Bible Dictionaries
Raca

　　RACA.—The word occurs only in Matthew 5:22, and offers one of the little riddles of the Gospels which have not found as yet a sufficient explanation. It had been spelt ‘Racha’ in the Authorized Version confines itself to the marginal note, ‘an expression of contempt.’ The spelling of the Greek Manuscriptsא*D, adopted by Tischendorf; ᾶ in B, -ῥακκα, of the Latin Versions; raccha in d; only f k Zc and the official Vulgate have raca; רַקָא, שׁיטא, i.e. ‘despised,’ by Bar-hebraeus).

　　The puzzle in the word is the a of the first syllable, which is not found in the corresponding Hebrew word. It is true, J. Lightfoot (Hor. Heb., new ed. by Rob. Gandell, Oxford, 1859, ii. 108) writes:

　　‘Raca: A word used by one that despiseth another in the highest scorn: very usual in the Hebrew writers, and very common in the mouth of the nation.’ Then he gives examples from Tanchum, fol. 5, Colossians 2; fol. 18, Colossians 4; fol. 38, Colossians 4; Midrash Tillin upon Psalms 138; Bab.ריקה Raca, it is written in your law,” ’ etc.

　　But in all these cases the Semitic word is spelt Aramaic -Neuheb. Wörterbuch, p. 384; Jastrow, Dictionary, ii. 1476. In the first edition of his Gram. d. Jüd.-Pal.χ in the Manuscriptsῥάκος, ‘lump’ = rag (a tattered piece of cloth, and then used of a shabby, beggarly fellow). This is possible. But there is another strange and not yet corroborated statement about the use of the word, found in Chrysostom, who was acquainted with Syriac as spoken in the neighbourhood of Antioch. He says (p. 214) that it was not a word ‘of the highest scorn,’ as Lightfoot styled it:

　　καθὰτερ γὰρ ἡμεῖς ἡ οἰκεταις, εἰτὲ τῷ δεῖνι σύ· τοῦτο τιθέντες. καθηκόντως ἡμὶν κεχρῆσθαι ἀλληλοις κελεύων, ῥακά, Chrysostom considers ῥῆμα τῆς ὕβρεως πληκτικώτερον, for which Τὸ ῥακὰ δὲ ἑβραϊκή ἐστι φωνή, ὡς ἀνάξιον ὀνόματος ἀντὶ ὀνόματος δὲ τὸ Σὺ τίθησιν. Augustine speaks of having heard from a Jew, that Raca is vocum non significantem aliquid, sed indignantis animi motum exprimentem. No example, however, has been found as yet of this use in Syriac. It is interesting to note that Maclean’s Dictionary of the Dialects of Vernacular Syriac gives the vocalization ἄφρων (1 Corinthians 15:36) is the parallel to κενέ, ῥακκά, Racha, Raca (cod. F). See also art. Fool.

　　Eb. Nestle.

　　RACHEL, the wife of Jacob and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, is mentioned in Matthew 2:18, in a quotation from Jeremiah 31:15. The words of Jeremiah are understood in this passage as a prediction of the slaughter of the Innocents, but in their original connexion they refer to a historical incident in the prophet’s own life. He accompanied the exiles on their way to Babylon as far as Ramah, 5 miles north of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 40:1), and the impression produced by his last sight of them took the form of a poetic picture of Rachel, the ancestral mother of the Israelites (who according to one tradition—1 Samuel 10:2—was buried in the neighbourhood), bewailing the fate of her descendants (Jeremiah 31:15). The application of this passage to the massacre at Bethlehem seems to have been suggested by the fact that another tradition placed Rachel’s tomb in the vicinity of that town (Genesis 35:19-20; Genesis 48:7). The supposed site of this sepulchre has been shown, at least since the 4th cent. a.d., about 4 miles south of Jerusalem, and one mile north of Bethlehem. See Ramah.

　　James Patrick.