Commenting
on Matt 5:22, Adam Clarke (1762-1832) wrote the following. Note that he argued
that “without a cause” was probably not original to the Sermon on the Mount
(cf. 3 Nephi 12:22 which omits “without
a cause”), showing that some contemporaries of Joseph Smith knew about the
problematic nature of the clause:
Whosoever is
angry with his brother without a cause - ὁ οργιζομενος - εικη, who is vainly
incensed. "This translation is literal; and the very objectionable phrase,
without a cause, is left out, εικη being more properly translated by that
above." What our Lord seems here to prohibit, is not merely that miserable
facility which some have of being angry at every trifle, continually taking
offense against their best friends; but that anger which leads a man to commit
outrages against another, thereby subjecting himself to that punishment which
was to be inflicted on those who break the peace. Εικη, vainly, or, as in the
common translation, without a cause, is wanting in the famous Vatican MS. and
two others, the Ethiopic, latter Arabic, Saxon, Vulgate, two copies of the old
Itala, J. Martyr, Ptolomeus, Origen, Tertullian, and by all the ancient copies
quoted by St. Jerome. It was probably a marginal gloss originally, which in
process of time crept into the text. (source)
Later
manuscript discoveries, such as P67, which also omit “without a clause” would
later further strengthen this argument.