning one who is absent, and, as can happen, even settled across the sea, it is absurd to believe that the gift is to be left before the altar, to be offered to God after you have wandered over lands and seas. And therefore we are compelled to take refuge altogether inward, in spiritual things, so that what has been said can be understood without absurdity.

So we may take the altar, spiritually, in the inner temple of God, to be faith itself, of which the visible altar is a sign. For whatever gift we offer to God, whether prophecy, or teaching, or prayer, or a hymn, or a psalm, or whatever other such spiritual gift occurs to the mind, it cannot be acceptable to God unless it is supported by sincerity of faith, and placed upon it firmly and immovably, as it were, so that what we utter may be whole and unimpaired. For many heretics, not having the altar, that is, the true faith, have spoken blasphemies instead of praise, weighed down, that is, by earthly opinions, and casting their offering, as it were, on the ground. But the intention of the one who offers must also be sound. And therefore, when we are about to offer some such thing in our heart, that is, in the inner temple of God (“For the temple of God is holy,” he says, “which you are”; and, “that Christ may dwell in the inner man through faith in your hearts”), if it comes to mind that a brother has something against us, that is, if we have injured him in something (for then he has something against us; whereas we have something against him if he has injured us, and then there is no need to go for reconciliation: for you will not ask pardon from one who has done you wrong, but only forgive, as you desire the Lord to forgive you what you yourself have committed), we must go, then, for reconciliation when it comes to mind that we have perhaps injured a brother in something; and go not with the feet of the body but with movements of the mind, so that you prostrate yourself with humble feeling before the brother, to whom you have run in loving thought, in the sight of him to whom you are about to offer the gift. For thus, even if he is present, you will be able to soften him with no feigned mind and bring him back into favour by asking pardon, if you have first done this before God, going to him not with a slow movement of the body but with the swiftest feeling of love; and then coming from there, that is, recalling your attention to what you had begun to do, you will offer your gift.

But who does this, so that he is not angry with his brother without cause, or does not say Racha without cause, or does not call him fool without cause, all of which is committed most proudly; or, if perhaps he has slipped into one of these, asks pardon with a suppliant mind, which is the one remedy, except one who is not puffed up with a spirit of empty boasting? “Blessed,” then, “are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Now let us see what follows.

“Be well-disposed,” he says, “to your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest perhaps the adversary hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will not come out from there until you pay the last farthing.” By the judge I understand: “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.” By the officer I understand: “And angels,” it says, “ministered to him”; and we believe that he will come with his angels to judge the living and the dead. By the prison I understand the punishments of darkness, namely, which in another place he calls outer: I believe because the joy of the divine rewards is within, in the mind itself, or in anything still more inward that can be conceived; of which it is said to the deserving servant, “Enter into the joy of your Lord”; just as also, in the ordering of this commonwealth, one who is thrust into prison is sent out from the judge’s private chamber or praetorium.

As for paying the last farthing, it can be understood not absurdly either as put for this, that nothing is left unpunished, as we too say in speaking, “to the dregs,” when we wish to express something so exacted that nothing is left; or so that earthly sins are signified by the name of the last farthing. For the fourth part of the distinct members of this world, and the last, is found to be earth: you begin from heaven, count air second, water third, earth fourth. So it can fittingly be thought that “until you pay the last farthing” was said for “until you atone for earthly sins”; for this the sinner too heard: “You are earth, and to earth you shall go.” But as for the words “until you pay,” I wonder whether they do not signify that punishment which is called eternal. For from what is that debt paid, where room is no longer given for repenting and living more correctly? For perhaps “until you pay” is put here as in the place where it is said, “Sit at my right hand, until I put all your enemies under your feet”; for when the enemies have been put under his feet, he will not cease to sit at the right hand; or that saying of the Apostle, “For he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet”; for when they have been put there, he will not cease to reign. Just as there, then, he of whom it is said, “He must reign until he puts his enemies under his feet,” is understood to be going to reign always, since they will always be under his feet: so here it can be taken that he of whom it is said, “You will not come out from there until you pay the last farthing,” will never come out; because he is always paying the last farthing, while he atones for earthly sins with everlasting punishments. Nor would I say this as though I seemed to have cut off a more careful treatment of the punishments of sins, of how they are called eternal in the Scriptures; although, whatever they are like, they are to be avoided rather than known.

