Matthew 5: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jesus sees the crowds, goes up a mountain, sits down, and teaches his disciples. He begins with a series of statements about who is blessed, then calls his hearers salt and light, and says he came not to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them. The rest of the chapter takes up commands about murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, retaliation, and love of neighbor, and in each case Jesus states what was said before and then what he says, reaching past the outward act to anger, desire, and how a person treats an enemy.

Claim by Claim

1. 5:1
   • Jesus saw the crowds.
   • He went up into a mountain.
   • He sat down.
   • His disciples came to him.
2. 5:2
   • He opened his mouth.
   • He taught them.
   • He spoke.
3. 5:3
   • The poor in spirit are blessed.
   • The kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit.
4. 5:4
   • Those who mourn are blessed.
   • Those who mourn will be comforted.
5. 5:5
   • The meek are blessed.
   • The meek will inherit the earth.
6. 5:6
   • Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are blessed.
   • Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled.
7. 5:7
   • The merciful are blessed.
   • The merciful will obtain mercy.
8. 5:8
   • The pure in heart are blessed.
   • The pure in heart will see God.
9. 5:9
   • The peacemakers are blessed.
   • The peacemakers will be called sons of God.
10. 5:10
    • Those persecuted for the sake of righteousness are blessed.
    • The kingdom of heaven belongs to those persecuted for righteousness.
11. 5:11
    • You are blessed when men revile you.
    • You are blessed when men persecute you.
    • You are blessed when men say every kind of evil against you.
    • The evil said against you is spoken falsely.
    • This happens for my sake.
12. 5:12
    • Rejoice.
    • Be exceedingly glad.
    • Your reward in heaven is great.
    • They persecuted the prophets who were before you in the same way.
13. 5:13
    • You are the salt of the earth.
    • If the salt loses its savour, it cannot be made salty again.
    • Savourless salt is thereafter good for nothing.
    • Savourless salt is only fit to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
14. 5:14
    • You are the light of the world.
    • A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
15. 5:15
    • Men do not light a lamp and put it under a measuring basket.
    • Men put a lit lamp on a lampstand.
    • The lamp gives light to all who are in the house.
16. 5:16
    • Let your light shine before men in the same way.
    • The purpose is that men may see your good works.
    • The purpose is that men may glorify your Father who is in heaven.
17. 5:17
    • Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.
    • I did not come to destroy.
    • I came to fulfil.
18. 5:18
    • I say to you truly.
    • Not one jot or one tittle will pass from the law until heaven and earth pass away.
    • Nothing will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
19. 5:19
    • Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
    • Whoever does and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
20. 5:20
    • I say to you.
    • Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
21. 5:21
    • You have heard that it was said to those of old time.
    • It was said: You shall not murder.
    • It was said: Whoever murders will be liable to the judgment.
22. 5:22
    • I say to you.
    • Everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be liable to the judgment.
    • Whoever says to his brother, Raca, will be liable to the council.
    • Whoever says, You fool, will be liable to the fire of hell.
23. 5:23
    • If you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, this applies.
24. 5:24
    • Leave your gift there before the altar.
    • Go your way.
    • First be reconciled to your brother.
    • Then come and offer your gift.
25. 5:25
    • Agree quickly with your adversary.
    • Do this while you are with him on the way.
    • Otherwise the adversary may deliver you to the judge.
    • The judge may deliver you to the officer.
    • You may be thrown into prison.
26. 5:26
    • I say to you truly.
    • You will not come out from there until you have paid the last farthing.
27. 5:27
    • You have heard that it was said to those of old time.
    • It was said: You shall not commit adultery.
28. 5:28
    • I say to you.
    • Everyone who looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
29. 5:29
    • If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you.
    • It is better for you that one of your members perish than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
30. 5:30
    • If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you.
    • It is better for you that one of your members perish than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
31. 5:31
    • It has been said: Whoever puts away his wife must give her a writing of divorce.
32. 5:32
    • I say to you.
    • Whoever puts away his wife, except for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery.
    • Whoever marries a woman who has been put away commits adultery.
33. 5:33
    • Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old time.
    • It was said: You shall not swear falsely.
    • It was said: You shall perform your oaths to the Lord.
34. 5:34
    • I say to you.
    • Do not swear at all.
    • Do not swear by heaven.
    • Heaven is God's throne.
35. 5:35
    • Do not swear by the earth.
    • The earth is God's footstool.
    • Do not swear by Jerusalem.
    • Jerusalem is the city of the great King.
36. 5:36
    • Do not swear by your head.
    • You cannot make one hair white or black.
37. 5:37
    • Let your word be yes, yes, and no, no.
    • Whatever is more than these comes from evil.
38. 5:38
    • You have heard that it was said.
    • It was said: An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
39. 5:39
    • I say to you.
    • Do not resist evil.
    • Whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40. 5:40
    • If any man wants to sue you at law and take your coat, let him have your cloak also.
41. 5:41
    • Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.
42. 5:42
    • Give to him who asks you.
    • Do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
43. 5:43
    • You have heard that it was said.
    • It was said: You shall love your neighbour.
    • It was said: You shall hate your enemy.
44. 5:44
    • I say to you.
    • Love your enemies.
    • Bless those who curse you.
    • Do good to those who hate you.
    • Pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you.
45. 5:45
    • The purpose is that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
    • He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good.
    • He sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
46. 5:46
    • If you love those who love you, you have no reward.
    • The tax collectors do the same.
47. 5:47
    • If you greet only your brothers, you do nothing more than others.
    • The King James says the tax collectors do the same; the Greek says the Gentiles do the same.
48. 5:48
    • Be perfect, therefore.
    • Your Father who is in heaven is perfect.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

