“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, ‘Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be amenable to the judges:’ but I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall [future, under the regulations of the real Kingdom] be amenable to the judges; and whosoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca’ [villain] shall be in danger of the high council; but whosoever shall say, ‘Thou fool,’ shall be in danger of hell [Gehenna] fire.”

To understand these references to council and judges and Gehenna, all should know something of Jewish regulations. The “Court of Judges” consisted of seven men (or twenty-three — the number is in dispute), who had power to judge some classes of crimes. The High Council, or Sanhedrin, consisted of seventy-one men of recognized learning and ability. This constituted the highest court of the Jews, and its supervision was over the gravest offenses. The most serious sentence was death; but certain very obnoxious criminals were subjected to an indignity after death, being refused burial and cast with the carcasses of dogs, the city refuse, etc., into Gehenna, there to be consumed.

The object of this burning in Gehenna was to make the crime and the criminal detestable in the eyes of the people, and signified that the culprit was a hopeless case. It must be remembered that Israel hoped for a resurrection from the tomb,  and hence they were particular in caring for the corpses of their dead. Not realizing fully God’s power, they apparently thought he needed their assistance to  that extent. (Exod. 13:19; Heb. 11:22; Acts 7:15,16) Hence the destruction of the body in Gehenna after death (figuratively) implied the loss of hope of future life by a resurrection. Thus to such Gehenna represented the Second death in the same figurative way that they as a people represented or illustrated a future order of things under the New Covenant.

Notice that our Lord, in the above words, pointed out to them that their construction of the Law, severe though it was, was far below the real import of that Law, as it shall be interpreted under the real Kingdom and Judges, which theirs only typified. He shows that the command of their Law, “Thou shalt not kill,” reached much farther than they supposed; that malicious anger and vituperation “shall be” considered a violation of God’s Law under the New Covenant; and that such as, under the favorable conditions of that new age, will not reform so thoroughly as to fully observe God’s Law will be counted worthy of that which   the Gehenna near them typified — the Second death. However, the strict severity of that Law will be enforced only in proportion as the discipline, advantages and assistance of that age, enabling each to comply with its laws, shall be disregarded. The same thought is continued in: