Bible Synapse
Is it wrong to call someone a fool?
Hard question · The life of Jesus · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
Anger at a brother brings judgment, and “whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire”.
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
To the scribes and Pharisees, “ye blind guides”, who made oaths by the temple worthless: “Ye fools and blind”.
Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
The risen Jesus to two disciples: “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken”.
Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
To someone who asks how the dead are raised, Paul answers, “Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die”.
But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:
The objection
Jesus says that anyone who says “Thou fool” is in danger of hell fire. Yet Jesus himself called the scribes and Pharisees “fools and blind”, called two of his own disciples fools, and Paul says “Thou fool” to a questioner. Did Jesus and Paul break Jesus’ own rule?
The answer
In Matthew 5 Jesus is not banning a word; he is exposing the heart behind murder. The law said “Thou shalt not kill”, and Jesus traces killing back to its root: anger against a brother and the contempt that pours out in abuse (5:21–22). ‘Raca’ (‘empty-head’) and ‘Thou fool’ are examples of insults flung at a person in anger and scorn, words that treat him as worthless or damned. That is what Jesus condemns: the attitude, not the vocabulary.
When Jesus calls the scribes and Pharisees “fools and blind” (23:17), he uses the same Greek word, mōros, so the difference is in the use, not the word. He is not hitting back at an insult to himself. He is giving a teacher’s and prophet’s verdict on false teaching that misled others: these “blind guides” taught that an oath by the temple meant nothing, but an oath by its gold was binding (23:16). In Scripture a ‘fool’ is someone who sets God’s truth aside, as in “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 14:1), and Jesus shows why the word fits. Gill notes that ‘there is an anger which is not sinful’, the zeal that is kindled against sin and false doctrine.
In Luke 24:25 the word is different: anoētoi, ‘without understanding’, a sorrowful rebuke of two disciples who had not grasped the prophets, followed at once by patient teaching (24:27). Paul’s “Thou fool” (aphrōn, ‘senseless’) answers a sceptical question in the course of an argument (1 Corinthians 15:35–36); it is not abuse of a brother. Jesus’ “Ye fools” to the Pharisees (Luke 11:40, aphrones) and Paul’s rebuke of the Galatians as anoētoi, ‘without understanding’ (Galatians 3:1), are of the same kind: rebukes of blindness to God’s truth, given in order to correct. So the passages agree: words that express hateful contempt for a person are forbidden, but plainly naming spiritual blindness, out of concern for the truth, is not.
Other answers Christians give
‘Rebel’
Adam Clarke suggested that the word in Matthew 5:22 may echo the Hebrew moreh, ‘rebel’, so that Jesus forbids condemning a brother as an apostate. This is a suggestion, not a settled reading, but it fits the view that the saying is about writing someone off before God.
Still open
Some of the oldest manuscripts lack the words “without a cause” in Matthew 5:22, which the KJV includes. Either way, the context shows that Jesus is speaking of the anger that leads to murder, and Jesus himself was angry at wrong (Mark 3:5).
From the classic commentators
so that in the first clause is condemned causeless anger; in the second, scornful taunting and reproaching of a brother; and, in the last, calling him a reprobate and wicked, or uncharitably censuring his spiritual and eternal estate.John Lightfoot, quoted by Adam Clarke, Commentary on Matthew 5:22 (1810–1826)