IS THERE A FINE LINE BETWEEN

MURDER AND KILLING IN THE GOSPELS?

This is a sample entry from the book The Biblical Bamboozle
by Hadria n Mr lija h Bar Isral
h t t p : / / w w w .ma r e l i j a h .o r g

Rev. Fr. Jonathan Ivanoff, the rector at Saint John the Theologian Orthodox
Church in Babylon NY, and a graduate of Saint Tikhons Orthodox Theological
Seminary has said that a distinction exists in the original Hebrew which allows
Orthodox Christians to "murder" but not to "kill". Lets examine the scriptures
and find out if this is true.
I would begin by pointing out that Jesus words were not originally spoken and /
or written in Hebrew. They were spoken in Aramaic, which is a language of its
own, separate from Hebrew, which at the time of Jesus was only in use as a
liturgical language. The Gospels themselves record that Jesus spoke the Galilean
dialec t of Arama ic.
According to both the Peshitta and Old Syriac versions of the Gospels, when Jesus
says do not k ill, the word he uses for k ill is Tewtowl (). Jesus uses this
word when He says:

You hav e heard it said, " You shall not k ill" , and that all who k ill
shall be sentenced and condemned. (Matthew 5:21)
This word is also used in Matthew 19:18, Luke 18:20, in Pauls letter to the
Romans 13:9 and in the letter to James 2:11, in each instance is plainly translated
as k ill, with no other implied inter pr e ta tio n or nuance .
Thus it is witho u t questio n that Jesus meant Do not k ill as the Comma nd me nt.

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You k now the Commandments, do not be an adulterer, do not steal,
do not k ill, do not lie in testimony, do not [ reject / dishonour] your
father or mother (Mark 10:19)
The NIV however has the verse a little diffe r e nt, and reads:
You k now the commandments: 'You shall not murder, you shall not
commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not giv e false
testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.'
It seems simila r enough but there is a differ e nce.
The King James Versio n says:
Thou k nowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not
kill , Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour
thy father and mother.
The Textus Recepticus from which the King James Version was translated gives
the text as:

The pertinent word in the Greek is phoneuss ( ), which according to

Strongs Concordance (5407) has twelve occurrences in the Greek New Testament
and is defined as murder, kill. It is thus difficult to know where the theology of
separation between murder (i.e. unrighteous killing) and killing (i.e. all killing)
is made however the Eastern Orthodox, Catholics and many other Christians
insis t that it is there.
Google trans la te, has these possib le meanin gs :

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Giving a very broad array of possible meanings for the word , and
indica ting that murde r and kill do not have separate words to describe them.
It makes it difficult to know then from whence this new theology of the Eastern
Orthodox has come, but it certainly does not seem to be Biblical, unless of course
Fr. Ivanoff only knows the text of the N IV!

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A sample chapter from the book THE BIBLICAL BAMBOOZLE by Hadria n Isral
2016 All Rights Res erved by Righteous Endeavour http://w w w . righteous en de av our. c om

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A sample chapter from the book THE BIBLICAL BAMBOOZLE by Hadria n Isral
2016 All Rights Res erved by Righteous Endeavour http://w w w . righteous en de av our. c om

Johnatha n Ivano ff (Photo Source: Facebook)

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A sample chapter from the book THE BIBLICAL BAMBOOZLE by Hadria n Isral
2016 All Rights Res erved by Righteous Endeavour http://w w w . righteous en de av our. c om

6
A sample chapter from the book THE BIBLICAL BAMBOOZLE by Hadria n Isral
2016 All Rights Res erved by Righteous Endeavour http://w w w . righteous en de av our. c om

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A sample chapter from the book THE BIBLICAL BAMBOOZLE by Hadria n Isral
2016 All Rights Res erved by Righteous Endeavour http://w w w . righteous en de av our. c om