Who is a fool?

Luke 11:40, You fools. Here Yeshua calls the Pharisees fools (Gr. aphron) or “senseless, stupid, without reason, acting rashly, without reflection or intelligence.”  (Cp. Matt 5:22.)

How does this compare with Yeshua’s forbidding his disciples from calling a brother a fool in Matthew 5:22? Let’s see.

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Matthew 5:22, Brother…raca…fool. Raca is an Aramaic word meaning “empty, i.e., a senseless, an empty headed man, vain, worthless, shallow brains” and was a term of reproach used among the Jews. Fool (Gr. moros) can also be translated as “empty, i.e. a senseless, empty headed man.” In Luke 11:40, Yeshua called the hypocritical Pharisees fools (Gr. aphron) or “without reason, senseless, foolish, stupid, without reflection or intelligence, acting rashly.” In Yeshua’s mind, it seems that calling an unbelieving religious hypocrite a fool is one thing, but calling one’s spiritual brother a fool (without a cause) is quite a different matter. Therefore, it would seem that to Yeshua, there is a time and place even to call a brother a fool as long as one is justified (presumably on solid Torah-based, scriptural ground) for doing so.

The LXX translators replace the Hebrew word nabal and the Greek word moros. According the TDNT, nabal not only means “want of understanding,” but also refers to one who “is missing the true understanding of Elohim, acknowledgement or confession of Elohim. Someone who’s heart is hardened and whose spiritual eyes are blind and ears are deaf. The folly condemned here is apostasy from Elohim. Yeshua uses the moros in describing the five virgins who were unprepared for the bridegroom in his Matthew 25 parable. Apparently, they were in a far worse state spiritually than one might suppose from a casual reading of this parable.

The bottom line is this: We must be careful who we call a fool. The Creator made man was made in his image, and is thus a dignified, honorable and noble being. In Hebraic thought, anything that demotes a person’s honor not only is a serious offense, but is a slap in the face of Elohim, the Creator. One must be very careful and be certain that one has solid scriptural backing before applying such epithets to another person — especially one’s spiritual brother.

 

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