5:1

Going "up into a mountain" means up into the hill country above the lake, not the scaling of a single peak. Sitting down is the detail that matters: a teacher in this world stood to read aloud and sat to expound, so "when he was set" signals that a formal, considered address is beginning.

5:2

"He opened his mouth" is a set phrase in Greek and in Hebrew for launching into a deliberate, weighty speech. It is a marker of solemnity, not a description of his lips.

5:3

The Greek word behind "poor" means destitute, a beggar with nothing, not merely a person of modest means; "in spirit" turns the picture inward. "The kingdom of heaven" is Matthew's habitual phrase where the other Gospels say "the kingdom of God": Jewish writers of the period often said "heaven" out of respect rather than say God's name directly. It refers to God's rule or reign, the state of affairs in which he is king, more than to a location.

5:4

Mourning in this culture was public and unmistakable: torn clothing, ash, loud wailing, hired mourners. The word covers grief for the dead and also grief over the state of the world.

5:5

"Meek" has weakened in English since 1611. The Greek word describes someone gentle, unassertive and slow to grab, the opposite of the grasping and the domineering, without any suggestion of timidity or weakness.

5:6

The Greek word translated "righteousness" is wider than the English. It covers both personal right conduct and justice in the public sense, things being put right; the hunger described could be for either or both, and the text does not narrow it.

5:7

"Mercy" means being kind to someone when you could punish them instead, or helping someone who cannot pay you back.

5:8

In Hebrew and Greek usage the heart is the seat of thought, decision and intention, not primarily of feeling. "Pure in heart" means undivided and unmixed in what one actually wants, closer to the modern "single-minded" than to "warm-hearted."

5:9

The Greek reads "sons of God," which the KJV renders "children." In Hebrew idiom "son of" frequently means one who shares the character of something, as "sons of thunder" means thunderous men. "Shall be called" means will be publicly acknowledged as.

5:10

"Persecuted" means being hurt, chased, or punished on purpose, usually because of what you believe.

5:11

KJV "revile" means to insult and abuse someone to their face. The persecution described covers a wide range: mockery, slander, being thrown out of the synagogue, legal charges, and physical violence.

5:12

"The prophets" are the figures of Israel's scriptures, such as Elijah, Jeremiah and Amos, who spoke publicly in God's name; a recurring theme in those books and in later Jewish tradition is that their own people opposed and sometimes killed them.

