Matthew 5:23,24

"If therefore you are carrying your gift toward the altar, and there you remember that your family member has something against you, Let your gift go from yourself, before the altar, and go your way.  First be reconciled to your family member and then come and offer your gift."

In the contest of religious ritual vs. human relationships, Jesus taught the priority of the latter. Even in the very act of carrying your gift toward the altar, the resolution of a perceived problem (with anyone close to us, a family member) takes precedence. In fact, we need to allow the gift that we had been bearing to the altar, to "go from yourself" and then seek out that family member.  In Holy Wind Living Breath New Testament one can see the various ways that the Greek word often translated "forgive" is used.  In this case we let the very essence of our religious worship, our gift for the altar,  "go from ourselves" as we seek the higher priority of positive human relationships. And then we will find the need to forgive or, as HWLB has it, "let go from ourselves" the debts that we feel others owe us.

Matthew 5:21,22

"You have heard that it was said to the ancients, You will not kill, but whoever may kill, will be accountable to the judgment, but I say to you, that everyone who is angry with a family member will be accountable to judgment.  And whoever may be saying to a family member, Empty, will be accountable to the council, and whoever may continually say, Fool, will be accountable to the fire of Hinnom Ravine's garbage dump."  Murderous anger.  Whether I actually fulfill that rage or not, is no longer the issue. The judgment comes when I harbor and nurse this wrath toward my neighbor, my family member. In Authentic Teaching of Jesus, italics are used for words not literally present, but which are implied by the original text. One way to emphasize the present, linear sense of a verb is by translating as "be saying" rather than as "say."  Another method is to render the verb, "may continually say."  Both translations are used in this passage. This makes clear that the ongoing act is in view.  Whoever keeps on demeaning a fellow human being will end up in the garbage dump, so to speak.  Most translations have "hell" for the word GEHENNA. Holy Wind Living Breath New Testament is very literal with "Hinnom Ravine."  In italics the phrase "garbage dump" follows to let the reader know what this Ravine, southwest of Jerusalem, was used for.  With its continually smoldering fires, it was a well known location to the Jewish listeners.  In Jesus' teaching, to belittle others is to destroy one's own life.

Matthew 5:20

"For I say to you, that unless your justice should exceed that of the writers and expounders, you should in no way be entering into the realm of upward vision."  Holy Wind Living Breath New Testament very consistently translates "Pharisee" as "expounder."  The word is an Aramaic one whose etymology is from the word to expand or expound.  Throughout Authentic Teaching of Jesus, one will read of these expounders who had so much to say about the correct meaning of scripture and tradition.  So, today, there are many self-appointed defenders of orthodoxy who expound so eloquently (or not) on the one, correct interpretation of theology.  Jesus' challenge to those wanting to learn more of life: your commitment to justice must exceed that of the leaders of the religious establishment.  After all the expounding is finished, where has our sense of justice taken us?  If our justice does not exceed that of the noisy religious leaders, then we are not really entering into this new realm of a higher, upward vision of life.  

Matthew 5:18,19

"For amen I say to you, Until upward vision and land may come along beside, one jot or one tittle will in no way come along beside, from the law, until all things are becoming. Whoever therefore may loose one of the least of these directions, and thus teach humanity, will be called least in the realm of upward vision, but whoever may do and teach them, the same will be called great in the realm of upward vision."  One day our land and the realm of upward vision will be coming along beside one another. And then "all things are becoming."  Therefore "these directions" that Jesus is setting forth, these principles of living, are vital to the new realm.  To "loose" or let go of these teachings of upward vision, is devastating.  To forsake the directions concerning poverty, justice or peace (just laid out) is to be "least in the realm of upward vision."  To be "great" in the sense intended here, is simply to be found doing and teaching the principles of the realm.

Matthew 5:17

"You should not think that I came to totally loose the law or those who have spoken out.  I came not to totally loose, but to make totally full."  In Authentic Teaching of Jesus, one will note the literal translation of "loose" in different settings.  The Greek word LUO is a versatile word in the New Testament with quite a range of meanings. In the context above, "to loose" is opposite of "to make full."  Jesus' reinterpretation of the OT law and prophets was, in his view, a making full of the text.  One who is learning from Jesus should adopt the same hermeneutic, the same perspective on the Biblical material that he employed.  If we read in this spirit, we will make the teaching totally full, both in understanding and in life.

Matthew 5:16

"Thus let your light shine in front of humanity that they may see good works from you, and esteem your loving center in upward vision."  True to its mission to be very literal and less anthropomorphic, Holy Wind Living Breath New Testament quotes Jesus as speaking of feeling "esteem" for your "loving center" in "upward vision."  All are alternatives to traditional biblical language. And all three of these translations reflect a very literal , etymological rendering of the Greek words. In the case of "loving center", as the Introduction to Authentic Teaching of Jesus observes:

The word PATER (typically "Father" in most translations) is, as Kittel notes, from the monosyllabic "pa" or "ma" or even "ba" lisped by a small child for a parent, the loving center of its life.  When used in the singular, of a literal male parent, HWLB translates as "father."  In the plural, it conveys the sense of "parents."  The cognate "PATRIA" is a family, not a group of fathers.  Often, however, in order to capture its earliest semantic sense, the phrase "loving center" is used.


One of the goals of HWLB is to allow for a larger view of immanence in the teachings of Jesus.  This also explains the very literal translation of "heaven" as "upward vision".  From two Greek words, meaning to see upwards, HWLB always has "upward vision" and thus allows the reader to see the different ways the original word is used in various contexts.

We all really do have the light within us.  But, we choose to let this light shine in the presence of others as we do good, reflecting esteem for the loving center of us...a truly upward vision of life.

Matthew 5:14,15

"You are the light of the system.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor does a person light a lamp and put it under the bushel, but on the lamp stand and it shines in all who are within the house."  Those who are committed to the Jesus-way of life are the light of the system.  He has just addressed key points in the previous verses of this chapter: poverty, mourning, gentleness, thirst for justice, a pure heart, and peacemaking.  In the context of Matthew 5, what Jesus means by us becoming a light is crystal clear. 

In Holy Wind Living Breath New Testament, the Greek word KOMOS is always translated as "system."  This allows for linguistic flexibility in its different contexts.  With a basic idea of "ordered arrangement", it is used in the New Testament for a disparate group of ideas: from the current cultural and political world; to the world as individual persons; and even for jewelery and clothing.  Most often, as here, it seems to encompass both our cultural world as well as the individuals in it.  There is a system to the way this world is structured and arranged. And, that system does not necessarily further the aims of the new realm that Jesus envisioned.  The current system often seems to be doing everything but...thirsting for justice. Jesus notes in verse 15 above that the lamp "shines in all who are within the house."  HWLB is relatively unique in the way it translates the locative sense of the case of the word PASIN.  Yes, one could literally translate as "to all."  But since part of the mission of HWLB, as quoted in Authentic Teaching of Jesus, is to provide very literal, yet alternative perspectives on the text, the preposition "in" is used.   And, indeed, the light not only shines to us, but in us.