When our anger gets us into trouble.

Matthew 5.21-26, Luke 12.57-59. In Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, after explaining he’s not come to do away with the Law, he proceeded to give his commentary on the Law. These are the bits which follow the pattern of “You heard this said… and I tell you.” Typically bibles translate Jesus’s followup as “ But I tell you.” ( KJV , NIV , ESV , NLT , etc.) It’s because the ancient Greek conjunction δέ / de , which generically connects sentences to one another, gets translated… “And” when the sentences connect similar ideas. “But” when the sentences contrast dissimilar ideas. “Or” when the sentences list options. “Then” when it’s part of a sequence of ideas. De can be translated whatever way the interpreter thinks would make the clearest English. But really it’s got no more meaning than a semicolon. (I’d even translate it that way… if it didn’t wind up producing giant run-on sentences.) Here’s the problem: Interpreter bias. When we correctly recognize Jesus isn’t throwi