5:13

"Savour" in 1611 English simply means taste or flavor. Salt in this region was often gathered from deposits around the Dead Sea and came mixed with other minerals, so a batch could genuinely end up tasteless once the salt content leached away. Beyond seasoning, salt was the ordinary preservative for food, and spoiled salt was dumped on paths and courtyards, which is what "trodden under foot of men" describes.

5:14

Towns were built on hilltops for defense, and their pale limestone walls caught the sun by day while lamps made them visible across the valleys at night. The image is of something that cannot be concealed even if you wanted to conceal it.

5:15

The KJV's "candle" is a small clay oil lamp, not a wax candle, and the "candlestick" is a stand to raise it. A "bushel" is the translators' word for a modius, a wooden or earthenware container holding roughly two gallons, used for measuring grain; the point is that it was the ordinary household bowl sitting within reach, big enough to cover a lamp.

5:17

"The law, or the prophets" is a standard way of naming the Jewish scriptures as a whole by their two main divisions: the five books of Moses, and the prophetic books. "Destroy" here means abolish or annul, a legal sense, not smash.

5:18

The "jot" is the Greek word iota, standing for yod, the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet, little more than an apostrophe in size. The "tittle" is a tiny projecting stroke of the pen, the sort of hook or serif that distinguishes one Hebrew letter from a similar one. Together they name the smallest visible marks a scribe could make.

5:19

Jewish teachers of the period commonly ranked commandments as weightier or lighter, and debated which were which. "One of these least commandments" speaks into that discussion.

5:20

The scribes were the professional experts in the law: they copied the scriptures, and interpreted and applied them. The Pharisees were a movement, largely lay rather than priestly, known for meticulous observance of the law and of the oral traditions built around it. Both groups were widely respected as the people most likely to get religious practice right, which is the force of the comparison.

5:21

The KJV's "by them of old time" more probably means "to the men of old," that is, to the generation that received the law. "In danger of" is 1611 English for liable to or answerable to, not merely at risk from. "The judgment" is the local court of the town, which handled capital cases.

5:22

"Raca" is an Aramaic insult left untranslated because the Greek left it untranslated; it means something like empty head or good for nothing. "The council" is the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish court in Jerusalem, so the sequence rises from local court to supreme court. "Hell fire" translates Gehenna, the Greek form of the Valley of Hinnom, a ravine outside Jerusalem notorious in earlier scripture as a site of child sacrifice; by this era the name was a standing image for final punishment by fire. Note also that many of the earliest Greek manuscripts read simply "angry with his brother," without "without a cause"; the qualifying phrase appears in later copies, which the KJV followed.

5:23

The altar is the one at the temple in Jerusalem, the only place sacrifice could be offered. The picture is of a worshiper who has traveled some distance with an animal or produce and is already standing in the temple court with it in his hands. "Hath ought against thee" means has some grievance or claim against you.

5:25

This is a debt case. The "adversary" is the opposing party in a lawsuit, and "whiles thou art in the way with him" pictures the two walking to court together, the last chance for a private settlement. The "officer" is the court's bailiff, who enforced payment and could imprison a debtor until the family produced the money.

5:26

The "farthing" is the KJV's English equivalent for the Greek kodrantes, the Roman quadrans, the smallest copper coin in circulation, worth roughly a few minutes of a laborer's wages.

5:27

In this law adultery specifically meant sex involving a married woman. Both parties were counted guilty, and the penalty set out in Deuteronomy was death, so this was a capital matter, not a private one.

5:28

The phrase describes deliberate, sustained looking with intent, not an involuntary first glance. The Greek construction is about what a person chooses to keep doing with their attention.

5:29

"Offend" in 1611 English does not mean give offense. It translates a Greek verb meaning to trip someone up or make them fall, the action of a stone in the path or a snare. "Members" means parts of the body, as in the older phrase "limbs and members." On "hell," see the note at verse 22: the word is again Gehenna, the ravine outside Jerusalem used as an image of final punishment.

