Matthew chapter 7 v 1 2. Interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew (Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria)
Commentary (introduction) to the entire book of Matthew
Comments on Chapter 7
INTRODUCTION TO THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
SYNOPTIC GOSPELS
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are usually called Synoptic Gospels. Synoptic comes from two Greek words that mean see together. Therefore, the above-mentioned Gospels received this name because they describe the same events in the life of Jesus. In each of them, however, there are some additions, or something is omitted, but, in general, they are based on the same material, and this material is also arranged in the same way. Therefore, they can be written in parallel columns and compared with each other.
After this, it becomes very obvious that they are very close to each other. If, for example, we compare the story of the feeding of the five thousand (Matthew 14:12-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 5:17-26), then this is the same story, told in almost the same words.
Or take, for example, another story about the healing of a paralytic (Matthew 9:1-8; Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5:17-26). These three stories are so similar to each other that even introductory words, “said to the paralytic,” appear in all three stories in the same form in the same place. The correspondence between all three Gospels is so close that one must either conclude that all three took material from the same source, or two were based on a third.
THE FIRST GOSPEL
Examining the matter more carefully, one can imagine that the Gospel of Mark was written first, and the other two - the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke - are based on it.
The Gospel of Mark can be divided into 105 passages, of which 93 are found in the Gospel of Matthew and 81 in the Gospel of Luke. Only four of the 105 passages in the Gospel of Mark are not found in either the Gospel of Matthew or the Gospel of Luke. There are 661 verses in the Gospel of Mark, 1068 verses in the Gospel of Matthew, and 1149 in the Gospel of Luke. There are no less than 606 verses from Mark in the Gospel of Matthew, and 320 in the Gospel of Luke. Of the 55 verses in the Gospel of Mark, which not reproduced in Matthew, 31 yet reproduced in Luke; thus, only 24 verses from Mark are not reproduced in either Matthew or Luke.
But not only the meaning of the verses is conveyed: Matthew uses 51%, and Luke uses 53% of the words of the Gospel of Mark. Both Matthew and Luke follow, as a rule, the arrangement of material and events adopted in the Gospel of Mark. Sometimes Matthew or Luke have differences from the Gospel of Mark, but it is never the case that they both were different from him. One of them always follows the order that Mark follows.
REVISION OF THE GOSPEL OF MARK
Due to the fact that the Gospels of Matthew and Luke are much larger in volume than the Gospel of Mark, one might think that the Gospel of Mark is a brief transcription of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. But one fact indicates that the Gospel of Mark is the earliest of them all: so to speak, the authors of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke improve the Gospel of Mark. Let's take a few examples.
Here are three descriptions of the same event:
Map. 1.34:"And He healed many, suffering from various diseases; expelled many demons."
Mat. 8.16:"He cast out the spirits with a word and healed everyone sick."
Onion. 4.40:"He, laying on everyone of them hands, healed
Or let's take another example:
Map. 3:10: “For He healed many.”
Mat. 12:15: “He healed them all.”
Onion. 6:19: "... power came from Him and healed everyone."
Approximately the same change is noted in the description of Jesus' visit to Nazareth. Let's compare this description in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark:
Map. 6.5.6: “And he could not perform any miracle there... and he marveled at their unbelief.”
Mat. 13:58: “And he did not perform many miracles there because of their unbelief.”
The author of the Gospel of Matthew does not have the heart to say that Jesus could not perform miracles, and he changes the phrase. Sometimes the authors of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke leave out little hints from the Gospel of Mark that may somehow detract from the greatness of Jesus. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke omit three remarks found in the Gospel of Mark:
Map. 3.5:“And he looked upon them with anger, grieving because of the hardness of their hearts...”
Map. 3.21:“And when his neighbors heard, they went to take him, for they said that he had lost his temper.”
Map. 10.14:"Jesus was indignant..."
All this clearly shows that the Gospel of Mark was written earlier than the others. It gives a simple, lively and direct account, and the authors of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke were already beginning to be influenced by dogmatic and theological considerations, and therefore they chose their words more carefully.
TEACHINGS OF JESUS
We have already seen that the Gospel of Matthew has 1068 verses and the Gospel of Luke 1149 verses, and that 582 of these are repetitions of verses from the Gospel of Mark. This means that there is much more material in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke than in the Gospel of Mark. A study of this material shows that more than 200 verses from it are almost identical among the authors of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke; for example, passages such as Onion. 6.41.42 And Mat. 7.3.5; Onion. 10.21.22 And Mat. 11.25-27; Onion. 3.7-9 And Mat. 3, 7-10 almost exactly the same. But here's where we see the difference: the material that the authors of Matthew and Luke took from the Gospel of Mark deals almost exclusively with events in the life of Jesus, and these additional 200 verses shared by the Gospels of Matthew and Luke deal with something other than that. that Jesus did, but what He said. It is quite obvious that in this part the authors of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke drew information from the same source - from the book of sayings of Jesus.
This book no longer exists, but theologians called it KB, what does Quelle mean in German - source. This book must have been extremely important in those days because it was the first textbook on the teachings of Jesus.
THE PLACE OF THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW IN THE GOSPEL TRADITION
Here we come to the problem of Matthew the Apostle. Theologians agree that the first Gospel is not the fruit of Matthew's hands. A person who was a witness to the life of Christ would not need to turn to the Gospel of Mark as a source of information about the life of Jesus, as the author of the Gospel of Matthew does. But one of the first church historians named Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, left us the following extremely important news: “Matthew collected the sayings of Jesus in the Hebrew language.”
Thus, we can consider that it was Matthew who wrote the book from which all people should draw as a source who want to know what Jesus taught. It was because so much of this source book was included in the first Gospel that it was given the name Matthew. We should be eternally grateful to Matthew when we remember that we owe to him the Sermon on the Mount and almost everything we know about the teaching of Jesus. In other words, it is to the author of the Gospel of Mark that we owe our knowledge of life events Jesus, and Matthew - knowledge of the essence teachings Jesus.
MATTHEW THE TANKER
We know very little about Matthew himself. IN Mat. 9.9 we read about his calling. We know that he was a publican - a tax collector - and therefore everyone should have hated him terribly, because the Jews hated their fellow tribesmen who served the victors. Matthew must have been a traitor in their eyes.
But Matthew had one gift. Most of Jesus' disciples were fishermen and did not have the talent to put words on paper, but Matthew was supposed to be an expert in this matter. When Jesus called Matthew, who was sitting at the toll booth, he stood up and, leaving everything but his pen, followed Him. Matthew nobly used his literary talent and became the first person to describe the teachings of Jesus.
GOSPEL OF THE JEWS
Let us now look at the main features of the Gospel of Matthew, so that when reading it we will pay attention to this.
First, and above all, the Gospel of Matthew - this is the gospel written for the Jews. It was written by a Jew to convert the Jews.
One of the main purposes of Matthew's Gospel was to show that in Jesus all the Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled and therefore He must be the Messiah. One phrase, a recurring theme, runs throughout the book: “It came to pass that God spoke by the prophet.” This phrase is repeated in the Gospel of Matthew no less than 16 times. The Birth of Jesus and His Name - Fulfillment of Prophecy (1, 21-23); as well as flight to Egypt (2,14.15); massacre of the innocents (2,16-18); Joseph's settlement in Nazareth and the raising of Jesus there (2,23); the very fact that Jesus spoke in parables (13,34.35); triumphal entry into Jerusalem (21,3-5); betrayal for thirty pieces of silver (27,9); and casting lots for Jesus' clothes as He hung on the Cross (27,35). The author of the Gospel of Matthew made it his main goal to show that the Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus, that every detail of Jesus' life was foretold by the prophets, and thereby convince the Jews and force them to recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
The interest of the author of the Gospel of Matthew is directed primarily to the Jews. Their appeal is closest and dearest to his heart. To the Canaanite woman who turned to Him for help, Jesus first answered: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (15,24). Sending the twelve apostles to proclaim the good news, Jesus told them: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles and do not enter the city of Samaritans, but go especially to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (10, 5.6). But don’t think that this is the Gospel for everyone possible ways excludes pagans. Many will come from the east and west and lie down with Abraham in the Kingdom of Heaven (8,11). "And the gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world" (24,14). And it is in the Gospel of Matthew that the order was given to the Church to set out on a campaign: “Go therefore and teach all nations.” (28,19). It is, of course, obvious that the author of Matthew's Gospel is primarily interested in the Jews, but he foresees the day when all nations will be gathered together.
The Jewish origin and Jewish orientation of the Gospel of Matthew is also evident in its attitude towards the law. Jesus did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. Not even the smallest part of the law will pass. There is no need to teach people to break the law. The righteousness of a Christian must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees (5, 17-20). The Gospel of Matthew was written by a man who knew and loved the law, and saw that it had a place in Christian teaching. In addition, we should note the obvious paradox in the attitude of the author of the Gospel of Matthew to the scribes and Pharisees. He recognizes their special powers: “The scribes and Pharisees sat in the seat of Moses; therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do.” (23,2.3). But in no other Gospel are they condemned as strictly and consistently as in Matthew.
Already at the very beginning we see the merciless exposure of the Sadducees and Pharisees by John the Baptist, who called them "born of vipers" (3, 7-12). They complain that Jesus eats and drinks with publicans and sinners (9,11); they declared that Jesus casts out demons not by the power of God, but by the power of the prince of demons (12,24). They are plotting to destroy Him (12,14); Jesus warns the disciples to beware not of the leaven of bread, but of the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees (16,12); they are like plants that will be uprooted (15,13); they cannot discern the signs of the times (16,3); they are killers of prophets (21,41). There is no other chapter in the entire New Testament like Mat. 23, in which it is not what the scribes and Pharisees teach that is condemned, but their behavior and way of life. The author condemns them for the fact that they do not at all correspond to the doctrine they preach, and do not at all achieve the ideal established by them and for them.
The author of Matthew's Gospel is also very interested in the Church. From all the Synoptic Gospels the word Church found only in the Gospel of Matthew. Only the Gospel of Matthew includes a passage about the Church after Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13-23; cf. Mark 8:27-33; Luke 9:18-22). Only Matthew says that disputes should be resolved by the Church (18,17). By the time the Gospel of Matthew was written, the Church had become a large organization and truly a major factor in the lives of Christians.
The Gospel of Matthew especially reflects an interest in the apocalyptic; in other words, to the fact that Jesus spoke about His Second Coming, about the end of the world and the Day of Judgment. IN Mat. 24 provides a much more complete account of Jesus' apocalyptic reasoning than any other Gospel. Only in the Gospel of Matthew is there a parable of the talents. (25,14-30); about wise and foolish virgins (25, 1-13); about sheep and goats (25,31-46). Matthew had a special interest in the end times and the Day of Judgment.
But this is not the most important feature Gospel of Matthew. This is an eminently meaningful gospel.
We have already seen that it was the Apostle Matthew who gathered the first meeting and compiled an anthology of Jesus’ teaching. Matthew was a great systematizer. He collected in one place everything he knew about the teaching of Jesus on this or that issue, and therefore we find in the Gospel of Matthew five large complexes in which the teaching of Christ is collected and systematized. All these five complexes are associated with the Kingdom of God. Here they are:
a) Sermon on the Mount or Law of the Kingdom (5-7)
b) Duty of Kingdom Leaders (10)
c) Parables about the Kingdom (13)
d) Greatness and Forgiveness in the Kingdom (18)
e) The Coming of the King (24,25)
But Matthew not only collected and systematized. We must remember that he wrote in an era before printing, when books were few and far between because they had to be copied by hand. At such a time, comparatively few people had books, and so if they wanted to know and use the story of Jesus, they had to memorize it.
Therefore, Matthew always arranges the material in such a way that it is easy for the reader to remember it. He arranges the material in threes and sevens: three messages of Joseph, three denials of Peter, three questions of Pontius Pilate, seven parables about the Kingdom in chapter 13, sevenfold "woe to you" to the Pharisees and scribes in Chapter 23.
A good example of this is the genealogy of Jesus, with which the Gospel opens. The purpose of a genealogy is to prove that Jesus is the son of David. There are no numbers in Hebrew, they are symbolized by letters; In addition, Hebrew has no signs (letters) for vowel sounds. David in Hebrew it will be accordingly DVD; if these are taken as numbers rather than letters, their sum would be 14, and the genealogy of Jesus consists of three groups of names, each containing fourteen names. Matthew does his best to arrange Jesus' teachings in a way that people can understand and remember.
Every teacher should be grateful to Matthew, because what he wrote is, first of all, the Gospel for teaching people.
The Gospel of Matthew has one more feature: the dominant thought in it is the thought of Jesus the King. The author writes this Gospel to show the kingship and royal origin of Jesus.
The genealogy must prove from the very beginning that Jesus is the son of King David (1,1-17). This title Son of David is used more often in the Gospel of Matthew than in any other Gospel. (15,22; 21,9.15). The Magi came to see the King of the Jews (2,2); Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem is a deliberately dramatized declaration by Jesus of His rights as King (21,1-11). Before Pontius Pilate, Jesus consciously accepts the title of king (27,11). Even on the Cross above His head stands, albeit mockingly, the royal title (27,37). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus quotes the law and then refutes it with the royal words: “But I say to you...” (5,22. 28.34.39.44). Jesus declares: "All authority has been given to me" (28,18).
In the Gospel of Matthew we see Jesus the Man born to be King. Jesus walks through its pages as if dressed in royal purple and gold.
FALSE CONDEMNATION (Matthew 7:1-5)
In saying this, Jesus used words and ideas that were very close to the highest thoughts of the Jews. Rabbis have repeatedly warned people not to judge others. “He who judges his neighbor favorably,” they said, “will be judged favorably by God.” They stated that there are six good works that bring a person confidence in this world and benefit in the world to come: teaching, visiting the sick, hospitality, devotion to prayer, teaching children the law of God, and create the best possible image for yourself about other people. The Jews knew that gentleness in judgment was a sacred duty.
One might think that this commandment would be easy to obey because history is littered with stunning accounts of poor judgment; there are so many of them that it would seem that this alone could serve as a warning to people not to judge others at all.
