Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Adam Clarke and "without a cause" in Matthew 5:22


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.