Matthew 5:21 → Exodus 20:13

Matthew 5:21 opens Jesus's first antithesis in the Sermon on the Mount with an explicit citation of the sixth commandment from Exodus 20:13: "You have heard that it was said to the ancients, 'Do not murder.'" Jesus does not abrogate this commandment but penetrates to its deeper intent, extending the prohibition to encompass the angry disposition that underlies the act of murder. The antithetical formula ("you have heard… but I tell you") does not set Jesus against Moses but reveals Jesus as the authoritative interpreter of Torah — indeed as the one who gave the Torah and now expounds its full divine intent. The commandment's external demand against killing points to an inward requirement against hate (orge), showing that the Decalogue's concern was always with the heart. Jesus, as the new Moses delivering a greater Torah from a greater mountain, fulfills the law by bringing its demand to its full eschatological depth.