Likewise, the director of the Moscow Conservatory, conductor and pianist Nikolai Rubinstein, having listened to P. I. Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto for the first time, told him that the concerto was impossible to play, that the themes were hackneyed and nothing could be corrected; except perhaps 2-3 pages - all in trash can. But Tchaikovsky refused to change even one note in his concert, and today this concert is one of the most famous musical works not only in the USSR, but also abroad.
People are very often guilty of making unjustified and incorrect judgments. Thus, during the Second World War, one English officer air force received an award for bravery from the queen. Having changed his uniform to civilian clothes, he went with a friend to celebrate this in a famous London restaurant, where a young girl approached them and handed them each a white feather - a badge of honor for cowardice.
There is hardly a person who has not been guilty of judging someone incorrectly, and there is hardly a person who has not suffered from a wrong judgment. And, nevertheless, it is quite obvious that it is unlikely that another of the commandments of Christ is violated so often.
NO MAN CAN JUDGE RIGHTLY (Matthew 7:1-5 continued)
There are three important reasons, why one person should not judge another.
1. We never know all the facts or the whole person. The famous Rabbi Hillel once said: “Do not judge a person until you yourself have been in his position, or in the same circumstances.” No one knows with what power temptations overwhelm another. A person with a calm and even temperament cannot imagine the temptations of a person with hot blood, whose passions burn and boil. A person brought up in a good family or in a Christian environment knows nothing about the passions of a person who grew up in slums or in places where evil and misfortune reign all around. The man who had good parents knows nothing about the passions of a person who carries the burden of bad heredity behind him. The fact is that if we realized everything that a person had to go through, then not only would we not judge him, but we would be surprised at what a good person he has become.
We also don't know the whole person. In some circumstances, a person may be unpleasant and shameless, and in other circumstances, the same person can be a reliable support and wonderful person. One novel tells the story of a widower who remarries. His new wife also had a daughter from his first marriage. She seemed to her new father a withdrawn, gloomy and unpleasant person, in whom there was not a bit of attractiveness, and he could not do anything with her. But one day, completely unexpectedly, her mother fell ill, and her daughter immediately seemed to be transformed. She turned into an excellent nanny, the epitome of service and devotion. Her gloomy face was illuminated by a radiance and something appeared in her that no one could have imagined.
There is such a crystalline decorative stone labradorite. At first glance it seems dull and without any shine. But as soon as you turn it once or twice, it begins to somehow glow and sparkle beautifully. Likewise with people: they may seem unattractive because we do not know them well. Every person has something good. We should not judge a person by external unattractiveness, but look for the hidden beauty in him.
2. A person can hardly be impartial in his judgment. We are often caught up and carried away by an instinctive and reckless attitude towards a person. They say that the ancient Greeks made especially important court decisions in the dark, so that the judge and jury did not even see the defendant and judged only on the facts.
An essay by the French humanist philosopher Michel Montaigne tells the sad story of a Persian judge who, influenced by a bribe, handed down a biased verdict. The Persian king Cambyses, having learned about this, ordered the execution of the judge, skinning him and placing it on the seat where the judges were sitting, so that this would serve as a good reminder to them that no prejudices should influence the judicial decision.
Only a completely unbiased person has the right to judge and make a decision, and man by nature cannot be completely impartial. Only God can judge.
3. But Jesus also gave the main argument that we should not judge others. There is no person who is good enough to judge another person. Jesus paints a vivid picture of a man determined to take the speck out of his brother's eye when he has a plank in his own eye. The very humor of this picture causes such laughter that the lesson embedded in it will achieve its goal.
Only people who are impeccable in their behavior can look for mistakes in others. A person can only criticize what another does if he himself can do it better. Every Sunday the stands of the stadiums are crowded with people criticizing the performance of the football players, but what a miserable sight it would be if they themselves were on the field. In any church and in any society or union there are people who are ready to criticize everything from their place, but who do not even think about taking up the matter themselves. The world is full of people who demand the absolute right to criticize, but do nothing.
A person has no right to criticize others if he is not ready to take their place himself. No man should criticize his fellow men.
Each of us has enough worries about straightening our lives, and therefore there is no point in trying to strictly correct the lives of others. It is good for everyone to concentrate his efforts on his own shortcomings and leave God to judge the shortcomings of others.
TRUTH AND LISTENER (Matthew 7:6)
This is a very difficult statement from Jesus because on the surface it demands exclusive rights for someone, which is fundamentally contrary to the Christian message. Indeed, this expression was used in the early Church in two senses.
1. It was used by the Jews, who believed that the gifts of God and God's grace belonged exclusively to the Jews. It was used by Jews who opposed Paul and argued that in order to become a Christian, a pagan must first be circumcised, accept the law and become a Jew. These words of Jesus could indeed be used, or distorted, for the purposes of Jewish exclusivity.
2. In the early Church these words were used in a very specific sense. The early Church faced danger from two sides. She was in danger from outside. The Christian Church was an island of Christian purity in a sea of pagan immorality and everywhere it was in danger of becoming infected with worldly vices. At the same time she was in danger from the inside. At that time, people thought a lot and looked for new paths, and therefore there was an acute danger that the reasoning of some would lead them onto the path of heresy; there were people who tried to reach a compromise between Christianity and the pagan worldview and create a synthesis of faith that would satisfy both. In order to survive, the Christian Church had to defend itself against both external and internal danger; otherwise it would simply become one of the many religions that coexisted in the Roman Empire.
The Church was especially careful about who could be admitted to the Lord's Supper, and this text came to be associated with the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper began with the words, “Holy things for saints.” Theodoret of Cyrus quotes, in his words, an unwritten statement of Jesus: “My sacraments are for Me and for My people.” The “Apostolic Constitutions” say that before the beginning of the Lord’s Supper the deacon must say: “Let none of the catechumens (i.e., those still undergoing training), nor any of the listeners (i.e., those who came to the service, remain here, because that they were interested in Christianity), none of the unbelievers, none of the heretics." The Lord's Supper was walled off from everyone who did not truly profess Christianity. IN Didache,“The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,” which dates back to the first century and is the first prayer book of the Christian Church, says: “Let no one eat or drink from your Eucharist except those baptized in the name of the Lord, for the Lord said about this: “Do not give holy things to dogs.” ". The Christian theologian and writer, one of the Latin Fathers of the Church, Tertullian, complained that heretics allow different people, even pagans, to receive communion and, thereby, "throw the holy thing to the dogs, and pearls (but, of course, not real ones) to the pigs ".
In all these cases, this text is used to justify exclusivity. It is not that the Church was not missionary; in those early days the Church was truly eager to convert every person. But, at the same time, the Church was keenly aware of the need to preserve the purity of faith, so that Christianity would not be absorbed and gradually assimilated by the sea of paganism.
Absolutely clear to see transitory the meaning of this text; but we must also see him enduring meaning.
AN APPEAL TO THOSE WHO ARE NOT ABLE TO HEAR (Matthew 7:6 continued)
It may well be that Jesus' statement was accidentally changed during transmission. It represents a good example of parallelism, which we have already encountered (Matthew 6:10). Let's write it in parallel sentences:
"Do not give sacred things to dogs and
do not throw your pearls before swine."
With the exception of one word, the parallelism is complete. Giving corresponds throw, dogs are pigs, only saint not completely balanced pearls The fact is that there are two Hebrew words that are very similar to each other, especially if you remember that vowels were not written in Hebrew. Saint in Hebrew cadet (KDSh), and the Aramaic word for earring - cadet (KDSh). The consonants are exactly the same in the original spelling in Hebrew, the words look exactly the same. Moreover, in Talmud the expression “an earring in a pig’s snout” means something completely absurd, incompatible and inappropriate. And initially the phrase could well have looked like this:
"Don't give earrings to dogs,
Don't throw your pearls before the swine."
And in this case the parallelism would be perfect.
If the phrase has this meaning, then it simply means that some people are incapable, cannot accept the message that the Church wants to give them. And then it will not be a phrase of exclusivity; it will be a statement of the practical difficulty of communication which the preacher faces daily in all ages. After all, it is completely impossible to convey the truth to some people; something has to happen before they can be taught. There is a rabbinical saying: “Even a treasure cannot be shown to everyone, nor can the words of the law; one should not go into them deeply, except in the presence of suitable people.”
And this is a universal truth. You can't talk to every person about everything. Among some friends we can talk about faith and ask questions; we can allow ourselves to doubt; we can talk about things that are startling, shocking, and baffling, and we can allow ourselves to engage in speculation and reflection. But if a person with rigid and orthodox attitudes comes into the circle of these friends, he may well brand us as a group of dangerous heretics; or if a simple-minded person who does not ask any questions enters the circle, this may shock him and shake his faith.
Thus, there are people who are unable to perceive and accept Christian truth. Perhaps their minds are closed to it; perhaps their mind has been brought to a bestial state and covered with a coating of obscenity; maybe they have lived a life that has left them unable to see the truth; or maybe even, as often happens, we have absolutely no common ground with them where we could come to an agreement.
A person can only understand what he is capable of understanding. We cannot reveal the secrets of our hearts to everyone. There will always be people for whom the preaching of Christ is foolishness and in whose ears the truth, clothed in words, will encounter an insurmountable wall.
What to do with such people? Should we abandon them as hopeless? Maybe just deprive them of the Christian message? What Christian words cannot do, Christian living can often do. A man may be blind and deaf to any verbal Christian argument, but he cannot respond when he sees the Christian life in action.
The book "Modern Epiphany" tells of discussions that took place at a summer camp where young people of different nationalities gathered: “One rainy night, those gathered were discussing different ways in which to talk to people about Christ. They said to a girl from Africa: “Mary, how are you doing this in your country?" "Oh," said Maria, "we don't have missions and don't give out tracts. We're just we send one or two Christian families live and work in a village, and when people see what Christianity is, they also want to become Christians." Ultimately, there is only one all-conquering argument - the Christian way of life.
With some people it is sometimes impossible to talk about Jesus Christ. Their insensibility, their moral blindness, their intellectual pride, their cynical ridicule, their vicious touch make them impervious to the words of Christ. But Christ can always be shown to people; and the weakness of the Church lies not in the lack of Christian arguments, but in the lack of a Christian way of life.
THE PRIVILEGE OF PRAYING (Matthew 7:7-11)
When a person prays, he must know to which God his prayers are addressed. He wants to know with what feeling his prayer will be received. Is he praying to a dissatisfied, unkind God, from whom every gift must be squeezed? Does he pray to the mocking, mocking God, each gift of Whose has its own reverse side? Or does he pray to God, whose heart is so good that He is more ready to give than we are to forgive?
Jesus came from a people who loved to pray. Jewish rabbis said wonderful words about prayer. “God is as close to his creatures as the ear is to the mouth.” “Human beings can hardly hear when two people speak at once, but God, even if the whole world calls to Him at once, hears their cry.” “A person becomes annoyed and angry when friends turn to him with requests, but God loves a person more and more when he turns to Him with his requests and needs.” Jesus was raised to love prayer, and in this passage He shows us our right and our privilege to pray. Jesus' argument is very simple. A Jewish rabbi asked: “Is there a man who would ever hate his son?” Jesus declares that no father would refuse a request to his son, and God, the great Father, would never refuse a request to his children.
Jesus carefully chooses three examples. Luke adds to what Matthew gives. If a son asks for bread, will his father give him a stone? If a son asks for a fish, will his father give him a snake? Or, if he asks for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? (Luke 11:12). The point is that in each example both things are very similar to each other.
The small round limestone stones on the seashore were very similar in size and color to small loaves of bread. If a son asks for bread, will his father give him a stone as a mockery, very similar to bread, but which cannot be eaten?
If a son asks for a fish, will his father give him a snake? Almost probably snake - This acne. According to Jewish food law, eel was inedible because it was an unclean fish. “All animals that do not have feathers and scales in the water are bad for you.” (Lev. 11,12). This rule made the eel inedible. If a son asks for a fish, will the father really give him a fish, but a fish that is forbidden to eat, that cannot be eaten? Would a father mock his hungry son like that?
If a son asks for an egg, will his father give him a scorpion? Scorpio is a dangerous little animal. In movement and action, it is more like a crayfish with claws with which it captures prey. Its sting is located in its tail and it raises its tail above its back to hit its prey. The sting is very painful and sometimes even fatal. When the scorpion is resting, it folds its legs and tail, and there is a pale scorpion that, when folded, looks exactly like an egg. If a son asks for an egg, will his father mock him and give him a stinging scorpion?
God will never refuse our prayers and God will never laugh at our prayers. The Greeks had myths and stories about how the gods answered people's prayers, but the answer always had a double-edged edge. The goddess of the dawn Eos (Aurora) fell in love with the mortal youth Typhon. The supreme god Zeus offered Eos any gift she wanted for her lover. It is quite natural that Eos chose immortality for him, but forgot to ask for eternal youth for him, and so Typhon grew old and became hunched and wrinkled, and could not die. The gift became a curse.
There is a lesson for us in this: God will always answer our prayers, but He will answer them for us in His own way, and this will be the answer of perfect love and wisdom. After all, if He answered our prayers the way we this moment we formulate, this would be the worst option for us, because in our ignorance we often ask for gifts that would become our destruction. This phrase from Jesus tells us not only that God will answer us, but that He will answer us wisely and lovingly.
While this passage lays out the rights and privileges of praying, it also lays out some obligations. There are two forms of the imperative mood in Greek. The first of them is the imperative mood in aorist, which expresses one specific command. "Close the door behind you" is an imperative mood in aorist. There is also an imperative mood present time, which conveys a command that a person must always carry out, or continue to carry out. “(Always) close the door behind you” is a present tense imperative. This passage uses the imperative mood present time, and therefore Jesus says: “Ask and continue to seek, continue to knock.” Jesus tells us to persevere in our prayers and never lose heart in prayer. It is quite obvious that this is also a test of our sincerity: do we really want what we ask for? Can we repeatedly bring our prayer into the presence of God, because the greatest test of any of our desires is the answer to the question: “Can I pray to God for this?”
