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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.

Texts in conversation

Compare Tobit 4:15 and Matthew 7:12 and Gospel of Thomas 6

Deuterocanon · New Testament · Nag Hammadi

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Summary

In Tobit, a father tells his son not to do what he hates; in Matthew, Jesus says to do for others what one wants for oneself. The Gospel of Thomas has the rule about what to avoid, closer to the Jewish version in Tobit.

Passages

Tobit 4:15

Deuterocanon
14 Do not let the wages of any man, which shall work for you, stay with you, but render it to him out of hand: and if you serve God, recompense shall be made to you. Take heed to yourself, my child, in all your works, and be discreet in all your behaviour. 15 And what you yourself hate, do to no man. Do not drink wine to drunkenness, and do not let drunkenness go with you on your way. 16 Give of your bread to the hungry, and of your garments to them that are naked: of all your abundance give alms; and do not let your eye be grudging when you give alms.
225–175 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Tobit

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

Gospel of Thomas 6

Nag Hammadi
5 Jesus said, “Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be revealed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed.” 6 His disciples questioned him and said to him, “Do you want us to fast? How should we pray? Should we give alms? What diet should we observe?” Jesus said, “Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate, for all things are disclosed before heaven. Nothing hidden will fail to be revealed, and nothing covered will remain undisclosed.” 7 Jesus said, “Blessed is the lion that the man will eat, so that the lion becomes a man. And cursed is the man whom a lion will eat, and the lion will become a man.”
135–200 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Gospel of Thomas

References

“... GOLDEN RULE. Since the 18th century the “Golden Rule” has commonly designated the ethical maxim, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” attributed to Jesus by Matthew (7:12) and Luke (6:31). [...] Within the Jewish tradition, various formulations of the Golden Rule are found from about 200 B.C. [...] Other commentators, however, compare the Golden Rule to Lev 19:18 and Deut 15:13, and find early Jewish formulations in Tob 4:15, “And what you hate, do not do to anyone,” and Sir 31:15, “Judge your neighbor’s feelings by your own.” [...] Some authors contrast Matthew and Luke’s positive formulation of Jesus’ saying with the negative formulation in much Jewish literature. [...] The positive formulation of the Jesuanic logion was echoed, in early Christianity, by 1 Clem. 13:2, which cites it as part of a catena of citations, and by Tertullian (Adv. Marc. 4.17), who argued that Jesus’ positively formulated utterance (= Luke 6:31) implied its negatively formulated counterpart. In contrast, the Didache, however, offered a negative formulation, without specifically ascribing it to Jesus [...]. Finally, a negative version of the logion, hardly different from the common Jewish formulation, is ascribed to Jesus by the Coptic Gospel of Thomas: “Do not do what you hate” (Gos. Thom. 6). ...”
David Noel (ed.) Freedman, The Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 2:1070–1071.

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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Tobit 4:15 and Matthew 7:12 and Gospel of Thomas 6

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