to murder: to kill a human being wrongfully, in violation of God's law
This verb names the wrongful taking of a human life. It is the pointed word for murder, not the broad word for any killing. New Testament writers reserve it for killing that is unjust: the shedding of innocent or righteous blood.
Most of its appearances are quotations of the sixth commandment, "You shall not murder" (Matthew 5:21; Matthew 19:18; Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20; Romans 13:9; James 2:11). Because the word is specific, the commandment it carries is not a blanket ban on all killing but a prohibition of murder. That precision drives the long-running difference between the older "Thou shalt not kill" and the modern "You shall not murder."
The remaining uses are accusations. Jesus charges the religious leaders with belonging to, and matching, those who murdered the prophets (Matthew 23:31, 35), and James rebukes the rich for having condemned and killed the righteous person (James 5:6). Throughout, this stays a sharper word than the neutral verb for killing (ἀποκτείνω), which covers any putting to death, lawful or not.
In James 4:2 ("you murder and covet, and cannot obtain"), whether the charge of murder is literal, is figurative overstatement for the deadly outcome of unchecked craving, or rests on a corrupt text.
- majorityRetain the reading "you murder" and take it either as a real accusation or as strong figurative language for where greed leads.; J. H. Ropes, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle of St. James (ICC, 1916); M. Dibelius, James (Hermeneia, 1976)
- minorityEmend the text to "you envy" (φθονεῖτε), a conjecture proposed by Erasmus that has no manuscript support.; Desiderius Erasmus, Annotationes in Novum Testamentum (1516)