Jesus is stating a fact here in two equal parts. God always answers our prayers in His own way, in wisdom and in love, and we must show and prove to God our unremitting life in prayer, which is a test of the correctness of what we pray to God for, and at the same time a test of the sincerity of our prayer.
THE HIGHEST PEAK OF ETHICS (Matthew 7:12)
Of all the things Jesus said, this is the most widely known thought. This commandment is the pinnacle of the Sermon on the Mount. This statement of Jesus was called "the climax of the whole sermon." This is the highest pinnacle of social ethics; Everest of ethical teachings.
Almost everything that Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount can be cited as parallels from the sayings of the Jewish rabbis, but there is no real parallel to this statement of His. No one has ever said this before. This is a new teaching and a new outlook on life and life's responsibilities.
Many parallels can be found to this statement, which, however, are presented in a negative form. As we have already seen, there lived two outstanding Jewish teachers - Shammai, known for his stern and unyielding severity, and Hillel, known for his pleasant leniency. The Jews had such a tradition. A pagan came to Shammai and said: “I am ready to become a proselyte if you will teach me the whole law while standing on one leg.” Shammai drove him away with the ruler stick he had in his hands. Then the pagan went to Hillel, who accepted him as a proselyte, saying: “What is harmful to you, do not do to another. That's the whole law for you, and the rest is commentary. Go and teach." Here it is - Golden Rule in a negative way. There is a place in the Book of Tobit where the elderly Tobit teaches his sons everything necessary in life. One of his rules is: “What you hate, don’t do to anyone.” (Tob. 4:16).
There is a Jewish work called the Epistle to Aristaeus, which is supposedly the account of Jewish scholars who went to Alexandria to translate the Hebrew scriptures into Greek and created Septuagint. The Egyptian king held a dinner in their honor, during which he asked them some difficult questions. "What does wisdom teach?" - he asked. “In view of the fact that you want no misfortune to happen to you, but want to be a participant in all good deeds and undertakings, you should act in accordance with this principle towards your subjects and offenders; you should gently admonish the noble and virtuous , because God attracts all people to Himself with His kindness" ("Epistle to Aristaeus", 207).
The closest person to the form in which Jesus expressed this thought was Rabbi Eliezer, who said: “Let the honor of your friend be as dear to you as your own.” The psalmist, again, used a negative form, saying that one can dwell in the habitation of God who does not slander with his tongue, does not do evil to his own sincere, and does not accept reproach against his neighbor (Ps. 14:2).
In the Jewish worldview it is not difficult to find this teaching in negative form, but there is not a single parallel to that positive form, in which Jesus brought her.
The same is true of the teachings of other religions. The negative form is one of the main principles of the founder of Confucianism, the ancient Chinese thinker Confucius. (Student) Zi Gong asked him: “Is there one word that can serve practical guide for a person's entire life?" To this Confucius replied: "Is it reciprocity isn't this word? What you don’t wish for yourself, don’t do to others.”
There are such beautiful lines in the Buddhist “Hymns on Faith” that are very close to Christian teaching:
“All people tremble before the stick, and all fear death;
Putting yourself in the place of others, do not kill and do not command to kill.
All people tremble before the stick, life is dear to all people;
Acting as you would like to be treated,
Don’t kill and don’t force someone to kill.”
We find the same thing among the ancient Greeks and Romans. The Athenian orator Isocrates relates that King Nikosles advised his officials: “Do not do to others what makes you angry when you experience it yourself at the hands of others.” Roman Stoic philosopher Epictetus, himself ex-slave, fundamentally condemned slavery: “What you avoid suffering yourself, do not impose on others.” Among the main ones of the Stoics was the following sentence: “What you do not want done to you, do not do to anyone else.” They say that the Roman Emperor Alexander Severus ordered these words to be engraved on the walls of his palace so that it would never be forgotten as a norm of life.
In its negative form, this rule is the foundation of all ethical teachings, but only Jesus put it in an affirmative form. Many have said: “Don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you”; but no man has ever said, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”
THE GOLDEN RULE OF JESUS (Matthew 7:12 (continued))
Let's see how the affirmative form of the Golden Rule differs from its negative form, and let's see how much more Jesus demands from people than other teachers ever demanded before.
If we put this rule in a negative form, if we are told to refrain from doing to people what we would not want them to do to us, then this is not a religious rule at all. This is simply a common-sense statement, without which it is generally unthinkable social communication. Sir Thomas Browne once said, “We are grateful to every man we meet for not killing us.” In a sense, this is true, but if we can consider that the behavior of other people and their attitude towards us does not correspond to the generally accepted norms of civilized life, then life will be unbearable. The negative form of the Golden Rule is by no means unusual: without it, life could not continue at all. Further, the negative form of this rule requires only Not do some things; it requires refraining from certain actions. But Not doing this or that is not very difficult. Not causing harm or harm to other people is not a religious principle at all; it is more of a legal principle. This is one of those principles that can be observed by a person who has no faith or interest in religion at all. A man can always refrain from causing harm or harm to anyone, and yet be completely useless to his fellow citizens. A person can comply negative form this rule, remaining simply in complete inaction; if he does nothing at all, he will not break it. And virtue, which boils down to doing nothing, is a direct contradiction of what is meant by Christian virtue.
If this rule is expressed in an affirmative form, if we are told that we must actively do to others what we would like them to do to us, a new principle will enter into our lives, a new attitude towards our fellow men. It’s one thing to say: “I shouldn’t offend people and cause them harm; I shouldn’t do to them what I don’t want for myself.” The law can force us to do this. It is quite another thing to say, “I should make every effort to help other people and to be kind to them. And only love can motivate us to do this. The attitude of “I should not harm people” is not at all like that. that attitude: "I should do my best to help people."
Let's take a very simple analogy. If a person has a car, the law can force a person to drive in such a way as not to harm anyone on the road, but no one can force him to stop and give a ride to a tired traveler along the road. It is very easy to refrain from hurting and offending people, it is not so difficult to respect their principles and their feelings, but it is much more difficult to deliberately make it your life principle to be as kind to people as possible, to do the same towards them, how we would like them to treat us. But it is this new attitude that makes life wonderful. It is said about one English Minister of Defense, Smith, that every Friday he collected the necessary papers in his briefcase and took them with him on the weekend to work at his country residence. When the secretary asked him why he did not send his papers by mail, as other ministers did, Smith replied: “You see, the fact is, I saw the other morning what a burden a postman has to bear when, in addition to all the ministerial mail, he must also carry mine; so I decided to make his job as easy as possible.” These are the actions that show your true attitude towards your fellow humans. Such people believe that one should treat one's fellow human beings not as required by law, but as required by love.
A person can observe the negative form of the golden rule. Without much effort, he can train himself not to do to others what he would not want to experience himself; but the love of Christ is only in the heart of that person who at least begins to fulfill this rule in a positive form. He will try to forgive because he wants to be forgiven; he will try to help, because he wants to be helped; he will praise because he wants to be praised; will try to understand others, because he wants to be understood. He will always try to do something to please him too. Of course, all this makes his life much more difficult; of course, he will have much less time to satisfy own desires and to get things done. Sometimes he will even have to give up his own affairs and help others. This principle will determine his life in the factory, on the bus, in the office, on the street, on the train, while playing - everywhere. He cannot begin to do this until he "I" will not be erased and will not die in his heart. In order to keep this commandment, he must become a new person with a new center of gravity in life, and if the world consisted of people who try to fulfill this rule, then it would be a new world.
LIFE AT THE CROSSROADS (Matthew 7:13-14)
There is always something dramatic in life, because, as someone said: “A person’s life centers on crossroads.” In every action a person faces a choice and he can never evade this choice, because he can never stop; he must always choose this or that road. And therefore, one of the most important tasks of great people in history was to put people before this inevitable choice. As his end drew near, Moses said to the people: “Behold, today I have set before you life and good, death and evil...Choose life, that you and your descendants may live.” (Deut. 30:15-19). When, at the end of his life, Joshua relinquished his leadership of the people, he again presented him with the same choice: “Choose for yourself this day whom you will serve.” (Joshua 24:15). The prophet Jeremiah heard the voice of God: “And say to this people, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.” (Jer. 21:8).
This is the choice Jesus presents to the people in this passage. There is one spacious and comfortable road and many take this path, but at the end of it death awaits them. The other is a narrow and difficult road, and few travel along it, and at the end of this path is life. Cebes, one of the students of the great Greek philosopher Socrates, wrote: “Do you see a small door and a road in front of the door that is not very crowded, and there are few travelers on it? This is the path that leads to true teaching.” Let's see how these two paths differ.
1. The difference is that one way is hard and the other way is easy. The easy path does not lead to greatness; greatness has always been the result of hard work. The ancient Greek poet Hesiod wrote: “Malicity is easily found in abundance; the road is smooth, and high it abides; and before virtue the immortal gods have placed sweat.” The ancient Greek playwright Epicharmus, a follower of the Pythagorean school, wrote: “The gods require from us hard work in payment for good things. Boy, do not yearn for tenderness, lest you reap difficulties.”
When one day a member of the English Parliament made a brilliant speech, his brother wondered why it was only one of the brothers who inherited all the family's talents, while the rest were left out, "but then he remembered that when they played, he always worked." Even when a person does something at first glance easily and simply, there is hard work behind it; Behind the art of a master piano player or a tennis champion is hard work and a lot of sweat. Only the path of hard work has always led to greatness, and everything that promises another path is a deception and a trap.
2. The difference is that one way is long and the other way is short. Only sometimes can some things appear perfect and complete at once, in an instant; Most often, greatness is the result of long work and constant care for the smallest details. The great ancient Roman poet Horace advises the eldest of Piso's sons, if he writes anything, to hide his papers for nine years before publishing them. He further tells that the eldest of Piso’s sons brought his poems to the famous critic and poet Quintilius Varus, a friend of Virgil and Horace, and he ordered: “Cross them out, the poems turned out poorly, they must be put under the hammer again, into the fire and the anvil.” Writing the Aeneid took the great Roman poet Virgil the last ten years of his life, and when he died, he wanted to destroy it because he considered it very imperfect, but his friends prevented him from doing this. Plato's dialogue "The Republic" begins with a very simple sentence: "Yesterday I went to Piraeus with Glaucon, son of Ariston, to pray to the goddess." In Plato's own manuscript there are no less than thirteen versions of this first sentence. The master of letters wrote one option after another in an effort to put the emphasis correctly. An immortal work includes “Elegy Written in a Country Cemetery” by the English poet Thomas Gray. He began writing it in 1742, and it first appeared in the lists on June 12, 1750. The honed perfection of the elegy required eight years of work. No one has ever come to a masterpiece by the shortest route. IN modern world we are constantly faced with a shortcut that promises immediate results, and a long path whose results lie somewhere far away. But things that last are not made quickly; the long way is ultimately the best way.
3. Another difference is that one path is ordered and the other is disordered. Without order and discipline, nothing has ever been achieved, and many athletes and many people would have died or suffered defeat because they abandoned order and discipline. One of the most striking and tragic examples of the lack of order and discipline is the English romantic poet Samuel Coleridge. Never before has such a great mind created so little. He left Cambridge University to join the army; he left the army because, despite all his erudition, he could not brush a horse; He re-entered the university, but graduated without receiving an academic degree. He began publishing the Observer newspaper, which lasted ten issues and then died. They said about him: “He lost himself in visions of works that needed to be done, but which always remained undone. Coleridge had all the poetic gifts, except one - he did not have the gift of concentrated and intense effort.” In his head and in his mind there were all kinds of books, as he himself put it, “ready-made, just not written down.” But these books remained only in Coleridge's head and were never completed because he could not bring himself to sit down and write them down. Without discipline and order, no one ever achieved fame, and those who achieved it could not maintain it.
4. And another difference is that one path is deliberate, and the other is thoughtless. And that's the whole point. No one would ever take the easy, short and disorderly path if he had thought about it first. All things in this world have two aspects: how they look now and how they will look later. The easy path may seem attractive at first, but the hard one may seem suffocating. To correctly evaluate everything, you need to look not at the beginning of the path, but at its end; one must see things not in the light of time, but in the light of eternity.
FALSE PROPHETS (Matthew 7:15-20)
Almost every word and almost every phrase of this passage must have found an echo in the minds of the Jews who heard them for the first time. The Jews were well known false prophets. U The prophet Jeremiah had his own experience with false prophets who frivolously said: “Peace! Peace!” but there is no peace" (Jer. 6:14; 8:11). Wolves - this is the name by which false prophets and false rulers were called. IN terrible times The prophet Ezekiel said: “Her princes are like wolves, stealing prey; shedding blood, destroying souls in order to gain gain.” (Ezek. 22:27). The prophet Zephaniah painted a gloomy picture of the state of affairs in Israel when: "Her princes in the midst of her are roaring lions, her judges are wolves of the evening, not leaving a single bone until the morning. Her prophets are frivolous, treacherous people." (Zeph. 3.3.4a).
Warning the elders from Ephesus about impending dangers as they parted, Paul said: “Dire wolves will come among you, not sparing the flock.” (Acts 20:29). Jesus said He sends His disciples out like sheep among wolves (Matthew 10:16). He also spoke about the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11). Here we have a picture that everyone could recognize and understand. Jesus said false prophets are like wolves in sheep's clothing. The shepherds who herded sheep on the slopes of mountains and hills were dressed in sheep skins with the fur inside, in fur coats. But a person can wear the clothes of a shepherd without actually being a shepherd. The prophets wore special clothes. Elijah had a mantle (3 Kings 19,13.19); it was a cloak made of coarse wool or hair fabric (2 Kings 1:8). And the sheepskin coat became the uniform clothing of the prophets, just as the Greek philosophers had philosopher’s robes. It was by these sheepskin coats that prophets were distinguished from ordinary people. But sometimes this robe was worn by people who had no right to do so. Thus, the prophet Zechariah says in his picture of the terrible days to come: “They will not put on hair shirts to deceive.” (Zech. 13:4). There were also those who dressed like prophets, but did not live like prophets at all.
There were already false prophets in ancient times, but there were also false prophets in New Testament times. The Gospel of Matthew was written around 85, and at that time there were still prophets in the Church; these were homeless people who left everything to wander the country and bring to the Church a message that they believed came straight from God.
