Texts in Conversation
In Matthew 7, Jesus warns that the way you judge others will be used to judge you in return, echoing a principle found throughout Jewish tradition, including the Aramaic Targums, known as “measure for measure.”
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Matthew 7:2
New Testament
1 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2 For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive. 3 Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to see the beam of wood in your own? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while there is a beam in your own?
Date: 70–90 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Neofiti Numbers 12:16
Targum
14 The Lord said to Moses, “If her father had scolded her harshly, it would be right for her to be humbled before him for seven days. Confine her outside the camp for seven days, and afterward she will be healed.” 15 Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not travel until Miriam was healed. 16 Although Miriam the prophetess was condemned to have a defiling skin disease, there is much teaching here for the wise and for those who keep the Law: for even a small commandment a person performs, he receives a great reward. Since Miriam stood on the riverbank to learn what would finally happen to Moses, Israel became 600,000, a total of eighty legions. The clouds of Glory and the well did not move or travel from their places until Miriam the prophetess was healed of her skin disease. ⟨After Miriam the prophetess was healed of her skin disease⟩, the people traveled from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.
Date: 300–1000 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The moral concept of “measure for measure” is well known in Judaism, being broadly evidenced by the Targums and by rabbinic literature. Targum Isaiah 27:8 contains the addition, “With the measure you were measuring with they will measure you.” In Matthew 7:2 and Mark 4:24, Jesus utters a similar saying, “In the measure you measure it shall be measured you.” In both locations, the maxim is stated as an ethical concept that explains a judgment. In Targum Isaiah, the judgment applies to a future king who will be oppressing Israel and signals Israel’s rescue by God and the king’s defeat. In both Matthew and Mark, the phrase is cast in the plural and refers to Jesus’ listeners as he urges them ..."
Paul V. M. Flesher and Bruce D. Chilton, The Targums: A Critical Introduction, SAIS 12 (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2011), 396.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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