But let us now see who is that adversary to whom we are commanded to be well-disposed quickly, while we are with him on the way. For he is either the devil, or a man, or the flesh, or God, or his commandment. But I do not see how we are commanded to be well-disposed to the devil, that is, in concord or agreement with him. For what is set down in Greek as εὐνοῶν some have translated “in concord,” others “agreeing.” But we are neither commanded to show good will to the devil (for where there is good will, there is friendship, and no one would say that friendship is to be made with the devil); nor is it profitable to be in concord with him on whom we declared war by renouncing him once for all, and by whose defeat we shall be crowned; nor is it right any longer to agree with him, with whom, had we never agreed, we would never have fallen into these miseries. As for a man, although we are commanded to have peace with all, as far as lies in us, where certainly good will and concord and agreement can be understood, yet I do not see how I am to take it that we are handed over to the judge by a man, when I understand Christ to be the judge, before whose tribunal all must appear, as the Apostle says: how then will he hand anyone over to the judge who will himself appear before the judge alike? Or if someone is handed over to the judge because he injured a man, although the one injured does not hand him over, it is much more suitably taken that the guilty one is handed over to the judge by the law itself, against which he acted when he injured the man. For even if someone has harmed a man by killing him, there will no longer be a time to come to concord with him, because he is no longer with him on the way, that is, in this life; and yet he will not for that reason fail to be healed by repenting, and by taking refuge with the sacrifice of a troubled heart in the mercy of him who forgives sins to those who turn to him, and who rejoices more over one who repents than over ninety-nine righteous. Much less do I see how we are commanded to be well-disposed, in concord or agreement, with the flesh. For it is rather sinners who love their flesh and are in concord with it and agree with it; but those who bring it into subjection do not themselves agree with it, but compel it to agree with them.

Perhaps, then, we are commanded to agree with God and be well-disposed toward him, so as to be reconciled to him from whom we have turned away by sinning, so that he can be called our adversary. For he is rightly called the adversary of those whom he resists: “For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble”; and, “Pride is the beginning of all sin, and the beginning of man’s pride is to apostatize from God”; and the Apostle says, “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” From this it can be understood that no nature is evil as an enemy of God, since those who were enemies are themselves reconciled. Whoever, then, on this way, that is, in this life, has not been reconciled to God through the death of his Son will be handed over by him to the judge, because the Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son; and so the rest that is written in this passage follows, of which we have already treated. There is only one thing that makes this understanding difficult: how it can rightly be said that we are on the way with God, if in this place he himself is to be taken as the adversary of the ungodly, to whom we are commanded to be reconciled quickly; unless perhaps, since he is everywhere, we too, while we are on this way, are certainly with him. “For if I ascend into heaven,” it says, “you are there; if I descend into hell, you are present; if I take my wings straight on and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand will lead me and your right hand will hold me.” Or if it is not acceptable to say that the ungodly are with God, although God is nowhere not present, just as we do not say that the blind are with the light, even though the light surrounds their eyes, one thing remains: that we understand the adversary here as the commandment of God. For what so opposes those who wish to sin as the commandment of God, that is, his law and the divine Scripture, which has been given to us for this life, so as to be with us on the way? We must not contradict it, lest it hand us over to the judge, but we must agree with it quickly. For no one knows when he will depart from this life. And who agrees with the divine Scripture except one who reads or hears it piously, granting it the summit of authority, so that what he understands he does not hate because he feels that it opposes his sins, but rather loves his own correction and rejoices that his diseases are not spared until they are healed; and as for what sounds obscure or absurd to him, he does not stir up contests of contradiction over it, but prays that he may understand, remembering nevertheless that good will and reverence must be shown to so great an authority? But who does this, except whoever has come to open and learn his father’s testament not harsh with threats of lawsuits, but meek with piety? “Blessed,” then, “are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Let us see what follows.

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” The lesser righteousness, then, is not to commit adultery by the joining of bodies; but the greater righteousness of the kingdom of God is not to commit adultery in the heart. And whoever does not commit adultery in the heart much more easily guards against committing adultery in the body. He who commanded this, then, confirmed that: for he did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfil it. Certainly it must be considered that he did not say, “Everyone who lusts after a woman,” but, “who looks at a woman to lust after her,” that is, has turned his attention with this end and this intent, to lust after her: which is no longer to be tickled by the delight of the flesh, but fully to consent to desire, so that the unlawful appetite is not reined in, but would be sated if opportunity were given.