At their best, prophets inspired the Church because they were people who left everything to serve God and the Church. But the prophet could easily begin to abuse his position. There were people who used the position of prophet to gain prestige and to deceive local church communities and lead a comfortable and even pampered and idle lifestyle. IN Didache, or "The Teachings of the Twelve Apostles", the first prayer book of the Christian Church, dating back to the first century, there is very interesting information about the wandering prophets. A true prophet should be given the highest honors; he must be accepted and his word listened to; his freedom should not be limited: “But he should not stay longer than one day, but if necessary, he can stay for a second; if he stays for three days, then he is a false prophet.” He should ask for nothing but bread. “If he demands money, then he is a false prophet. All prophets claim that they speak in the spirit, but there is one sure test: “according to his disposition, a false prophet and a true prophet will be recognized.” “Every prophet who teaches the truth, if he does not what he teaches is a false prophet." If a prophet who claims to speak in the spirit prescribes a meal and begins to eat it, then he is a false prophet. "But if anyone says in the spirit, “Give me money or anything else,” do not listen his; if he asks to give for the poor, let no one judge him." "If a wanderer-artisan comes to the community and wants to settle with you, then let him work and eat. And if he does not know the craft, then think about it and take care that he does not live with you as a Christian without doing anything... If he does not want to do this, then he is not a Christian. Stay away from them." (Didache, Ch. 11 and 12).
The history of past events and the events of that time filled these words of Jesus with meaning to those who heard them for the first time and to those to whom Matthew was now conveying them.
KNOWN BY THEIR FRUIT (Matthew 7:15-20 (continued))
The Jews, Greeks and Romans had the idea that a tree was recognized by its fruit. “Same root, same fruit,” the saying went. The Roman Stoic philosopher Epictetus said later: “How can a vine grow not a bunch of grapes, but olives, or how can an olive tree grow not olives, but grapes” (Epictetus: “Conversations” 2:20). Another Roman Stoic philosopher, Seneca, stated that just as olives cannot come from a fig tree, so good cannot come from evil.
But there is more to this passage than meets the eye. “Do they gather grapes from thorn bushes?” - asked Jesus. There was a thorn tree, a buckthorn, on which small black berries grew, similar to small grapes. "Or from fig thistles?" There was a burdock whose flowers from a distance could be mistaken for figs.
Jesus' meaning here is very clear, appropriate, and useful. A false prophet can be extremely similar to a real prophet; he may even wear the same clothes and use the same language, but life cannot be supported by buckthorn berries or burdock flowers, and the life of the soul cannot be supported by the spiritual food that a false prophet can offer. The real test of any teaching is this: Does it strengthen a person to bear the burdens of life and help him go in the direction in which he should go?
Let us take a look at false prophets and their qualities. If the path is difficult, and the entrance is so narrow that it is difficult to find, then we should try very, very hard to find teachers who would help us find this entrance, and not those who lead us away from it.
The main disadvantage of false prophets is their selfishness. A true shepherd cares about his flock more than his own life; the wolf only cares about satisfying his wolf hunger. The false prophet does not teach for what he can give to others, but for what he can gain for himself. The Jews understood this danger well. Their teachers were rabbis, but the law laid down one very important principle: a rabbi must have a craft by which he earns his living, and he must not take any tuition fees. Rabbi Zadok said: “Do not make from knowledge of the law a crown to show off before people, or a shovel to dig.” And Hillel said: “Whoever uses the crown of the law for external purposes will perish.” The Jews knew well what a teacher is who uses his teaching for selfish interests, with one goal - to gain profit. This self-interest in a teacher can manifest itself in three forms.
1. He can teach for a single purpose. make a profit. Trouble arose in the church where the father of the English historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle belonged. The dispute was between the parishioners and the preacher about money and salary. When both sides had already said a lot, Thomas Carlyle's father stood up and uttered a murderous phrase: “Give the mercenary his pay and let him go.” No one can work for absolutely nothing and only a few can work well while constantly feeling the intense pressure of material problems, but the great privilege of teaching lies not in the salary that comes with it, but in the deep excitement that comes when the teacher reveals the truth boys and girls, boys and girls, women and men.
2. He can only teach for the sake of prestige. A person can teach to help others, or to show everyone how smart he is. Someone said: “No one can prove at the same time that he himself is very smart and that Christ is wonderful.” Prestige should be the last thing that interests a great teacher. J. P. Struders spent his entire life in the ministry of a small Presbyterian church, when he could have received any church pulpit in England. People loved him and the better they got to know him, the more they loved him. Once two people were talking about him. Odin knew all of Straders' deeds, but did not know him personally. Recalling Struders' holy preaching, he said, "Struders will have a place in the front row in the Kingdom of Heaven." Another knew Struders personally and he replied: "Struders would feel uncomfortable in the front row, wherever that may be." There is a type of teacher and preacher who looks at their message as a guideline for personal conduct. The false prophet wants to show off, but the real prophet wants to remain in the shadows.
3. He can teach solely for the purpose of to spread your own ideas. False prophets seek to spread their version of the truth, but a true prophet seeks to spread only God's truth. True, each person must think everything over for himself; but it was said of one preacher that during his sermon he stopped from time to time, “as if listening to a voice.” A true prophet listens first to the voice of God, and then speaks to people. He never forgets that he is only a voice that should speak God's Word, and a channel through which the grace of God comes to people. The duty of the teacher and preacher is to bring to people not his own ideas and truths, but the truth that is given in Jesus Christ.
FALSE FRUIT (Matt. 7:15-20 (continued))
This passage says a lot about the destructive fruit that false prophets bear. What false influences, what harmful fruits can false prophets bring?
1. A doctrine is false if it creates a religion that focuses its attention exclusively, or mainly, on external observance of norms of behavior and ritual.
This is precisely where the scribes and Pharisees were mistaken. In their view, religion was reduced to the observance of formal ritual law. A man who correctly observed the procedure for washing his hands, did not wear anything on the Sabbath that was heavier than two figs, who never walked further on the Sabbath than was allowed by law and who pettyly gave away a tenth, even of herbs and herbs from his garden. , was a virtuous man.
It is easy to confuse religion with the outward manifestations of a religious person. It is even possible - and this is not a rare exception - to teach that religion means attending Church, fulfilling financial obligations towards the Church, and reading the Bible. A person can do all this and still be far from a Christian, because Christianity is manifested in the right attitude towards both God and man.
2. A doctrine is false if it reduces religion to prohibitions. Any religion based on a series of prohibitions - "thou shalt not" - is a false religion. There are teachers who say to a person who has decided to take the path of a Christian: “From now on, you will no longer go to the cinema; from now on, you will no longer dance; from now on, you will no longer smoke or put on lipstick and eye makeup; from now on, you will no longer read novels and Sunday newspapers; from now on you will not go to the theater."
If a person could become a Christian only by abstaining from this or that, Christianity as a religion would be much simpler. But the whole point of Christianity is not that something Not to do, but to do something. Passive behavior can never be a response to the positive love of God.
3. A doctrine is false if it makes religion easy. There were false prophets in Paul's day, the echo of whose teaching can be heard in Rome. 6. They said to Paul: “Do you believe that there is nothing greater in the universe than the love of God?” - "Yes". - “You believe that the grace of God is great enough to cover any sin?” - "Yes". - “Well, if everything is so, then let’s go and continue to sin as much as our heart desires. God will forgive. And besides, our sin is just an excellent opportunity for God to show His wonderful grace.” Such religion is an insult to the love of God.
Any teaching that deprives religion of firmness, which removes the Cross from Christianity, which eliminates all the severity of Christ, any teaching that pushes judgment into the background and leads people to a light attitude towards sin is a false teaching.
4. The teaching is false, if it separates religion from life. Any teaching that says that a Christian has no place in life and in worldly activities is false. This was the mistake of the monks and hermits. They believed that in order to live a Christian life, they must retire to the desert or to a monastery, to get out of this all-consuming and seductive worldly life. They believed that they could only be true Christians by leaving worldly life. Jesus prayed for His disciples: “I do not pray that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from evil.” (John 17:15). We heard about one journalist who felt she couldn't reconcile her Christian principles with a job at a regular afternoon newspaper, and left it to work for a purely religious magazine. A man cannot be a good soldier if he deserts, but a Christian is a soldier of Christ. How can leaven ferment the dough if it even refuses to enter the mass? What is a testimony worth if it is not for those who do not believe? Any teaching that encourages people to take the position of, so to speak, “observers from the balcony” in relation to life is false. The Christian is not an observer from a balcony, but he takes an active part in all life's struggles.
5. A doctrine is false if it gives religion an air of arrogance and disunity. Any teaching that encourages a person to retire into a closed sect and look at the rest of the world as sinners is false. The task of religion is not to create walls of separation, but to tear them down. The dream of Jesus Christ is to have one flock and one Shepherd (John 10:16). Exceptionalism is not a religious quality; it is contrary to religion.
Religion should bring people together, not divide them. Religion should unite people into one family, and not split them into warring groups. The doctrine which declares that any church or any sect has a monopoly on the grace of God is false, for Christ does not divide, but unites.
UNDER FALSE PRETENDES (Matthew 7:21-23)
One amazing thing to note about this passage is that Jesus is quite willing to allow that many of the false prophets will say and do wonderful and impressive things. We must remember what the ancient world was like. Miracles were common in ancient times. The abundance of such miracles was a consequence of the ancient concept of disease. In ancient times, all diseases were attributed to the action of demons. It was believed that a person was sick because some demon had managed to exert a harmful influence on him, or had taken possession of some member or organ of his body, and therefore recovery was sought by driving out evil spirits. And therefore, as we would put it today, the roots of many diseases lay in the human psyche, and, consequently, many healings. If a person managed to convince or deceive himself that a demon (or demon) had settled in him, and that the demon had gained power over him, then this person undoubtedly fell ill. And if someone could convince him that the power of a demon or demon had been broken, then, of course, the person was cured.
The leaders of the Church never denied pagan miracles. In response to the miracles performed by Jesus, the ancient Roman encyclopedist Celsus cited miracles that were attributed to Aesculapius or Apollo. The early Christian theologian and philosopher Origen, who responded to these arguments, did not even think of denying the very fact of the existence of these miracles. “In itself, such a healing power is neither good nor evil, but is available to both godless and honest people” (Origen: “Against Celsus” 3.22). Even in the New Testament we read about demon exorcists who added the name of Jesus to their usual spell, and thus cast out demons (Acts 19:13). Among those who insincerely recognized the Divine origin of Jesus and used His name to exert a miraculous effect on people possessed by demons, there were many charlatans. What Jesus is saying here is this: for those who use His name fraudulently, the day of reckoning will come; their true motives will become apparent and they will be cast out from the presence of God.
This passage reflects two great enduring truths: the sincerity of a person can only be tested in one way - by his actions. Beautiful words cannot replace good deeds. Love can only be proven by obedience. There's no point in saying you love someone and then doing things that break their heart. When we were young, we probably all said to our mother: “Mommy, how I love you.” And the mother sometimes smiled thoughtfully and said: “It would be better if you showed it more with your behavior.” So often we confess God in words and then deny Him by our lifestyle. It is not difficult to recite the creed of faith by heart, but it is difficult to lead a Christian lifestyle. Faith without its embodiment in life is a contradiction in terms, and love is impossible without obedience.
But this passage also contains the idea of judgment. The day of retribution and reckoning is traced throughout the passage. A person can deceive and disguise his goals for a long time, but the day will come when the deception will be revealed and the disguise will be removed. We can deceive people with our words, but not God. “You understand my thoughts from afar” (77p. 138,2). Ultimately, no one can deceive God, who sees what is in the heart of every person.
THE ONLY CORRECT BASIS (Matthew 7:24-27)
Jesus was an expert in a double sense. He was an expert in the Scriptures. Jesus took the idea for this picture from the author of the Book of Proverbs: “As a whirlwind passes by, so the wicked is no more; but the righteous is on an everlasting foundation.” (Proverbs 10:25). This is where the picture He drew of two houses and two builders comes from. But Jesus was also an expert on life. Because of His profession, He knew everything about building houses, and when He spoke about the foundation of a house, He knew what he was talking about. This illustration is not the product of scientific research; This is an illustration of a specialist - taken from a practitioner. In Palestine the builder must look and see ahead. There were many hollows which looked like pleasant sandy hollows in summer, but which in winter turned into rushing torrents. The builder might decide that he has found a very convenient place to build a house. And, if he was so short-sighted, he could well have built his house in a dry river bed, but with the onset of winter, the house was destroyed. Even in an ordinary place, it was tempting to put the house right on the soft sand, without trying to get to the rocky ground below, because this was a programmed misfortune.
Only those houses that stand on a strong foundation can withstand the storm; only a life built on a solid foundation can successfully withstand the test. Jesus demanded two things from people.
1. He demanded that people heard. The great difficulty is simply that people today do not know what Jesus said or what the Church teaches. But, in fact, the situation is even worse: they have a completely erroneous idea of what Jesus said or what the Church teaches. An honest person should not condemn a person or organization without first listening to them - and this is exactly what many are doing today. The first step to the Christian life is to simply listen to what Jesus Christ says.
2. Jesus demands that people acted. Knowledge is relevant only when it is put into action. Let us assume that a person can pass an exam in Christian ethics without being a Christian. Knowledge must become action, theory must become practice, theology must become life. There is no point in going to a doctor whose advice we do not accept. There is little point in going to an expert for someone who is not ready to follow the advice. Yet thousands of people listen to the teachings of Jesus Christ on Sundays and know well what He taught, but make little or no conscious effort to put it into action. Anyone who wants to be a follower of Jesus must listen and do.
Is there a word that combines both at the same time? Yes, this is the meaning expressed by the word obedience, or obedience. Jesus demands our unconditional obedience. Learning to obey is the most important thing in life.
