To be a murderer (of)
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G5407 is a Greek verb for murdering or unlawfully killing a person. Matthew 5:21 cites the command against murder and the liability of the murderer, then Jesus addresses anger, contempt, and reconciliation without erasing the legal distinction between emotion and homicide.
Reader summary
Full entry for φονεύω (G5407) · Open the biblical lexicon
G5407 is a Greek verb for murdering or unlawfully killing a person. Matthew 5:21 cites the command against murder and the liability of the murderer, then Jesus addresses anger, contempt, and reconciliation without erasing the legal distinction between emotion and homicide.
The BSB source-word alignment has 12 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Do not murder (5), [and] murdered (1), do commit murder (1), murder (1), murders (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:21. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (5), James (4), Luke (1), Mark (1).
G5407 is a Greek verb for murdering or unlawfully killing a person. Matthew 5:21 cites the command against murder and the liability of the murderer, then Jesus addresses anger, contempt, and reconciliation without erasing the legal distinction between emotion and homicide. Romans 13:9 includes the prohibition within commandments summed up by loving one's neighbor.
James 2:11 shows that murder remains lawbreaking even when another command is kept, and James 5:6 accuses wealthy oppressors of condemning and murdering the righteous. The verb is more specific than every form of killing, death, punishment, warfare, or accidental harm. Context must establish literal action, culpability, and any rhetorical force. G5407 supports clear teaching on the sanctity of life, anger, oppression, accountability, and neighbor love without falsely equating every conflict with murder or narrowing murder to private violence alone.
G5407 appears in commandment citations, Jesus' teaching, and James's indictment of oppression. It names grave unlawful killing while related contexts trace contempt, exploitation, condemnation, and neighbor failure without dissolving necessary moral and legal distinctions.
You have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not murder’ and ‘Anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’
Jesus cites the prohibition of murder and the murderer's liability before probing anger and contempt, deepening moral responsibility without claiming every angry feeling is homicide.
The commandments “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and any other commandments, are summed up in this one decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Paul places the command not to murder among obligations summed up in loving one's neighbor, making non-harm part of active covenantal love.
For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
James treats murder as real lawbreaking even if another command is kept, confronting selective obedience and partiality before the royal law.
You have condemned and murdered the righteous, who did not resist you.
James accuses rich oppressors of condemning and murdering the righteous, connecting lethal injustice with exploitative wealth and corrupted judgment.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Deliberate killing with malice, not accidental death; core commandment against murder in moral law
Deliberate killing with malice, not accidental death; core commandment against murder in moral law
(φονεύς), [in LXX chiefly for רָצַח ;] to kill, murder. absol., Mat.5:21, Jas.4:2; μὴ (οὐ) φονεύσῃς (-εις), Mat.5:21 19:18, Mrk.10:19, Luk.18:20, Rom.13:9, Jas.2:11 (all from Exo.20:13-14); with accusative, Mat.23:31, 35, Jas.5:6.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
12 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I murder
Read verseI murder
Read verseI murder
Read verseI murder
Read verseI murder
Read verseI murder
Read verseI murder
Read verseI murder
Read verseI murder
Read verseI murder
Read verseI murder
Read verseI murder
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 11 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
φονεύω is built from this root:
G5407 names a boundary that protects human life: do not murder. Jesus does not weaken that command when He addresses anger and contempt in Matthew 5. He exposes the relational and spiritual soil from which violence grows and calls disciples toward urgent reconciliation, while the text still distinguishes murder, liability, anger, insult, and worship. Paul places the prohibition within love of neighbor, showing that Christian ethics requires more than avoiding a criminal act; love seeks the neighbor's good and refuses intentional lethal harm.
James resists selective morality. A person cannot appeal to one kept command to excuse murder, and a wealthy community cannot separate religious claims from systems that condemn and destroy the righteous. These contexts widen moral vision without making the word imprecise. Not every death is murder, and not every angry person has committed homicide. Legal culpability, intent, agency, and circumstance require truthful examination.
At the same time, focusing only on an individual weapon can hide organized exploitation or corrupt judgment that costs lives. Churches should name murder soberly, center victims rather than spectacle, support lawful accountability, and address contempt before it matures into harm. They must also resist vigilante judgment, collective blame, and rhetoric that treats opponents as less than human.
Neighbor love protects life in both speech and action.
Matt.5.21
G5407 is the verb corresponding to the command against murder and ordinarily denotes culpable unlawful killing rather than every cause of death. Syntax and discourse may connect literal murder to accusation, commandment citation, or prophetic indictment.
G5407 carries the Decalogue's prohibition into Jesus' and apostolic teaching, where neighbor love, anger, contempt, partiality, exploitation, and accountability surround it. The continuity strengthens life's protection while requiring careful distinctions among murder, warfare, execution, accident, self-defense, and other killing texts.