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Matthew

About this book
Chapter 6

1 “Be careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by people.⁠ Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven.⁠ 2 Thus whenever you do charitable giving, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues and on streets so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, they have their reward!⁠ 3 But when you do your giving, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,⁠ 4 so that your gift may be in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. 5 “Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites⁠ because they love to pray while standing in synagogues and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward! 6 But whenever you pray, go into your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.⁠ And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. 7 When you pray, do not babble repetitiously like the Gentiles because they think that by their many words they will be heard.⁠ 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 So pray this way: “Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored,⁠ 10 may your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.⁠ 11 Give us today our daily bread,⁠ 12 and forgive us our debts, as we ourselves have forgiven our debtors.⁠ 13 And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.⁠ 14 “For if you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.⁠ 15 But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you your sins. 16 “When you fast, do not look sullen like the hypocrites, for they make their faces unattractive so that people will see them fasting.⁠ I tell you the truth, they have their reward! 17 When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others when you are fasting, but only to your Father who is in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. 19 “Do not accumulate for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and devouring insect destroy and where thieves break in and steal.⁠ 20 But accumulate for yourselves treasures in heaven,⁠ where moth and devouring insect do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.⁠ 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body.⁠ If then your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.⁠ 23 But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!⁠ 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.⁠ 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.⁠ Isn’t there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing?⁠ 26 Look at the birds in the sky: They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you more valuable than they are?⁠ 27 And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life? 28 Why do you worry about clothing? Think about how the flowers of the field grow; they do not work or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these! 30 And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, won’t he clothe you even more, you people of little faith? 31 So then, don’t worry saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For the unconverted pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But above all pursue his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.⁠ 34 So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 58:4 and Matthew 6:33

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

In 1 Enoch, those who seek the light and righteousness are promised a future where they will find peace. In Matthew, Jesus uses similar language in urging his audience to seek righteousness above all else.

Passages

1 Enoch 58:4

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 And I began to speak the third Parable concerning the righteous and elect. 2 Blessed are you, righteous and elect, for your destiny shall be glorious. 3 The righteous will be in the light of the sun, and the elect in the light of eternal life; their days shall be endless, and the days of the holy beyond count. 4 They shall seek the light and find righteousness with the Lord of Spirits; there shall be peace for the righteous in the name of the Eternal Lord.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Matthew 6:33

New Testament
31 So then, don’t worry saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For the unconverted pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But above all pursue his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

References

"... In the book of Parables, the narrator affirms to have been given “a lot of eternal life” 1 Enoch 37:4. Does that mean life of special quality or life which lasts long, or even both? In 1 Enoch 40:9, eternal life is promised to the righteous (1 Enoch 40:9). At the beginning of the second parable, God predicts that He will transform heaven. The New heaven is full of blessing and light for eternity (1 Enoch 45:4). The future age consists then of blessing and of light. The idea of transformation implies the introduction of something new, something that did not exist before. In other words, the present age lacked blessing and light. This does not mean that the present age was deprived totally of blessing or of light. Besides, the light of the future age differs from the light of the present one, at least in degree, if not also in kind. In the future age, there will be light of the Sun, for the righteous; and light of life, for the chosen (1 Enoch 58:3). One may notice a parallelism here between Sun and life. The future tense here indicates that we are not dealing with the luminaries of the present age. The “light of the Sun” is already available in the present age. There is no need to announce it as an integral part of the transformed reality. Similarly, in the same verse, the expressions like “there is no end during the days of their life”, “the days of the holy ones is without number” are never used to describe the present age. Together with light and life, peace is mentioned as part of the future age (1 Enoch 58:4) ..."
Daniel Assefa, “The Future in 1 Enoch,” Laurentianum (2020): 193–194.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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1 Enoch 58:4 and Matthew 6:33

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