Once the newspapers wrote about a very cruel punishment of a naval sailor for violating discipline. The punishment was so severe that some civil courts considered it to be excessively cruel. One newspaper asked readers to express their opinions on the severity of the punishment. One who himself once served in navy replied that the punishment was not too severe. He believed that maintaining discipline is a very important matter, because its task is to ensure that a person automatically and without any questions follows orders, and human life may depend on such obedience. And the reader cited the following story as an example from his life experience: once he was in a motor boat that was towing a heavier ship on an iron cable on the open sea. Suddenly, in the midst of the wind and spray, he heard one word of command from the boat commander: “Get down!” The entire crew of the motor boat instantly rushed to the deck and at the same instant the wire towing cable burst, and its severed end scourged the air like a mad steel kite. If he had struck someone, he would have been killed on the spot. But the whole team automatically obeyed the command and no one was hurt. If even one started arguing or asking why, that would be the end of him. Obedience saved lives.
This is the kind of obedience Jesus demands of us. Jesus declares that obeying Him is the sure foundation of life, and He also says that a life based on obeying Him is completely safe, no matter what storms come.
Judge not lest ye be judged,for by what judgment do you judge, like this you will be judged; and with what measure do you measure, like this and they will measure it for you.And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not feel the plank in your own eye?Or how will you say to your brother: “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” but behold, there is a beam in your eye?Hypocrite! First take the beam out of your eye and then you will see How take the speck out of your brother's eye.
Do not give holy things to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you;For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.Is there a man among you who, when his son asks him for bread, would give him a stone?And when he asks for a fish, would you give him a snake?So if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him.
So, in everything, whatever you want people to do to you, do so to them, for this is the law and the prophets.
Enter ye at the strait gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go therein;because narrow is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few find it.
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?So every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.So by their fruits you will know them.
Not everyone who says to Me: “Lord! Lord!” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Heavenly Father.Many will say to Me on that day: “Lord! God! Have we not prophesied in Your name? and was it not in Your name that they cast out demons? and didn’t they do many miracles in Your name?”And then I will declare to them: “I never knew you; Depart from me, you workers of iniquity."
Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock;and the rain fell, and the rivers flooded, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it did not fall, because it was founded on rock.
But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand;and the rain fell, and the rivers overflowed, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and he fell, and his fall was great.
And when Jesus had finished these words, the people marveled at his teaching,for He taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes and Pharisees.
Commentary on the book
Comment to the section
6 "Don't give sacred things to dogs" - animals brought to the temple for sacrifice were called shrines (cf. Ex 22:30; Lev 22:14). Here we're talking about, obviously, about the need to carefully reveal the Word of God to people. For those who are unprepared and unwilling to accept the truth, this can be harmful and cause bitterness.
1. Evangelist Matthew (which means “gift of God”) belonged to the Twelve Apostles (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13). Luke (Luke 5:27) calls him Levi, and Mark (Mark 2:14) calls him Levi of Alpheus, i.e. son of Alphaeus: it is known that some Jews had two names (for example, Joseph Barnabas or Joseph Caiaphas). Matthew was a tax collector (tax collector) at the Capernaum customs house, located on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (Mark 2:13-14). Apparently, he was in the service not of the Romans, but of the tetrarch (ruler) of Galilee, Herod Antipas. Matthew's profession required him to know Greek. The future evangelist is depicted in Scripture as a sociable person: many friends gathered in his Capernaum house. This exhausts the data of the New Testament about the person whose name appears in the title of the first Gospel. According to legend, after the Ascension of Jesus Christ, he preached the Good News to the Jews in Palestine.
2. Around 120, the disciple of the Apostle John, Papias of Hierapolis, testifies: “Matthew wrote down the sayings of the Lord (Logia Cyriacus) in Hebrew (the Hebrew language here should be understood as the Aramaic dialect), and translated them as best he could” (Eusebius, Church History, III.39). The term Logia (and the corresponding Hebrew dibrei) means not only sayings, but also events. The message Papius repeats ca. 170 St. Irenaeus of Lyons, emphasizing that the evangelist wrote for Jewish Christians (Against heresies. III.1.1.). The historian Eusebius (IV century) writes that “Matthew, having preached first to the Jews, and then, intending to go to others, set forth in the native language the Gospel, now known under his name” (Church History, III.24). According to most modern researchers, this Aramaic Gospel (Logia) appeared between the 40s and 50s. Matthew probably made his first notes while he was accompanying the Lord.
The original Aramaic text of the Gospel of Matthew is lost. We only have Greek. translation, apparently made between the 70s and 80s. Its antiquity is confirmed by the mention in the works of “Apostolic Men” (St. Clement of Rome, St. Ignatius the God-Bearer, St. Polycarp). Historians believe that the Greek. Ev. from Matthew arose in Antioch, where, along with Jewish Christians, large groups of pagan Christians first appeared.
3. Text Ev. Matthew indicates that its author was a Palestinian Jew. He is well acquainted with the Old Testament, with the geography, history and customs of his people. His Ev. is closely connected with the tradition of the OT: in particular, it constantly points to the fulfillment of prophecies in the life of the Lord.
Matthew speaks more often than others about the Church. He pays considerable attention to the question of the conversion of the pagans. Of the prophets, Matthew quotes Isaiah the most (21 times). At the center of Matthew's theology is the concept of the Kingdom of God (which he, in accordance with Jewish tradition, usually calls the Kingdom of Heaven). It resides in heaven, and comes to this world in the person of the Messiah. The good news of the Lord is the good news of the mystery of the Kingdom (Matthew 13:11). It means the reign of God among people. At first the Kingdom is present in the world in an “inconspicuous way,” and only at the end of time will its fullness be revealed. The coming of the Kingdom of God was predicted in the OT and realized in Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Therefore, Matthew often calls Him the Son of David (one of the messianic titles).
4. Plan Matthew: 1. Prologue. The birth and childhood of Christ (Mt 1-2); 2. The Baptism of the Lord and the beginning of the sermon (Matthew 3-4); 3. Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7); 4. The ministry of Christ in Galilee. Miracles. Those who accepted and rejected Him (Matthew 8-18); 5. The road to Jerusalem (Matthew 19-25); 6. Passion. Resurrection (Matthew 26-28).
INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Holy Scriptures of the New Testament were written in Greek, with the exception of the Gospel of Matthew, which, according to tradition, was written in Hebrew or Aramaic. But since this Hebrew text has not survived, the Greek text is considered the original for the Gospel of Matthew. Thus, only the Greek text of the New Testament is the original, and numerous editions in various modern languages around the world are translations from the Greek original.
The Greek language in which the New Testament was written was no longer the classical ancient Greek language and was not, as previously thought, a special New Testament language. It is a spoken everyday language of the first century A.D., which spread throughout the Greco-Roman world and is known in science as “κοινη”, i.e. "ordinary adverb"; yet both the style, the turns of phrase, and the way of thinking of the sacred writers of the New Testament reveal Hebrew or Aramaic influence.
The original text of the NT has come down to us in a large number of ancient manuscripts, more or less complete, numbering about 5000 (from the 2nd to the 16th century). Until recent years, the most ancient of them did not go back further than the 4th century no P.X. But recently, many fragments of ancient NT manuscripts on papyrus (3rd and even 2nd century) have been discovered. For example, Bodmer's manuscripts: John, Luke, 1 and 2 Peter, Jude - were found and published in the 60s of our century. In addition to Greek manuscripts, we have ancient translations or versions into Latin, Syriac, Coptic and other languages (Vetus Itala, Peshitto, Vulgata, etc.), of which the most ancient existed already from the 2nd century AD.
Finally, numerous quotes from the Church Fathers have been preserved in Greek and other languages in such quantities that if the text of the New Testament were lost and all the ancient manuscripts were destroyed, then experts could restore this text from quotes from the works of the Holy Fathers. All this abundant material makes it possible to check and clarify the text of the NT and classify its various forms (so-called textual criticism). Compared with any ancient author (Homer, Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Cornelius Nepos, Julius Caesar, Horace, Virgil, etc.), our modern printed Greek text of the NT is in an exceptionally favorable position. And in the number of manuscripts, and in the shortness of time separating the oldest of them from the original, and in the number of translations, and in their antiquity, and in the seriousness and volume of critical work carried out on the text, it surpasses all other texts (for details, see “Hidden Treasures and new life,” archaeological discoveries and the Gospel, Bruges, 1959, pp. 34 ff.). The text of the NT as a whole is recorded completely irrefutably.
The New Testament consists of 27 books. The publishers have divided them into 260 chapters of unequal length to accommodate references and quotations. This division is not present in the original text. The modern division into chapters in the New Testament, as in the whole Bible, has often been attributed to the Dominican Cardinal Hugo (1263), who worked it out when composing a symphony for the Latin Vulgate, but it is now thought with greater reason that this division goes back to Archbishop Stephen of Canterbury Langton, who died in 1228. As for the division into verses, now accepted in all editions of the New Testament, it goes back to the publisher of the Greek New Testament text, Robert Stephen, and was introduced by him in his edition in 1551.
The sacred books of the New Testament are usually divided into laws (the Four Gospels), historical (the Acts of the Apostles), teaching (seven conciliar epistles and fourteen epistles of the Apostle Paul) and prophetic: the Apocalypse or the Revelation of John the Theologian (see the Long Catechism of St. Philaret of Moscow).
However, modern experts consider this distribution to be outdated: in fact, all the books of the New Testament are legal, historical and educational, and prophecy is not only in the Apocalypse. New Testament scholarship pays great attention to the precise establishment of the chronology of the Gospel and other New Testament events. Scientific chronology allows the reader to trace with sufficient accuracy through the New Testament the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, the apostles and the primitive Church (see Appendices).
The books of the New Testament can be distributed as follows:
1) Three so-called synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and, separately, the fourth: the Gospel of John. New Testament scholarship devotes much attention to the study of the relationships of the first three Gospels and their relation to the Gospel of John (synoptic problem).
2) The Book of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of the Apostle Paul (“Corpus Paulinum”), which are usually divided into:
a) Early Epistles: 1st and 2nd Thessalonians.
b) Greater Epistles: Galatians, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Romans.
c) Messages from bonds, i.e. written from Rome, where ap. Paul was in prison: Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians, Philemon.
d) Pastoral Epistles: 1st Timothy, Titus, 2nd Timothy.
e) Epistle to the Hebrews.
3) Council Epistles (“Corpus Catholicum”).
4) Revelation of John the Theologian. (Sometimes in the NT they distinguish “Corpus Joannicum”, i.e. everything that St. John wrote for the comparative study of his Gospel in connection with his epistles and the book of Rev.).
FOUR GOSPEL
1. The word “gospel” (ευανγελιον) in Greek means “good news.” This is what our Lord Jesus Christ Himself called His teaching (Matthew 24:14; Matthew 26:13; Mark 1:15; Mark 13:10; Mark 14:9; Mark 16:15). Therefore, for us, the “gospel” is inextricably linked with Him: it is the “good news” of the salvation given to the world through the incarnate Son of God.
Christ and His apostles preached the gospel without writing it down. By the mid-1st century, this preaching had been established by the Church in a strong oral tradition. The Eastern custom of memorizing sayings, stories, and even large texts helped Christians of the apostolic era accurately preserve the unrecorded First Gospel. After the 50s, when eyewitnesses of Christ's earthly ministry began to pass away one after another, the need arose to write down the gospel (Luke 1:1). Thus, the “gospel” came to mean the narrative recorded by the apostles about the life and teaching of the Savior. It was read at prayer meetings and in preparing people for baptism.
2. The most important Christian centers of the 1st century (Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, Ephesus, etc.) had their own Gospels. Of these, only four (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) are recognized by the Church as inspired by God, i.e. written under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit. They are called “from Matthew”, “from Mark”, etc. (Greek “kata” corresponds to Russian “according to Matthew”, “according to Mark”, etc.), for the life and teachings of Christ are set out in these books by these four sacred writers. Their gospels were not compiled into one book, which made it possible to see the gospel story from different points of view. In the 2nd century St. Irenaeus of Lyons calls the evangelists by name and points to their gospels as the only canonical ones (Against heresies 2, 28, 2). A contemporary of St. Irenaeus, Tatian, made the first attempt to create a single gospel narrative, compiled from various texts of the four gospels, “Diatessaron”, i.e. "gospel of four"
3. The apostles did not set out to create a historical work in the modern sense of the word. They sought to spread the teachings of Jesus Christ, helped people to believe in Him, to correctly understand and fulfill His commandments. The testimonies of the evangelists do not coincide in all details, which proves their independence from each other: the testimonies of eyewitnesses always have an individual coloring. The Holy Spirit does not certify the accuracy of the details of the facts described in the gospel, but the spiritual meaning contained in them.
The minor contradictions found in the presentation of the evangelists are explained by the fact that God gave the sacred writers complete freedom in conveying certain specific facts in relation to different categories of listeners, which further emphasizes the unity of meaning and orientation of all four gospels (see also General Introduction, pp. 13 and 14) .
Hide
Commentary on the current passage
Commentary on the book
Comment to the section
6 The translation itself does not raise doubts, but the connection of the words in question with the previous ones has always seemed difficult. Some say that Art. 6 is directly adjacent to the previous one. The activity of persons capable of judging and correcting the shortcomings of others should not consist of throwing precious stones before swine. Therefore, there is no need to deny the connection here. The connection is also explained in such a way that if the previous verses indicate an excess in judgments, not too much severity of judgments about the misdeeds of others, then verse 6, on the contrary, indicates the rational or critical weakness of people, when, without any reasoning and fears, with complete condescension, paying no attention to different characters, they give people something that they cannot accept due to their malice and their character. Thus, according to this opinion, the internal connection lies in denoting the essential difference between fanatical callousness and moral weakness in handling the shrine. Further, they think that in addition to the internal, there is also an external connection, which consists in the opposition of the brother, whose correction and salvation we hypocritically care about, to dogs and pigs, who treat us completely differently than brothers, and accept ours about themselves in a completely different way worries than brother. The Savior says something like this: you are a hypocrite in relation to your brother, to whom you must, out of your love for him, teach only sacred things. But, in relation to other people whom you cannot call your brothers and cannot behave with them as brothers, you are not being a hypocrite, but teaching something truly sacred. There is also another opinion: the people whom we judge, but whom, however, we should not judge, are pigs and dogs. We refrain from judging them; however, we should not be too sentimental, that is, while refraining from condemnation, we should also teach them sacred things. Judging others is extreme; to be too lenient towards people, to enter into communication with them, to try to enlighten them, to give them what is holy when they are unworthy of it - this is the other extreme from which the disciples of Christ should refrain. The first 5 verses condemn too much severity; in verse 6 - too much weakness. Students should not seek to be judges of others; but they should not recklessly expose their high calling to people. Because the sacred and valuable was given to them not only for possession, but also for the purpose that they communicate it to other people. But the disciples would perform this duty poorly if they taught their valuable and sacred goods, entrusted to them, to such people who they know or can know that they lack any understanding of the sacred and its value. The content of verse 6, although explained by all these opinions, is not much. It is more likely to think that a new speech begins here, having no noticeable internal connection with the previous one. External connection is given, as before, by negations. However, one might think that both the Lord Himself and His listeners could look at everything that He had previously said as a shrine. In verse 6, the Savior says that this shrine should not be revealed to people who do not understand it. Or we can consider verse 6 as an introduction to the speech that follows and explain it in the same sense.