For there are three things by which sin is completed: suggestion, delight, and consent. Suggestion comes either through memory or through the senses of the body, when we see, or hear, or smell, or taste, or touch something. If it delights us to enjoy this, the delight, being unlawful, must be reined in. As when we are fasting and, at the sight of food, the appetite of the palate rises: this happens only through delight; but yet we do not consent to it, and we restrain it by the right of the ruling reason. But if consent has been given, it will be a full sin, known to God in our heart, even if it does not become known to men by deed. These, then, are the steps: the suggestion comes as from a serpent, that is, from the slippery and shifting, that is, temporal, movement of bodies; because even if any such images move about inside the soul, they have been drawn from the body outside; and if any hidden movement of the body besides these five senses touches the soul, it too is temporal and slippery; and therefore the more secretly it glides in so as to touch thought, the more fittingly it is compared to a serpent. These three, then, as I had begun to say, are like that event which is written in Genesis: the suggestion and a certain persuasion come as from the serpent; the delight lies in the carnal appetite, as in Eve; and the consent in the reason, as in the man. When these have been completed, man is driven out, as from paradise, that is, from the most blessed light of righteousness, into death; and most justly. For he who persuades does not compel. And all natures are beautiful in their order, by their degrees; but one must not turn aside from the higher, among which the rational mind has been set in order, to the lower. Nor is anyone compelled to do this; and therefore, if he does it, he is punished by the just law of God, for he does not commit it unwillingly. Yet delight before habit is either nothing, or so slight that it is almost nothing; to consent to it is a great sin when it is unlawful. And when anyone consents, he commits sin in the heart. If it goes on into the deed as well, the desire seems to be sated and extinguished; but afterward, when the suggestion is repeated, a greater delight is kindled, which is yet still much less than that which has turned into habit through repeated deeds. For this is most difficult to overcome; and yet even habit itself one will overcome, if he does not desert himself and does not shrink from the Christian warfare, under Christ’s leadership and help; and so, in the original peace and order, the man is subjected to Christ and the woman to the man.

As, then, sin is reached by three steps, suggestion, delight, consent, so there are three differences of sin itself: in the heart, in the deed, in habit, like three deaths: one as it were in the house, that is, when consent is given to desire in the heart; the second now carried out as it were outside the gate, when assent goes on into deed; the third when the mind is pressed down by the force of evil habit as by a mass of earth, as if already stinking in the tomb. Whoever reads the Gospel recognizes that the Lord raised these three kinds of dead. And perhaps he considers what differences there are even in the very voice of him who raises them, when he says in one place, “Girl, arise”; in another, “Young man, I say to you, arise”; in another, he “groaned in spirit, and wept, and groaned again,” and after that “cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.”

Wherefore under the name of the adulterers mentioned in this passage all carnal and lustful desire must be understood. For since Scripture so constantly calls idolatry sexual immorality, and the apostle Paul calls greed by the name of idolatry, who would doubt that every evil desire is rightly called sexual immorality, when the soul, neglecting the higher law by which it is ruled, is corrupted, prostituted for the base pleasure of lower natures as for a fee? And therefore whoever feels carnal delight rebelling against his right will through the habit of sins, by whose untamed violence he is dragged into captivity, let him recall as far as he can what peace he lost by sinning, and cry out, “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ.” For thus, when he cries out that he is wretched, he implores by mourning the help of the Comforter. Nor is the knowledge of one’s own wretchedness a small approach to blessedness; and therefore, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Next there follows, and he says: “But if your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is better for you that one of your members should perish than that your whole body should go into gehenna.” Here indeed great fortitude is needed for cutting off members. For whatever it is that the eye signifies, it is without doubt something that is vehemently loved. For those who wish to express their love vehemently are accustomed to say, “I love him like my eyes,” or even “more than my eyes.” And the addition of “right” perhaps serves to increase the force of the love. For although these bodily eyes are directed to seeing in common, and if both are directed can do so equally, yet men fear more to lose the right one. So the sense would be: whatever it is that you so love that you hold it as a right eye, if it causes you to stumble, that is, if it is a hindrance to you on the way to true blessedness, pluck it out and cast it from you. For it is better for you that one of those things should perish which you so love that they cling to you like members, than that your whole body should go into gehenna.

But since there follows the saying about the right hand, and it is said likewise, “If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is better for you that one of your members should perish than that your whole body should go into gehenna,” this compels us to inquire more carefully what he called the eye. In this question nothing occurs to me more fitting than a most beloved friend; for this is certainly what we can rightly call a member, what we vehemently love; and this friend a counsellor, because it is an eye, as it were showing the way; and in divine things, because it is the right one: so that the left would be a beloved counsellor indeed, but in earthly things pertaining to the needs of the body; and of him, if he causes stumbling, it was superfluous to speak, since not even the right one is to be spared. Now a counsellor in divine things causes stumbling if he tries to lead one into some destructive heresy under the name of religion and teaching. So let the right hand too be taken as a beloved helper and minister in divine works: for just as contemplation is rightly understood in the eye, so is action in the hand; so that the left hand is understood in the works which are necessary for this life and the body.