it was said …

In the Gospel According to Matthew 5:21–48 (NABRE), Jesus reviews Old Testament teaching and reinterprets it in a new context. Throughout this passage, Jesus follows a similar form: “You have heard that it was said…”. This form is especially interesting in Greek for being unusual.

The phrase translated as it was said here is ῥέω (hreo), which is not a regular Greek word used for speech. This verb typically refers to the flowing of a stream or river. It is very unusual in the Gospel According to Matthew to encounter anything other than the standard Greek word for “to speak” in such a context.

The author here clearly intends to depict Old Testament legal sayings as different from regular speech. Why do you think the image of the flowing of a river may have been used? What does this distinction suggest about the author’s view of those sayings to which Jesus is referring?

related topic: religious law

you also may like our two-part study of the prophets
Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided examines the prophets in their historical context using the First and Second Books of the Kings and other Old Testament passages written before the Babylonian Exile in 586 B.C. Volume II: Restoration & Redemption looks at the post-exilic prophets. This 51-lesson Catholic Bible study builds on The United Kingdom of Israel: Saul, David & Solomon Foreshadow Christ the King. Click on the books’ covers to view a sample lesson from each volume.

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