Since the expression “shrine” is obviously figurative and applied to human relations, the interpretation largely depends, therefore, on the exact definition of the word “shrine” itself. This word is so difficult that to explain it they even turned to the Sanskrit language and tried to understand what it means. In this language, similar to Greek. τò ἅγιον the words jag, jagami mean I make a sacrifice, I honor; and jagus, jâgam, jagnâm (Russian lamb) is a sacrifice. Further, they compared this word with the Hebrew kodesh, shrine; and this latter was derived from the word cad, which means highlighted, separated. But although etymology, says Kremer, throws some light on the word in question, it rarely reveals its meaning in ordinary use. One scholar has conjectured that the Aramaic word used here by Christ was qedasha. IN Greek translation In the Gospel of Matthew this word is conveyed inaccurately, by the word “shrine” (τò ἅγιον), whereas it means the amulet itself, mainly an earring. With this interpretation, “shrine” could also be related to the further term “pearls”, as an object that, like pearls, can be thrown in front of animals. However, such a hypothesis is currently recognized as untenable, and if we can still talk about it, it is not in interpretive, but in purely historical interests. Not being able to find any suitable images in real life and nature, they tried to explain the word shrine, as well as the other words of this verse, pearls, pigs and dogs, in an allegorical sense. So, for example, Jerome meant the bread of children by holy things. We must not take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. Chrysostom and others meant pagans by dogs both because of their deeds and because of their faith, and by pigs they meant heretics who, apparently, do not recognize the name of the Lord. An interesting reference to this verse is found in one of the most ancient documents, namely in “ Teachings of the 12 Apostles» IX, 5 (Tsang erroneously X, 6). Here we are talking about the Eucharist: “ no one should eat or drink from our Eucharist except those who are baptized in the name of the Lord; for this is what the Lord said: do not give what is holy to dogs" Of the five words that the Greeks used to denote “sacred,” the word ἅγιον is the rarest, and, unlike other synonymous terms, it indicated primarily what was holy in the moral sense. Being little used among the pagans, this word, one might say, penetrates the entire Old and New Testaments and expresses the concept in which all divine revelation is concentrated. Therefore, the word has a generally broad meaning. But the main point here is the moral, the concept of which the Greeks and Romans had almost no idea at all. The concept of holiness receives its special coloring from the fact that holiness is applied to God and what belongs to Him. Apart from God, this concept is applied only to such people and objects that especially belong to God. The word "holy" or "holy" or "holy" (plural) is used in the Old Testament about the temple. Further, it is used as in Lev 22:14, about sacred food usually in plural. (cf. Lev 22:2-5). Therefore, most interpreters are inclined to think that the image in verse 6 was taken by the Savior from sacrificial meat, which could not be eaten by anyone except the priests ( Exodus 29:33; Lev 2:3; 22:10-16 ; Numbers 18:8-19). It was absolutely impossible to give this meat to dogs - it would be a crime, and if anyone did so, he would be punished by death (Tolyuk). No unclean person was to eat sacred meat ( Lev 22:6,7,10,13,15,16). Some understand by holy everything that is the opposite of unclean, or “pure.” The Savior thus attached Old Testament images to truths that were to become new wine and new clothing in the church He established as the Kingdom of God. He Himself called His teaching the mysteries of the Kingdom of God (cf. Matthew 13:11; Mark 4:11; Luke 8:10). He told His disciples that it was given to them to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God, but not to other people, and refrained from directly revealing these secrets to people, without the help of parables. Further, explaining the secrets of the Kingdom, He said that the Kingdom of Heaven is like “ a treasure hidden in a field, which a man, having found, hid, and out of joy over it goes and sells everything he has, and buys that field» ( Matthew 13:44); « to a merchant looking for good pearls, who, having found one pearl of great price, went and sold everything he had and bought it» ( Matthew 13:45,46).
The first part of the verse: “do not give what is holy to dogs” can be separated from the second and considered on its own. This is necessary because some interpreters could not understand how pigs could turn and tear people to pieces, because dogs are capable of this, and attributed the last words of the verse to dogs. But such an opinion has no basis. Sacrificial food, meat and bread, is pleasant food for dogs. In the first half of the sentence, therefore, the verb δίδωμι is used, and not the further one - to throw. Dogs are often mentioned in Old Testament scriptures. Moses tells his compatriots that their exodus from Egypt took place in such silence that even the dog did not lift his tongue against man or beast ( Exodus 11:7). Judith tells Holofernes the same thing - that she will lead him to Jerusalem so that not even a dog will lift his tongue against him. Much from the good old days has remained to this day, including dogs, which even now walk and live in large numbers in Palestinian cities. They sleep during the day, rise when the sun sets, and begin cleaning the dirty nooks and crannies of the streets. At this time, they howl, grumble, and a squabble begins between them over garbage and sewage that is thrown out of houses, because in eastern cities everything is thrown out into the streets and eaten by dogs. They are the only orderlies in dirty eastern cities. Let's move on to another image. The former “don’t give” (μὴ δω̃τε) is replaced by the words “don’t throw” (μὴ βάλητε). By pearls (μαργαρίτας) one must mean pearls, pearls, and perhaps mother-of-pearl, but not beads, as in our Slavic. In the Vulgate margaritas is the same word as in Greek. Pearls are like peas or even acorns, which pigs love and eat. But these cheap edible items are more important to them than precious pearls. Of course, the facts of pigs tearing apart, for example, a person, are little known, if only known. There is no need to understand here by the word “pig” any ferocious breed of pig, such as, for example, a wild boar. It is known from practice about ordinary domestic pigs that they eat animals and sometimes maul children to death; therefore, they can also maul an adult. Based on the context, there is no reason to specifically refer the words of Christ to either pagans or heretics. The first would be wrong simply because He came to preach to the pagans and save them, and the apostles were, according to His command, “to go and teach all nations.” But there was no mention of heretics then, and if Christ began to speak about them now, His speech would hardly be understandable to His listeners. To conclude the explanation of this verse, we note that there is an increase in it from beginning to end - first it talks about dogs that do not become fierce, but can eat sacred meat, and then about pigs that become fierce and tear to pieces the giver. According to Tolyuk, what is meant here is the general shamelessness (ἀναισχυντία) of people.
Gospel
The word “Gospel” (τὸ εὐαγγέλιον) in classical Greek was used to designate: a) a reward that is given to the messenger of joy (τῷ εὐαγγέλῳ), b) a sacrifice sacrificed on the occasion of receiving some good news or a holiday celebrated on the same occasion and c) this good news itself. In the New Testament this expression means:
a) the good news that Christ reconciled people with God and brought us the greatest benefits - mainly founded the Kingdom of God on earth ( Matt. 4:23),
b) the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, preached by Himself and His Apostles about Him as the King of this Kingdom, the Messiah and the Son of God ( 2 Cor. 4:4),
c) all New Testament or Christian teaching in general, primarily the narration of the most important events from the life of Christ ( 1 Cor. 15:1-4), and then an explanation of the meaning of these events ( Rome. 1:16).
e) Finally, the word “Gospel” is sometimes used to designate the process of preaching itself Christian teaching (Rome. 1:1).
Sometimes the word “Gospel” is accompanied by a designation and its content. There are, for example, phrases: Gospel of the kingdom ( Matt. 4:23), i.e. good news of the kingdom of God, the gospel of peace ( Eph. 6:15), i.e. about peace, the gospel of salvation ( Eph. 1:13), i.e. about salvation, etc. Sometimes the genitive case following the word "Gospel" means the author or source of the good news ( Rome. 1:1, 15:16 ; 2 Cor. 11:7; 1 Thess. 2:8) or the personality of the preacher ( Rome. 2:16).
For quite a long time, stories about the life of the Lord Jesus Christ were transmitted only orally. The Lord Himself did not leave any records of His speeches and deeds. In the same way, the 12 apostles were not born writers: they were “unlearned and simple people” ( Acts 4:13), although literate. Among the Christians of the apostolic time there were also very few “wise according to the flesh, strong” and “noble” ( 1 Cor. 1:26), and for most believers, oral stories about Christ were much more important than written ones. Thus, the apostles and preachers or evangelists “transmitted” (παραδιδόναι) the stories about the deeds and speeches of Christ, and the believers “received” (παραλαμβάνειν) - but, of course, not mechanically, only by memory, as can be said about the students of rabbinical schools, but with all my soul, as if something living and life-giving. But this period of oral tradition was soon to end. On the one hand, Christians should have felt the need for a written presentation of the Gospel in their disputes with the Jews, who, as we know, denied the reality of Christ’s miracles and even argued that Christ did not declare Himself the Messiah. It was necessary to show the Jews that Christians have genuine stories about Christ from those persons who were either among His apostles or who were in close communication with eyewitnesses of the deeds of Christ. On the other hand, the need for a written presentation of the history of Christ began to be felt because the generation of the first disciples was gradually dying out and the ranks of direct witnesses to the miracles of Christ were thinning. Therefore, it was necessary to secure in writing individual sayings of the Lord and His entire speeches, as well as the stories of the apostles about Him. It was then that isolated records of what was reported in the oral tradition about Christ began to appear here and there. The words of Christ, which contained the rules of Christian life, were most carefully recorded, and they were much more free to convey various events from the life of Christ, preserving only their general impression. Thus, one thing in these records, due to its originality, was transmitted everywhere in the same way, while the other was modified. These initial recordings did not think about the completeness of the story. Even our Gospels, as can be seen from the conclusion of the Gospel of John ( In. 21:25), did not intend to report all the speeches and deeds of Christ. This is evident, by the way, from the fact that they do not contain, for example, the following saying of Christ: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” ( Acts 20:35). The Evangelist Luke reports about such records, saying that many before him had already begun to compile narratives about the life of Christ, but that they lacked proper completeness and that therefore they did not provide sufficient “affirmation” in the faith ( OK. 1:1-4).
Our canonical Gospels apparently arose from the same motives. The period of their appearance can be determined to be approximately thirty years - from 60 to 90 (the last was the Gospel of John). The first three Gospels are usually called synoptic in biblical scholarship, because they depict the life of Christ in such a way that their three narratives can be viewed in one without much difficulty and combined into one coherent narrative (synoptics - from Greek - looking together). They began to be called Gospels individually, perhaps as early as the end of the 1st century, but from church writing we have information that such a name began to be given to the entire composition of the Gospels only in the second half of the 2nd century. As for the names: “Gospel of Matthew”, “Gospel of Mark”, etc., then more correctly these very ancient names from Greek should be translated as follows: “Gospel according to Matthew”, “Gospel according to Mark” (κατὰ Ματθαῖον, κατὰ Μᾶρκον). By this the Church wanted to say that in all the Gospels there is a single Christian gospel about Christ the Savior, but according to the images of different writers: one image belongs to Matthew, another to Mark, etc.
Four Gospels
Thus, ancient church looked at the depiction of the life of Christ in our four Gospels not as different Gospels or stories, but as one Gospel, one book in four types. That is why in the Church the name Four Gospels was established for our Gospels. Saint Irenaeus called them the “fourfold Gospel” (τετράμορφον τὸ εὐαγγέλιον - see Irenaeus Lugdunensis, Adversus haereses liber 3, ed. A. Rousseau and L. Doutreleaü Irenée Lyon. Contre les hé résies, livre 3, vol. 2. Paris, 1974, 11, 11).
The Fathers of the Church dwell on the question: why exactly did the Church accept not one Gospel, but four? So St. John Chrysostom says: “Couldn’t one evangelist write everything that was needed. Of course, he could, but when four people wrote, they wrote not at the same time, not in the same place, without communicating or conspiring with each other, and for all that they wrote in such a way that everything seemed to be uttered by one mouth, then this is the strongest proof of the truth. You will say: “What happened, however, was the opposite, for the four Gospels are often found to be in disagreement.” This very thing is a sure sign of truth. For if the Gospels had exactly agreed with each other in everything, even regarding the words themselves, then none of the enemies would have believed that the Gospels were not written according to ordinary mutual agreement. Now the slight disagreement between them frees them from all suspicion. For what they say differently regarding time or place does not in the least harm the truth of their narrative. In the main thing, which forms the basis of our life and the essence of preaching, not one of them disagrees with the other in anything or anywhere - that God became a man, worked miracles, was crucified, resurrected, and ascended into heaven.” (“Conversations on the Gospel of Matthew”, 1).
Saint Irenaeus also finds a special symbolic meaning in the fourfold number of our Gospels. “Since there are four countries of the world in which we live, and since the Church is scattered throughout the entire earth and has its confirmation in the Gospel, it was necessary for it to have four pillars, spreading incorruptibility from everywhere and reviving the human race. The All-Ordering Word, seated on the Cherubim, gave us the Gospel in four forms, but permeated with one spirit. For David, praying for His appearance, says: “He who sits on the Cherubim, show Yourself” ( Ps. 79:2). But the Cherubim (in the vision of the prophet Ezekiel and the Apocalypse) have four faces, and their faces are images of the activity of the Son of God.” Saint Irenaeus finds it possible to attach the symbol of a lion to the Gospel of John, since this Gospel depicts Christ as the eternal King, and the lion is the king in the animal world; to the Gospel of Luke - the symbol of a calf, since Luke begins his Gospel with the image of the priestly service of Zechariah, who slaughtered the calves; to the Gospel of Matthew - a symbol of a person, since this Gospel mainly depicts the human birth of Christ, and, finally, to the Gospel of Mark - a symbol of an eagle, because Mark begins his Gospel with a mention of the prophets, to whom the Holy Spirit flew, like an eagle on wings "(Irenaeus Lugdunensis, Adversus haereses, liber 3, 11, 11-22). Among the other Fathers of the Church, the symbols of the lion and the calf were moved and the first was given to Mark, and the second to John. Since the 5th century. in this form, the symbols of the evangelists began to be added to the images of the four evangelists in church painting.
