Matthew 7:3

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? 5 You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. 6 Do not give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before pigs; otherwise they will trample them under their feet and turn around and tear you to pieces.

Arakhin 16b

Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic

It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Tarfon says: I would be surprised if there is anyone in this generation who can receive rebuke. Why? Because if the one rebuking says to him: Remove the splinter from between your eyes, i.e., rid yourself of a minor infraction, the other says to him: Remove the beam from between your eyes, i.e., you have committed far more severe sins. Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria says: I would be surprised if there is anyone in this generation who knows how to rebuke correctly, without embarrassing the person he is rebuking.

 Notes and References

"... In conclusion, then, the figure in Arakin 16b and Baba Batra 15b presents a parallel to that of Matthew 7, 3-5 in general idea only. In Matthew the mote and the beam are in the eye, and the beam must be removed before the critic can see clearly to take the mote out of the other's eye. The contrast of the mote and the beam seems to have been proverbial, but is differently expressed and applied ..."

King, George B. The Mote and the Beam (pp. 393-404) The Harvard Theological Review, 1924

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