On calling anyone 'You Fool'. If Jesus did it, why can't we?

Exegesis from the year 2020 in the subject Theology - Biblical Theology, grade: 1.0, Kwame Nkrumah University, language: English, abstract: This short article is a hermeneutical analysis of Mt 5.22 in which Jesus tells his listeners during the famous sermon on the mount that 'whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire.' If this was the only use of the appellation 'fool' one can be excused of justifying it. But elsewhere Paul calls the Galatians foolish and Jesus himself calls the Pharisees fools without as much as attaching any opprobrium. One can suggest that what is at stake is not the insult per se but what it stands for. Namely, usurping God's place as judge. There is a further reason for the opprobrium, to show that in any infraction of the law it is not the infraction per se that matters but the motive behind it.

Tarcisius Mukuka [Dipl. Pastoral Theol & Counselling, Dipl. Phil. & Rel. Studies, STB, SSL, PhD] is a biblical exegete by training. He holds a Licentiate in Biblical Exegesis from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and a doctorate in Biblical Hermeneutics from the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. His doctoral dissertation was entitled "Orality as Casualty: Contextual and Postcolonial Analysis of Biblical Hermeneutics in Bembaland" (2014). He is currently a lecturer in Religious Studies Education at Kwame Nkrumah University in Kabwe. His research interests include postcolonialism and the Bible, gender and the Bible, religion, politics and power. He is the author of "Spoken Voice/Written Word: Negotiating How We Hear/Read the Bible" (2016) published by Lambert Academic Publishing and "In the Eye of a Very Catholic Storm" (forthcoming), by Crown Arts Publishers