Mutual relationship of the Gospels
Each of the four Gospels has its own characteristics, and most of all - the Gospel of John. But the first three, as mentioned above, have extremely much in common with each other, and this similarity involuntarily catches the eye even when reading them briefly. Let us first of all talk about the similarity of the Synoptic Gospels and the reasons for this phenomenon.
Even Eusebius of Caesarea, in his “canons,” divided the Gospel of Matthew into 355 parts and noted that 111 of them were found in all three weather forecasters. In modern times, exegetes have developed an even more precise numerical formula for determining the similarity of the Gospels and calculated that the total number of verses common to all weather forecasters rises to 350. In Matthew, then, 350 verses are unique to him, in Mark there are 68 such verses, in Luke - 541. Similarities are mainly noticed in the rendering of the sayings of Christ, and differences - in the narrative part. When Matthew and Luke literally agree with each other in their Gospels, Mark always agrees with them. The similarity between Luke and Mark is much closer than between Luke and Matthew (Lopukhin - in the Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia. T. V. P. 173). It is also remarkable that some passages in all three evangelists follow the same sequence, for example, the temptation and the speech in Galilee, the calling of Matthew and the conversation about fasting, the plucking of ears of corn and the healing of the withered man, the calming of the storm and the healing of the Gadarene demoniac, etc. The similarity sometimes even extends to the construction of sentences and expressions (for example, in the presentation of a prophecy Small 3:1).
As for the differences observed among weather forecasters, there are quite a lot of them. Some things are reported by only two evangelists, others even by one. Thus, only Matthew and Luke cite the conversation on the mount of the Lord Jesus Christ and report the story of the birth and first years of Christ’s life. Luke alone speaks of the birth of John the Baptist. Some things one evangelist conveys in a more abbreviated form than another, or in a different connection than another. The details of the events in each Gospel are different, as are the expressions.
This phenomenon of similarities and differences in the synoptic Gospels has long attracted the attention of interpreters of Scripture, and various assumptions have long been made to explain this fact. It seems more correct to believe that our three evangelists used a common oral source for their narrative of the life of Christ. At that time, evangelists or preachers about Christ went everywhere preaching and repeated in different places in a more or less extensive form what was considered necessary to offer to those entering the Church. Thus, a well-known specific type was formed oral gospel, and this is the type we have in written form in our Synoptic Gospels. Of course, at the same time, depending on the purpose that this or that evangelist had, his Gospel took on some special features, only to his work characteristic features. At the same time, we cannot exclude the assumption that an older Gospel could have been known to the evangelist who wrote later. Moreover, the difference between the weather forecasters should be explained by the different goals that each of them had in mind when writing his Gospel.
As we have already said, the Synoptic Gospels differ in very many ways from the Gospel of John the Theologian. So they depict almost exclusively the activity of Christ in Galilee, and the Apostle John depicts mainly the sojourn of Christ in Judea. In terms of content, the Synoptic Gospels also differ significantly from the Gospel of John. They give, so to speak, a more external image of the life, deeds and teachings of Christ and from the speeches of Christ they cite only those that were accessible to the understanding of the entire people. John, on the contrary, omits a lot from the activities of Christ, for example, he cites only six miracles of Christ, but those speeches and miracles that he cites have a special deep meaning and extreme importance about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, while the Synoptics portray Christ primarily as the founder of the Kingdom of God and therefore direct the attention of their readers to the Kingdom founded by Him, John draws our attention to the central point of this Kingdom, from which life flows along the peripheries of the Kingdom, i.e. on the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, whom John portrays as the Only Begotten Son of God and as the Light for all mankind. That is why the ancient interpreters called the Gospel of John primarily spiritual (πνευματικόν), in contrast to the synoptic ones, as depicting primarily the human side in the person of Christ (εὐαγγέλιον σωματικόν), i.e. The gospel is physical.
However, it must be said that the weather forecasters also have passages that indicate that the weather forecasters knew the activity of Christ in Judea ( Matt. 23:37, 27:57 ; OK. 10:38-42), and John also has indications of the continued activity of Christ in Galilee. In the same way, weather forecasters convey such sayings of Christ that testify to His Divine dignity ( Matt. 11:27), and John, for his part, also in places depicts Christ as a true man ( In. 2 etc.; John 8 and etc.). Therefore, one cannot speak of any contradiction between the weather forecasters and John in their depiction of the face and work of Christ.
The Reliability of the Gospels
Although criticism has long been expressed against the reliability of the Gospels, and recently these attacks of criticism have especially intensified (the theory of myths, especially the theory of Drews, who does not recognize the existence of Christ at all), however, all the objections of criticism are so insignificant that they are broken at the slightest collision with Christian apologetics . Here, however, we will not cite the objections of negative criticism and analyze these objections: this will be done when interpreting the text of the Gospels itself. We will only talk about the most important general reasons for which we recognize the Gospels as completely reliable documents. This is, firstly, the existence of a tradition of eyewitnesses, many of whom lived to the era when our Gospels appeared. Why on earth would we refuse to trust these sources of our Gospels? Could they have invented everything that is in our Gospels? No, all the Gospels are purely historical. Secondly, it is not clear why the Christian consciousness would want - as the mythical theory claims - to crown the head of a simple Rabbi Jesus with the crown of the Messiah and Son of God? Why, for example, is it not said about the Baptist that he performed miracles? Obviously because he didn't create them. And from here it follows that if Christ is said to be the Great Wonderworker, then it means that He really was like that. And why would it be possible to deny the authenticity of Christ’s miracles, since the highest miracle - His Resurrection - is witnessed like no other event in ancient history (see. 1 Cor. 15)?
Bibliography of foreign works on the Four Gospels
Bengel - Bengel J. Al. Gnomon Novi Testamentï in quo ex nativa verborum VI simplicitas, profunditas, concinnitas, salubritas sensuum coelestium indicatur. Berolini, 1860.
Blass, Gram. - Blass F. Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch. Gottingen, 1911.
Westcott - The New Testament in Original Greek the text rev. by Brooke Foss Westcott. New York, 1882.
B. Weiss - Weiss B. Die Evangelien des Markus und Lukas. Gottingen, 1901.
Yog. Weiss (1907) - Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments, von Otto Baumgarten; Wilhelm Bousset. Hrsg. von Johannes Weis_s, Bd. 1: Die drei älteren Evangelien. Die Apostelgeschichte, Matthaeus Apostolus; Marcus Evangelista; Lucas Evangelista. . 2. Aufl. Gottingen, 1907.
Godet - Godet F. Commentar zu dem Evangelium des Johannes. Hanover, 1903.
De Wette W.M.L. Kurze Erklärung des Evangeliums Matthäi / Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch zum Neuen Testament, Band 1, Teil 1. Leipzig, 1857.
Keil (1879) - Keil C.F. Commentar über die Evangelien des Markus und Lukas. Leipzig, 1879.
Keil (1881) - Keil C.F. Commentar über das Evangelium des Johannes. Leipzig, 1881.
Klostermann - Klostermann A. Das Markusevangelium nach seinem Quellenwerthe für die evangelische Geschichte. Gottingen, 1867.
Cornelius a Lapide - Cornelius a Lapide. In SS Matthaeum et Marcum / Commentaria in scripturam sacram, t. 15. Parisiis, 1857.
Lagrange - Lagrange M.-J. Etudes bibliques: Evangile selon St. Marc. Paris, 1911.
Lange - Lange J.P. Das Evangelium nach Matthäus. Bielefeld, 1861.
Loisy (1903) - Loisy A.F. Le quatrième èvangile. Paris, 1903.
Loisy (1907-1908) - Loisy A.F. Les èvangiles synoptiques, 1-2. : Ceffonds, près Montier-en-Der, 1907-1908.
Luthardt - Luthardt Ch.E. Das johanneische Evangelium nach seiner Eigenthümlichkeit geschildert und erklärt. Nürnberg, 1876.
Meyer (1864) - Meyer H.A.W. Kritisch exegetisches Commentar über das Neue Testament, Abteilung 1, Hälfte 1: Handbuch über das Evangelium des Matthäus. Gottingen, 1864.
Meyer (1885) - Kritisch-exegetischer Commentar über das Neue Testament hrsg. von Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer, Abteilung 1, Hälfte 2: Bernhard Weiss B. Kritisch exegetisches Handbuch über die Evangelien des Markus und Lukas. Göttingen, 1885. Meyer (1902) - Meyer H.A.W. Das Johannes-Evangelium 9. Auflage, bearbeitet von B. Weiss. Gottingen, 1902.
Merx (1902) - Merx A. Erläuterung: Matthaeus / Die vier kanonischen Evangelien nach ihrem ältesten bekannten Texte, Teil 2, Hälfte 1. Berlin, 1902.
Merx (1905) - Merx A. Erläuterung: Markus und Lukas / Die vier kanonischen Evangelien nach ihrem ältesten bekannten Texte. Teil 2, Hälfte 2. Berlin, 1905.
Morison - Morison J. A practical commentary on the Gospel according to St. Matthew. London, 1902.
Stanton - Stanton V.H. The Synoptic Gospels / The Gospels as historical documents, Part 2. Cambridge, 1903. Tholuck (1856) - Tholuck A. Die Bergpredigt. Gotha, 1856.
Tholuck (1857) - Tholuck A. Commentar zum Evangelium Johannis. Gotha, 1857.
Heitmüller - see Yog. Weiss (1907).
Holtzmann (1901) - Holtzmann H.J. Die Synoptiker. Tubingen, 1901.
Holtzmann (1908) - Holtzmann H.J. Evangelium, Briefe und Offenbarung des Johannes / Hand-Commentar zum Neuen Testament bearbeitet von H. J. Holtzmann, R. A. Lipsius etc. Bd. 4. Freiburg im Breisgau, 1908.
Zahn (1905) - Zahn Th. Das Evangelium des Matthäus / Commentar zum Neuen Testament, Teil 1. Leipzig, 1905.
Zahn (1908) - Zahn Th. Das Evangelium des Johannes ausgelegt / Commentar zum Neuen Testament, Teil 4. Leipzig, 1908.
Schanz (1881) - Schanz P. Commentar über das Evangelium des heiligen Marcus. Freiburg im Breisgau, 1881.
Schanz (1885) - Schanz P. Commentar über das Evangelium des heiligen Johannes. Tubingen, 1885.
Schlatter - Schlatter A. Das Evangelium des Johannes: ausgelegt für Bibelleser. Stuttgart, 1903.
Schürer, Geschichte - Schürer E., Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi. Bd. 1-4. Leipzig, 1901-1911.
Edersheim (1901) - Edersheim A. The life and times of Jesus the Messiah. 2 Vols. London, 1901.
Ellen - Allen W.C. A critical and exegetical commentary of the Gospel according to st. Matthew. Edinburgh, 1907.
Alford N. The Greek Testament in four volumes, vol. 1. London, 1863.
Hide
Commentary on the current passage
Commentary on the book
Comment to the section
The author of the first Gospel in the New Testament, Matthew, was a collector of taxes and duties in favor of the authorities of the Roman Empire. One day, while he was sitting in his usual place of collecting taxes, he saw Jesus. This meeting completely changed Matthew's whole life: from that time on he was always with Jesus. He walked with Him through the cities and villages of Palestine and was an eyewitness to most of the events that he talks about in his Gospel, written, as scientists believe, between 58 and 70 AD. according to R.H.
In his narrative, Matthew often quotes the Old Testament to show readers that Jesus is the very promised Savior of the world, whose coming was already predicted in the Old Testament. The evangelist presents Jesus as the Messiah, sent by God to create the Kingdom of Peace on this earth. As the One who came from the Heavenly Father, Jesus can and does speak as God, with the consciousness of His Divine authority. Matthew gives five major sermons, or speeches, of Jesus: 1) The Sermon on the Mount (chap. 5-7); 2) the commission given by Jesus to His disciples (chapter 10); 3) parables about the Kingdom of Heaven (chapter 13); 4) practical advice to students (chapter 18); 5) the verdict on the Pharisees and a prediction about what awaits the world in the future (chap. 23-25).
The third edition of “The New Testament and the Psalter in Modern Russian Translation” was prepared for printing by the Institute of Bible Translation in Zaoksky at the suggestion of the Ukrainian Bible Society. Conscious of their responsibility for the accuracy of the translation and its literary merits, the staff of the Institute used the opportunity of a new edition of this Book to make clarifications and, where necessary, corrections to their previous many years of work. And although in this work it was necessary to keep deadlines in mind, maximum efforts were made to achieve the task facing the Institute: to convey to readers the sacred text, as far as possible in translation, carefully verified, without distortion or loss.
Both in previous editions and in the present, our team of translators has strived to preserve and continue the best that has been achieved by the efforts of the Bible societies of the world in the translation of the Holy Scriptures. In an effort to make our translation accessible and understandable, we, however, still resisted the temptation to use rude and vulgar words and phrases - the kind of vocabulary that usually appears in times of social upheaval - revolutions and unrest. We tried to convey the Message of Scripture in generally accepted, established words and in such expressions that would continue the good traditions of the old (now inaccessible) translations of the Bible into the native language of our compatriots.
