Matthew 7:1-12

[wildboar]

Here is my translation of Matthew 7:1-12. Please critique.

7"Do not be judging, so that y o u may not be judged; 2 for y o u will be judged by the judgment with which y o u judge, and it will be measured to y o u by the measure with which y o u measure. 3 And why are you trying to see the speck in your brother's eye, but you do not consider the beam in your eye? 4 Or how will you say to your brother, 'Please let me take out the speck from your eye'; and look, the beam is in your eye? 5 Hypocrite! First take out the beam from your eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck from your brother's eye. 6 Do not give the holy thing to the dogs, and do not throw y o ur pearls before swine lest they trample them with their feet, and after turning they tear y o u in pieces.

7 "Ask, and it will be given to y o u! seek, and y o u will find! Knock, and it will be opened to y o u! 8 For everyone asking receives, and the one seeking finds, and to the one knocking it will be opened. 9 Or who is the man among you who, if his son asks for bread, he will not grant him a stone, will he? 10 And if he asks for a fish, he will not grant to him a snake, will he? 11 If y o u therefore, being evil, have known to give good gifts to y o ur children, by how much more will your Father who is in the heavens give good things to those who ask Him?

12 "Therefore, all things that y o u wish that people would do for y o u, in this way also y o u do for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

 

[cyberlizard]

in verse six, do you think Jesus is referring to literal dogs, or do you believe he is using a euphemism and if so to what is it referring?

what do you think Jesus means by 'pearls'... what are they and why would you want to throw them on the floor?


Steve

 

[wildboar]

cyberlizard:

I had always heard verse 6 interpreted as an independent statement and that the holy thing/pearls was the Gospel or something similar. So that Jesus would be teaching that at some point you should stop bringing the Gospel to someone who is stubborn in their unbelief. I was never completely satisfied with this explanation. It seemed to be pretty open to abuse for one thing. I could bring the Gospel to someone and they don't react positively right away and then I determine that they are a dog/swine. All of us by nature are dogs/swine.

One of the commentaries I've been using when I've been doing my translation work is by Jeffrey Gibbs. Gibbs interprets the verse not as an individual unit by as part of verses 1-5. In verses 1-5 we are warned against judging fellow believers in a hypocritcal and hyper-critical way. The person doing the judging is shown to have the greater sin than the person being judged. In verse 6 then, the holy thing/pearls would be the fellow believer who is being hypocritically and hyper-critically judged. The swine/dogs would be unbelievers. So he's warning them against casting these believers out who you do not deem worthy to be part of the reign of heaven.

 

[cyberlizard]

don't you think those are primarily interpretations based on a religion called Christianity, rather than an understanding of what those verses would mean from a Judaic perspective (as it would have been understood then)....

at that time, there was no gospel message of come to jesus and have your sins forgiven (after all they had a temple for that).

just more questions....


Steve

 

[wildboar]

cyberlizard:

I think the explanation I provided makes the most sense within the context of what Jesus was saying but I'm open to another interpretation if you think it fits better.

 

[cyberlizard]

it's just that your explanations sound more like a Christian talking to either other Christians or unbelievers (hence you comment from commentary which talks in these terms)...

but

at the time Jesus was saying these things, there were no 'Christians' in the sense we think of today in fact there was not even a church... so the believer/unbeliever mentality does not fit very well with the events as they were happening. In this case a Jewish Rabbi (the ultimate Rabbi really) giving his teaching on issues pertaining to how to live out the Torah and become his disciple. A Jewish Rabbi, to Jewish hearers, within a Jewish context.

I would bore you with my understanding of the phrase 'pearls' but I do not think rabbinic discourse goes down very well in this forum (at least not from what I have seen).


Steve

 

[wildboar]

cyberlizard:

I would be interested to hear your explanation of the passage. It would give you an opportunity to demonstrate the importance of rabbinic interpretation.

However, I do think it should be kept in mind that it was the Christians who accepted the teachings of Jesus and the Jews who rejected Him. In general, texts are best interpreted by the community which adheres to the teachings of the text. Jesus proclaimed Himself as being the way, the truth, and the life during His earthly ministry and there were people who followed Him and viewed Him as more than just a rabbi. He proclaimd Himself to be God.

 

[cyberlizard]

cyberlizard:

I would be interested to hear your explanation of the passage. It would give you an opportunity to demonstrate the importance of rabbinic interpretation.

However, I do think it should be kept in mind that it was the Christians who accepted the teachings of Jesus and the Jews who rejected Him. In general, texts are best interpreted by the community which adheres to the teachings of the text. Jesus proclaimed Himself as being the way, the truth, and the life during His earthly ministry and there were people who followed Him and viewed Him as more than just a rabbi. He proclaimd Himself to be God.

i object to this post on a number of fronts. Nowadays, we use the term Christian to mean a follower of the teachings of the established church (with due reverence to the death, resurrection and ascension of jesus), within the confines of the creedal systems.

However, the early church, the immediate followers of Jesus, although being Christians, were not christians in any sense we recognise today (on the whole)... after all much of the early church believers were Jewish, and 'christianity' was seen as little more than a jewish sect.

The phrase 'the Jews who rejected him' should be used carefully and with adequate qualifiers, after all, language like this has led to some very dark times within the history of 'the church'. Remember that although many Jews did reject him, so too did many gentiles (as they still do).

AND there were many Jews who did recieve him (as did some gentiles), and to these was given eternal life.

But that being said, Jesus is still referred to numerous times as Rabbi (even being God manifest in the flesh).



Steve

p.s. for those who want to learn more about rabbinic discourse and the teachings of Jesus, let me recommend a cheap set of books and a more expensive one... and this one (i cannot recommend but supposedly very very good (i have just not bought it), click here (top of the list).

 

[wildboar]

Steve:

So what is your interpretation of the passage?

 

[cyberlizard]

i'm not prepared to say...

a pro-Torah position on this forum is always attacked... therefore I will not throw my pearls around so they can be attacked.


Steve

 

[wildboar]

i'm not prepared to say...

a pro-Torah position on this forum is always attacked... therefore I will not throw my pearls around so they can be attacked.

I'm not going to attack you. The paradigm through which I have interpreted Scripture has changed several times throughout the years. I am open to other interpretations but not if I don't know what those other interpretations are. I was not aware of the interpretation by Gibbs until I read his commentary a week ago.

I do understand that when Jesus said these words the believing community was basically the Jews. However, they rejected Him and His teachings and crucified Him. God then cut off many of the Jewish branches and grafted the Gentiles in. But as I see it, the Jewish religion changed dramatically after the destruction of the temple and it had to react in some way to Christianity and it reacted in an anti-Christian way. So their own interpretation of the Scriptures was and is anti-Christian and anti-Jesus. None of this should cause anyone to rise up in violence against the Jewish people or any such thing. The Christian church on the other hand is the true continuation of the people of God. All who believe whether of Jewish or Gentile descent are children of Abraham and are the true Jews.