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Matthew

About this book
Chapter 7

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.⁠ 7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find;⁠ knock and the door will be opened for you.⁠ 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.⁠ 9 Is there anyone among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!⁠ 12 In everything, treat others as you would want them to treat you,⁠ for this fulfills the law and the prophets.⁠ 13 “Enter through the narrow gate because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.⁠ 14 How narrow is the gate and difficult the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it! 15 “Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves.⁠ 16 You will recognize them by their fruit. Grapes are not gathered from thorns or figs from thistles, are they?⁠ 17 In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree is not able to bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree to bear good fruit.⁠ 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.⁠ 20 So then, you will recognize them by their fruit. 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’⁠ will enter into the kingdom of heaven—only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.⁠ 22 On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many powerful deeds in your name?’ 23 Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!’⁠ 24 “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house on rock.⁠ 25 The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, but it did not collapse because its foundation had been laid on rock. 26 Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, and it collapsed—it was utterly destroyed!” 28 When Jesus finished saying these things,⁠ the crowds were amazed by his teaching,⁠ 29 because he taught them like one who had authority, not like their experts in the law.

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Compare Matthew 7:12 and Hierocles, On Fraternal Love

New Testament · Classical

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Summary

In Matthew, Jesus teaches the Golden Rule, to treat others the way they want to be treated. Hierocles, a second-century Stoic philosopher, similarly teaches the Golden Rule, showing how it is found in many distinct cultures.

Passages

Matthew 7:12

New Testament
11 If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 In everything, treat others as you would want them to treat you, for this fulfills the law and the prophets. 13 “Enter through the narrow gate because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

Hierocles, On Fraternal Love

Classical · On Brotherly Love
The first advice, therefore, is very clear, easily obtained, and is common to all men. For it is a sane assertion, which every man will consider as evident. And it is this: Act by every one, in the same manner as if you supposed yourself to be him, and him to be you. For he will use a servant well who considers with himself, how he would think it proper to be used by him, if he indeed was the master, and himself the servant. The same thing also must be said of parents with respect to children, and of children with respect to parents; and, in short, of all men with respect to all. This advice, however, is transcendently adapted to the alliance of brothers to each other; since nothing else is necessary for him to admit previously, who considers how he ought to conduct himself towards his brother, than promptly to assume the natural sameness of the person of each of them. This, therefore, is the first advice, that a man should act towards his brother in the same way in which he would think it proper that his brother should act towards him. But, by Zeus, some one may say, I do not exceed propriety in my manners and am equitable, but my brother's manners are rough and without affability. Such a one, however, does not speak rightly.
120 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Hierocles, On Fraternal Love

References

... This is also the principle enunciated in the Gospels that one should not do to others what we would not wish done to us and, vice versa, to do to them what we would wish done to us. This putting of oneself ‘in the shoes of the other’ is what is meant by sympatheia, and it is also an application of complete sociable oikeiôsis on the part of a person who thinks of and takes an interest in what concerns another as though it were his or her own, up to the point of being as concerned for the other as one is for oneself. This ‘other’ is not only someone near and dear, as Hierocles specifies; the principle is valid in respect to all people. For parallels between the New Testament and Hierocles and Hellenistic moral philosophy generally, taking account also of popular morality and the diatribe tradition, see van der Horst, ‘Hierocles the Stoic,’ 156–60; Abraham J. Malherbe, Paul and the Popular Philosophers (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988) ...
Ilaria Ramelli, Hierocles the Stoic: Elements of Ethics, Fragments, and Excerpts, ed. Translated by David Konstan (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009), 123–124.

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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Matthew 7:12 and Hierocles, On Fraternal Love

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