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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 Matthew 7:18 and Hegemonius, Archelaus Acts of the Disputation with Manes 5

New Testament · Early Christian

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Summary

The image of good and bad trees in Matthew became a key symbol for the Manichaeans. While Matthew presents the image as a way to identify true and false character, the Manichaeans reinterpreted it as a cosmic principle separating two eternal realms.

Passages

Matthew 7:18

New Testament
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.
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

Hegemonius, Archelaus Acts of the Disputation with Manes 5

Early Christian · Acta Archelai
But, O my son, refuse thus thoughtlessly to identify these two things in the irrational and foolish fashion common to the mass of men, and ascribe no such confusion to the God of goodness. For these men refer the beginning and the end and the paternity of these ills to God Himself —whose end is near a curse. For they do not believe the word spoken by our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the Gospels, namely, that a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. And how they can be bold enough to call God the maker and contriver of Satan and his wicked deeds, is a matter of great amazement to me.
313–348 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Hegemonius, Acts of Archelaus

References

"... From the Acts of Archelaus it is clear that the two-tree example was very important and popular to Mani and the Manichaeans. According to Archelaus, the statement was used by them as a shield (Acts of Archelaus 54.7). It is referred to both in Manichaean and anti-Manichaean texts. The designations, Good Tree and the Fruit of the Flourishing Tree, were used by the Manichaean community in Kellis, Egypt, to refer to themselves. Mani, in the Manichaean Kephalaia (Keph), states that one will be blessed if he can understand that the two trees are eternally separated from each other. Those who understand that will go to the Aeon of Light, while those who don’t will go to the Land of Darkness. From the Keph we also know that the Manichaeans acknowledge that other sects have tried to interpret the similar passages in Mt., but that they got it wrong. A number of anti-Manichaean writers mention the Manichaean use of scriptures from Matthew and Luke, including Augustine (below) and Didymus the Blind ..."
Kevin Kaatz, “The Light and the Darkness: The Two Natures, Free Will, and the Scriptural Evidence in the Acta Archelai,” in Frontiers of Faith: The Christian Encounter with Manichaeism in the Acts of Archelaus, ed. Jason BeDuhn and Paul Allan Mirecki (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 103–118.

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 7:18 and Hegemonius, Archelaus Acts of the Disputation with Manes 5

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