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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 7:2 and Sifre Numbers 106:1

New Testament · Rabbinic

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Summary

In Matthew, Jesus warns that the way you judge others will be used to judge you in return, reflecting a common Jewish tradition of “measure for measure” which is also expressed in Rabbinic tradition, such as in Sifre Numbers.

Passages

Matthew 7:2

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?
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

Sifre Numbers 106:1

Rabbinic · Halakhic Midrash
But "it suffices that what is derived from an argument a fortiori be as that which it is derived from" — Just as her father, seven; so, He who spoke and brought the world into being, seven. (Ibid.) "Let her be sequestered seven days outside the camp, and then let her be gathered in.": The Holy One Blessed be He sequestered her, and the Holy One Blessed be He declared her tamei and the Holy One Blessed be He declared her clean. (Ibid. 12:15) "And the people did not journey until Miriam had been gathered in": to teach that "with the measure that a man measures, so is he measured." Miriam waited for Moses a short while, viz. (Shemot 2:4) "And his sister stationed herself at a distance, etc."; therefore, the Shechinah, the ark, the Cohanim, the Levites, and the seven clouds of glory did not journey until Miriam had been gathered in.
200 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sifre Numbers

References

"... Jesus' famous statement concerning those who take up swords (Matthew 26:52) may allude to the Targumic form of Isaiah 50:11, and the identification of Gehenna in Mark 9:48 as the place "where their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched" (compare Isaiah 66:24) accords with the interpretation of the Targum. Jesus' proverb, 'in the measure you measure it will be measured to you' (Matthew 7:2; Mark 4:24), finds an echo in the Targum, as well (27:8). Examples of this sort help to substantiate the finding that the Targum in its Tannaitic level reflects Jewish traditional thinking in the first century A.D. They should also be appreciated by students of the New Testament as clues to the meaning and impact of Jesus'teaching ..."
Bruce D. Chilton, The Isaiah Targum: Introduction, Translation, Apparatus and Notes, ArBib 11 (Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1987), xxvi.

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 7:2 and Sifre Numbers 106:1

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