A number of important manuscripts read εικη ("without
cause"), obviously modifying the anger against the brother. There has been
a longstanding controversy over the acceptability of this variant. Preben
Wernberg-M¢ller has attempted to strengthen its place in the text by noting a
parallel in IQS 7.8. It is most likely, however, that εικη represents
a secondary ethical interpretation. What is the reason for substituting anger
against the brother for murder? One can cite several reasons, some having to do
with ancient ethical doctrines, others with the composition of the SM: (1) What
the SM leaves unstated, Did. 3.2 spells out: "Do not become angry,
for anger leads to murder" (μη γινου οργιλος, οδηγει γαρ η οργη προς τον φονον). One can hardly doubt that the SM tacitly
presupposes the same idea. The theory that anger leads to murder was commonly
known in antiquity, and especially in the biblical tradition. (2) Anger
corresponds to hatred, the opposite of love (αγαπη). (3)
The brother (αδελφος-)
should be treated first in this list of disturbances of neighborly relations
because the closest family member is the brother; "brother" is also
the name for the fellow Christian and the fellow Jew; thus loving one's
neighbor (SM/Matt 5:43) means first of all loving one's brother. (Hans Dieter Betz, The Sermon on the
Mount [Hermeneia—A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible;
Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1995], 219-20)