5:31

A "writing of divorcement" is the certificate required by the law of Moses, a short document stating that the woman was free to marry another man. Only the husband could issue it, and "put away" is the ordinary term for a husband dismissing his wife from the household.

5:32

"Fornication" here translates porneia, a broad Greek word covering sexual immorality of various kinds rather than one specific act; exactly how wide its scope is in this sentence has been disputed since antiquity, and the Greek does not settle it. "Causeth her to commit adultery" reflects the situation of a dismissed wife, who in most cases had to remarry to survive.

5:33

To "forswear thyself" is 1611 English for swearing falsely, breaking a sworn word. An oath in this culture called a named thing or person to witness and stake it on the truth of what you said, which is why what you swore by mattered so much.

5:34

The list that follows reflects a real practice. To avoid pronouncing God's name, people swore by substitutes, and some argued that oaths sworn by lesser things were less binding, producing a graded scale of how seriously an oath had to be kept. The reply treats every substitute as tied back to God anyway.

5:35

"Footstool" pictures God as a king seated on a throne with his feet resting on the earth, an image taken from Isaiah 66:1. Jerusalem is called the city of the great King in Psalm 48:2. The argument is that each of these supposedly safe substitutes is tied to God anyway.

5:37

"Communication" in 1611 English means speech or manner of speaking, not a message sent. The final phrase is genuinely ambiguous in Greek: it can be read as "comes from evil" or as "comes from the evil one."

5:38

"An eye for an eye" quotes the law of Moses, where it functions as a limit on vengeance administered by the courts: the penalty may match the injury and may not exceed it. By this period such cases were normally settled by monetary compensation rather than literal maiming.

5:39

"Resist not evil" is ambiguous in Greek: it may mean evil in general or, more probably, the evil person, the one wronging you. The detail of the right cheek matters too. A right-handed man striking your right cheek does so with the back of his hand, which in this culture was an insult aimed at your standing rather than an attempt to injure you.

5:40

The KJV's "coat" is the tunic worn next to the skin, and the "cloak" is the heavy outer garment, which doubled as a blanket at night. The law of Moses forbade a creditor to keep a man's outer garment overnight, so the cloak was the one item a court could not take from you: handing it over goes beyond anything a lawsuit could win.

5:41

Roman soldiers and officials had the legal right to press a civilian into carrying their gear or baggage, a practice deeply resented in occupied territory. The Roman mile was a thousand paces, a little short of a modern mile. "Twain" is simply the old word for two.

5:43

"Love thy neighbour" quotes the law of Moses, where "neighbour" in context means a fellow member of the community of Israel. "Hate thine enemy" is not a quotation from the law at all; no such command appears there. It represents a conclusion some drew from the first half, which the saying here sets aside.

5:44

"Despitefully use you" is 1611 English for treating someone spitefully or abusively. Some of the clauses here, "bless them that curse you" and "do good to them that hate you," are missing from the earliest Greek manuscripts and are present in later ones, which is why some modern translations give a shorter version of this verse.

5:45

In a farming country with a short rainy season, sun and rain were not small talk about the weather but the difference between a harvest and a famine. The example works because these are the two things everyone depends on, and they arrive without being sorted by who deserves them.

5:46

"Publicans" are tax and toll collectors. They bought the right to collect Roman revenue in a district and made their living from whatever they could take above the quota, so they were regarded both as collaborators with an occupying power and as licensed extortioners, a byword for the lowest sort of person one could name.

5:47

"Salute" means greet. A greeting in this culture was a public act of recognition, an acknowledgment that a person belonged to your circle, not a passing hello. Note also that the earliest Greek manuscripts here read "Gentiles," that is, non-Jews, where the later manuscripts the KJV followed read "publicans" as in the previous verse.

5:48

The Greek word rendered "perfect" means complete, whole, brought to its intended end, as a grown man is a completed child or a finished job is a complete one. It carries less of the modern sense of flawlessness than the English word suggests.