TR: ratsach → phoneúō (Murder / Unlawful Killing)¶
The Chain¶
Hebrew OT LXX (Greek OT) Greek NT
─────────── ─────────────── ────────
רָצַח (ratsach) → φονεύω (phoneúō) → φονεύω (phoneúō)
H7523, 40x 25x as translation of G5407, 10x in NT
"kill / murder / ratsach (PMI 28.08) "murder"
the slayer"
OT Usage (Hebrew)¶
| Strong's | Word | POS | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H7523 | רָצַח (ratsach) | verb | 40 | kill (a person); murder; "the slayer" |
| H7524 | רֶצַח (retsach) | masc. noun | 2 | slaughter, crushing, murder (cognate noun) |
| H2026 | הָרַג (harag) | verb | 158 | kill, slay (broader verb in same field) — see H2026-harag.md |
| H4191 | מוּת (muwth) | verb | (~800) | die / cause to die (judicial-death collocate) |
Key OT passages: - Exo 20:13 / Deut 5:17 — "Thou shalt not kill." (the Decalogue — absolute prohibition) - Num 35:16 — "he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death" (premeditated homicide) - Num 35:11 — "that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unawares" (manslaughter / refuge provision)
Canonical study: H7523-ratsach.md
LXX Bridge¶
Two views of the bridge.
(A) How ratsach (H7523) is rendered in the LXX:
| Greek | Strong's | Co-occ | PMI | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| φονεύω (phoneúō) | G5407 | 25 | 28.08 | Primary equivalent — narrow "murder" sense |
| πόλις (pólis) | G4172 | 15 | 8.74 | Contextual ("city" of refuge), not a direct translation |
| πατάσσω (patássō) | G3960 | 8 | 8.46 | "Strike" — the act producing death in some refuge texts |
| αἷμα (haîma) | G129 | 8 | 9.04 | "Blood" — contextual (avenger of blood / blood-guilt) |
| ἀποθνῄσκω (apothnḗskō) | G599 | 8 | 7.76 | "Die" — consequential verb |
| θανατόω (thanatóō) | G2289 | 5 | 8.11 | "Put to death" — judicial execution of the murderer |
| ἀφορίζω (aphorízō) | G873 | 4 | 8.50 | "Set apart" — designation of refuge cities |
| καταφεύγω (katapheúgō) | G2703 | 3 | 9.49 | "Flee down to refuge" — refuge-city verbal context |
(B) Hebrew sources behind phoneúō (G5407):
| Hebrew | Strong's | Co-occ | PMI | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| רָצַח (ratsach) | H7523 | 25 | 28.08 | Primary source — the principal Hebrew word rendered by phoneúō |
| מִקְלָט (miqlat) | H4733 | 11 | 20.68 | "Refuge" — co-translated in refuge-city contexts |
| עִיר (ʻiyr) | H5892 | 12 | 7.53 | "City" — contextual collocate |
| נָכָה (nakah) | H5221 | 8 | 7.42 | "Smite" — verbal overlap in death-producing strikes |
| הָרַג (harag) | H2026 | 7 | 9.80 | Broader "kill" verb; LXX uses phoneúō for overlap cases |
| גָּאַל (gaʼal) | H1350 | 6 | 10.50 | "Avenger of blood" contextual collocate |
| מִגְרָשׁ (migrash) | H4054 | 6 | 11.01 | "Suburb / open land" of Levitical refuge cities |
| נוּס (nuwç) | H5127 | 5 | 7.90 | "Flee" — refuge verb collocate |
Semantic continuity: ratsach and phoneúō align tightly on the narrow sense of "murder / unlawful killing of a person." The LXX translators deliberately chose phoneúō rather than the broader ἀποκτείνω (G615) when rendering ratsach, preserving the Decalogue's moral focus.
NT Usage (Greek)¶
| Strong's | Word | POS | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| G5407 | φονεύω (phoneúō) | verb | 10 | murder, do murder, kill |
| G5406 | φονεύς (phoneús) | masc. noun | (~7) | a murderer |
| G5408 | φόνος (phónos) | masc. noun | (~10) | slaughter, murder |
| G615 | ἀποκτείνω (apokteínō) | verb | (~74) | kill (broader) — distinguished from phoneúō |
Key NT passages: - Matt 5:21 — "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill (phoneúō)" — Jesus citing the Decalogue and radicalizing it in the Sermon on the Mount - Rom 13:9 — "Thou shalt not kill (phoneúō)" — Paul citing the Decalogue as summed up in love of neighbor - Jas 2:11 — "For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill (phoneúō)" — James appealing to the indivisibility of the law
Canonical study: TODO(need G5407 study)
Direct OT→NT Quotations¶
| NT Verse | Quotes OT | Shared Word | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matt 5:21 | Exo 20:13 / Deut 5:17 | ratsach → phoneúō | Jesus quotes the Sixth Commandment and extends its scope to inward anger (Matt 5:22) |
| Mark 10:19 | Exo 20:13 / Deut 5:17 | ratsach → phoneúō | Decalogue recited to the rich young ruler |
| Luke 18:20 | Exo 20:13 / Deut 5:17 | ratsach → phoneúō | Parallel to Mark 10 |
| Rom 13:9 | Exo 20:13 / Deut 5:17 | ratsach → phoneúō | Decalogue cited as fulfilled in neighbor-love |
| Jas 2:11 | Exo 20:13 / Deut 5:17 | ratsach → phoneúō | Decalogue cited to argue against partial law-keeping |
Every NT use of phoneúō occurs in a direct citation or allusion to the Decalogue (Exo 20:13 / Deut 5:17) — one of the tightest and most explicit OT→NT lexical chains in Scripture.
Continuity and Shifts¶
What stays the same across testaments: - The narrow moral-legal focus is preserved: both ratsach and phoneúō denote unlawful killing of a human being rather than killing in war, judicial execution, or animal slaughter. - The Sixth Commandment is transmitted verbatim: "Thou shalt not kill / ou phoneúseis" in every NT citation. - The word-family pairing is clean: Hebrew retsach (noun) / ratsach (verb) corresponds to Greek phónos (noun) / phoneús (agent) / phoneúō (verb).
What shifts: - The OT concentrates this vocabulary in legal-procedural contexts (cities of refuge, avenger of blood, judicial witness). The NT concentrates it in ethical-catechetical contexts (Decalogue citation, catalogues of vice, "do not murder" as summary of neighbor-love). - The OT uses the same verb for accidental manslaughter ("the slayer") and premeditated murder ("the murderer") — distinguished only by context and motive. The NT narrows phoneúō almost entirely to the premeditated sense. - Jesus radicalizes the commandment in Matt 5:21-22 by equating unjustified anger with the forbidden ratsach/phoneúō — an internalization the OT text did not explicitly make. - The OT refuge-city institution (the largest single context for ratsach) finds no direct NT reflex; the ethical-forensic apparatus around the word drops out and only the prohibition remains.
Generated from: gather_trace_data.py (search_strongs.py --lxx-map, --hebrew-source, --lookup, --lexicon) Last updated: 2026-04-18