In traditional Judaism and Christianity, the Bible is not only a historical document to be treasured, not only a literary monument to be admired and admired. This book was and remains a unique message about God’s proposed solution to human problems on earth, about the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, who opened the way for humanity to an ongoing life of peace, holiness, goodness and love. The news of this must be conveyed to our contemporaries in words directly addressed to them, in a language simple and close to their understanding. The translators of this edition of the New Testament and the Psalter did their work with prayer and hope that these sacred books, in their translation, will continue to support the spiritual life of readers of any age, helping them to understand the inspired Word and respond to it with faith.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
Less than two years have passed since the “New Testament in Modern Russian Translation” was published at the Mozhaisk Printing Plant by order of the Dialogue Educational Foundation. This publication was prepared by the Institute of Bible Translation in Zaoksky. It was received warmly and with approval by readers who love the Word of God, readers of different confessions. The translation was met with considerable interest by those who were just getting acquainted with the primary source of Christian doctrine, the most famous part of the Bible, the New Testament. Just a few months after the publication of The New Testament in Modern Russian Translation, the entire circulation was sold out, and orders for the publication continued to arrive. Encouraged by this, the Institute of Bible Translation in Zaoksky, whose main goal was and remains to promote the familiarization of compatriots with the Holy Scriptures, began to prepare the second edition of this Book. Of course, at the same time, we could not help but think that the translation of the New Testament prepared by the Institute, like any other translation of the Bible, needed to be checked and discussed with readers, and this is where our preparations for the new edition began.
After the first edition, the Institute, along with numerous positive reviews, received valuable constructive suggestions from attentive readers, including theologians and linguists, who prompted us to make the second edition, if possible, more popular, naturally, without compromising the accuracy of the translation. At the same time, we tried to solve such problems as: a thorough revision of the translation we had previously made; improvements, where necessary, of the stylistic plan and easy-to-read design of the text. Therefore, in the new edition, compared to the previous one, there are significantly fewer footnotes (footnotes that had not so much practical as theoretical significance have been removed). The previous letter designation of footnotes in the text has been replaced by an asterisk for the word (expression) to which a note is given at the bottom of the page.
In this edition, in addition to the books of the New Testament, the Institute of Bible Translation publishes its new translation of the Psalter - the very book of the Old Testament that our Lord Jesus Christ loved to read and often referred to during His life on earth. Over the centuries, thousands and thousands of Christians, as well as Jews, have considered the Psalter to be the heart of the Bible, finding for themselves in this Book a source of joy, consolation and spiritual insight.
The translation of the Psalter is from the standard scholarly edition Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (Stuttgart, 1990). A.V. took part in the preparation of the translation. Bolotnikov, I.V. Lobanov, M.V. Opiyar, O.V. Pavlova, S.A. Romashko, V.V. Sergeev.
The Institute of Bible Translation offers to the attention of the widest circle of readers “The New Testament and Psalter in the Modern Russian Translation” with due humility and at the same time with confidence that God still has new light and truth ready to illuminate those who read His holy words. We pray that, with the blessing of the Lord, this translation will serve as a means to achieve this goal.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
Meeting any new translation of the books of Holy Scripture gives rise to any serious reader a natural question about its necessity, justification and an equally natural desire to understand what can be expected from new translators. This circumstance dictates the following introductory lines.
The appearance of Christ in our world marked the beginning of a new era in the life of mankind. God entered history and established a deeply personal relationship with each of us, making it abundantly clear that He is on our side and doing everything He can to save us from evil and destruction. All of this was revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The world was given in Him the utmost possible revelation of God about Himself and about man. This revelation shocks with its greatness: the One who was seen by people as a simple carpenter, who ended his days on a shameful cross, created the whole world. His life did not begin in Bethlehem. No, He is “He who was, who is, and who is to come.” It's hard to imagine.
And yet all sorts of people have steadily come to believe it. They were discovering that Jesus was God who lived among them and for them. Soon people of the new faith began to realize that He lives in them and that He has the answer to all their needs and aspirations. This meant that they acquired a new vision of the world, themselves and their future, a new experience of life unknown to them before.
Those who believed in Jesus were eager to share their faith with others, to tell everyone on earth about Him. These first ascetics, among whom were direct witnesses of the events, put the life story and teaching of Christ Jesus into a vivid, well-remembered form. They created the Gospels; in addition, they wrote letters (which became “messages” for us), sang songs, said prayers and recorded the Divine revelation given to them. To a superficial observer it might seem that everything written about Christ by His first disciples and followers was not specially organized by anyone: all this was born more or less arbitrarily. Over the course of just fifty years, these texts formed an entire Book, which later received the name “New Testament.”
In the process of creating and reading, collecting and organizing written materials, the first Christians, who experienced the great saving power of these sacred manuscripts, came to the clear conclusion that all their efforts were guided and directed by Someone Mighty and Omniscient - the Holy Spirit of God Himself. They saw that there was nothing accidental in what they recorded, that all the documents that made up the New Testament were in deep internal interconnection. Boldly and decisively, the first Christians could and did call the resulting body of knowledge “the Word of God.”
A remarkable feature of the New Testament was that its entire text was written in simple, colloquial Greek, which at that time spread throughout the Mediterranean and became an international language. However, for the most part, “it was spoken by people who were not accustomed to it from childhood and therefore did not truly feel Greek words.” In their practice, “it was a language without soil, a business, trade, service language.” Pointing to this state of affairs, the outstanding Christian thinker and writer of the 20th century K.S. Lewis adds: “Does this shock us? I hope not; otherwise we should have been shocked by the Incarnation itself. The Lord humiliated Himself when he became a baby in the arms of a peasant woman and an arrested preacher, and according to the same Divine plan, the word about Him sounded in popular, everyday, everyday language.” For this very reason, the early followers of Jesus, in their testimony about Him, in their preaching and in their translations of the Holy Scriptures, sought to convey the Good News of Christ in a simple language that was close to the people and understandable to them.
Happy are the peoples who have received the Holy Scriptures in a worthy translation from the original languages into their native language that is understandable to them. They have this Book that can be found in every family, even the poorest. Among such peoples, it became not only, in fact, prayerful and pious, soul-saving reading, but also that family book that illuminated their entire spiritual world. This is how the stability of society, its moral strength and even material well-being were created.
Providence wished that Russia would not be left without the Word of God. With great gratitude we, Russians, honor the memory of Cyril and Methodius, who gave us the Holy Scriptures in the Slavic language. We also preserve the reverent memory of the workers who introduced us to the Word of God through the so-called Synodal translation, which to this day remains the most authoritative and best known among us. The point here is not so much in his philological or literary characteristics, but in the fact that he remained with Russian Christians throughout the difficult times of the 20th century. It was largely thanks to him that the Christian faith was not completely eradicated in Russia.
The Synodal translation, however, with all its undoubted advantages, is not considered today to be completely satisfactory due to its well-known (obvious not only to specialists) shortcomings. The natural changes that have occurred in our language over more than a century, and the long absence of religious education in our country, have made these shortcomings sharply noticeable. The vocabulary and syntax of this translation are no longer accessible to direct, so to speak, “spontaneous” perception. In many cases, the modern reader can no longer do without dictionaries in his efforts to comprehend the meaning of certain translation formulas that were published in 1876. This circumstance responds, of course, to a rationalistic “cooling” of the perception of that text, which, being by its nature uplifting, should not only be understood, but also experienced by the whole being of the pious reader.
Of course, to make a perfect translation of the Bible “for all times,” a translation that would remain equally understandable and close to readers of an endless series of generations, is impossible, as they say, by definition. And this is not only because the development of the language we speak is unstoppable, but also because over time the very penetration into the spiritual treasures of the great Book becomes more complex and enriched as more and more new approaches to them are discovered. This was rightly pointed out by Archpriest Alexander Men, who saw the meaning and even the need for an increase in the number of Bible translations. He, in particular, wrote: “Today pluralism dominates in the world practice of biblical translations. Recognizing that any translation is, to one degree or another, an interpretation of the original, translators use a variety of techniques and language settings... This allows readers to experience the different dimensions and shades of the text.”
In line with precisely this understanding of the problem, the staff of the Institute of Bible Translation, created in 1993 in Zaokskoe, considered it possible to make an attempt to make a feasible contribution to the cause of familiarizing the Russian reader with the text of the New Testament. Driven by a high sense of responsibility for the work to which they devoted their knowledge and energy, the project participants completed a real translation of the New Testament into Russian from the original language, taking as a basis the widely recognized modern critical text of the original (4th expanded edition of the United Bible Societies, Stuttgart , 1994). At the same time, on the one hand, the characteristic orientation towards Byzantine sources, characteristic of the Russian tradition, was taken into account, on the other hand, the achievements of modern textual criticism were taken into account.
The employees of the Zaoksk Translation Center could, naturally, take into account in their work foreign and domestic experience in Bible translation. In accordance with the principles that guide Bible societies around the world, the translation was originally intended to be free from denominational bias. In accordance with the philosophy of modern biblical societies, the most important requirements for translation were fidelity to the original and preservation of the form of the biblical message wherever possible, with a willingness to sacrifice the letter of the text for the sake of an accurate transmission of the living meaning. At the same time, it was impossible, of course, not to go through those torments that are completely inevitable for any responsible translator of the Holy Scriptures. For the inspiration of the original obliged us to treat its very form with reverence. At the same time, in the course of their work, the translators had to constantly convince themselves of the validity of the thought of the great Russian writers that only the translation that, first of all, correctly conveys the meaning and dynamics of the original can be considered adequate. The desire of the staff of the Institute in Zaoksky to be as close to the original as possible coincided with what V.G. once said. Belinsky: “Closeness to the original consists in conveying not the letter, but the spirit of the creation... The corresponding image, as well as the corresponding phrase, does not always consist in the visible correspondence of the words.” A glance at other modern translations that convey the biblical text with harsh literalness made us recall the famous statement of A.S. Pushkin: “Interlinear translation can never be correct.”
At all stages of the work, the Institute’s team of translators was aware that no real translation could equally satisfy all the diverse requirements of different readers. Nevertheless, the translators strove for a result that could, on the one hand, satisfy those who turn to Scripture for the first time, and on the other, satisfy those who, seeing the Word of God in the Bible, are engaged in its in-depth study.
This translation, addressed to the modern reader, uses mainly words, phrases and idioms that are in common circulation. Outdated and archaic words and expressions are allowed only to the extent that they are necessary to convey the flavor of the story and to adequately represent the semantic nuances of the phrase. At the same time, it was found expedient to refrain from using highly modern, transient vocabulary and the same syntax, so as not to violate the regularity, natural simplicity and organic majesty of presentation that distinguish the metaphysically non-vain text of Scripture.
The biblical message is of decisive importance for the salvation of every person and, in general, for his entire Christian life. This Message is not a simple account of facts, events, and a straightforward exhortation of commandments. She is capable of touching human heart, to induce the reader and listener to empathy, to arouse in them the need for living and sincere repentance. Zaoksky's translators saw their task as conveying such power of the biblical narrative.
In cases where the meaning individual words or expressions in the lists of books of the Bible that have come down to us do not, despite all efforts, lend themselves to a definite reading, the reader is offered the most convincing, in the translators’ opinion, reading.
In an effort to achieve clarity and stylistic beauty of the text, translators introduce into it, when the context dictates, words that are not in the original (they are marked in italics).
Footnotes offer the reader alternative meanings for individual words and phrases in the original.
To assist the reader, chapters of the biblical text are divided into separate meaningful passages, which are provided with subheadings in italics. While not part of the text being translated, subtitles are not intended for oral reading or interpretation of Scripture.
Having completed their first experience of translating the Bible into modern Russian, the staff of the Institute in Zaoksky intend to continue searching for the best approaches and solutions in transmitting the original text. Therefore, everyone involved in the appearance of the translation will be grateful to our dear readers for any help that they find possible to provide with their comments, advice and wishes aimed at improving the text currently proposed for subsequent reprints.
The staff of the Institute are grateful to those who helped them with their prayers and advice throughout the years of work on translating the New Testament. V.G. should be especially noted here. Vozdvizhensky, S.G. Mikushkina, I.A. Orlovskaya, S.A. Romashko and V.V. Sergeev.
The participation in the now implemented project of a number of Western colleagues and friends of the Institute, in particular W. Iles, D.R., was extremely valuable. Spangler and Dr. K.G. Hawkins.
For me personally, it was a great blessing to work on the published translation together with highly qualified employees who devoted themselves entirely to this work, such as A.V. Bolotnikov, M.V. Boryabina, I.V. Lobanov and some others.
If the work done by the Institute’s team helps someone in knowing our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, this will be the highest reward for everyone who was involved in this translation.
January 30, 2000
Director of the Institute of Bible Translation in Zaoksky, Doctor of Theology M. P. Kulakov
EXPLANATIONS, CONVENTIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS
This translation of the New Testament is made from the Greek text, mainly from the 4th edition of The Greek New Testament. 4th revision edition. Stuttgart, 1994. The translation of the Psalter is from the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (Stuttgart, 1990).
The Russian text of this translation is divided into semantic passages with subtitles. Subheadings in italics, although not part of the text, are introduced to make it easier for the reader to find the right place in the proposed translation.
In the Psalter, the word “LORD” is written in small capital letters in cases where this word conveys the name of God - Yahweh, written in Hebrew with four consonant letters (Tetragrammaton). The word “Lord” in its usual spelling conveys another address (Adon or Adonai), used in relation to both God and people in the meaning of “Lord”, friend. trans.: Lord; see in Dictionary Lord.
In square brackets contains words whose presence in the text is considered not fully proven by modern biblical studies.
In double square brackets contain words that modern biblical scholarship considers to be insertions into the text made in the first centuries.
Bold Quotes from the books of the Old Testament are highlighted. In this case, poetic passages are located in the text with the necessary indents and breakdowns in order to adequately represent the structure of the passage. A note at the bottom of the page gives the address of the citation.
Words in italics are actually absent from the original text, but the inclusion of which seems justified, since they are implied in the development of the author’s thoughts and help to clarify the meaning inherent in the text.
An asterisk raised above the line after a word (phrase) indicates a note at the bottom of the page.
Individual footnotes are given with the following abbreviations:
Lit.(literally): formally accurate translation. It is given in cases where, for the sake of clarity and a more complete disclosure of the meaning in the main text, it is necessary to deviate from a formally accurate rendering. At the same time, the reader is given the opportunity to get closer to the original word or phrase and see possible translation options.
In meaning(in meaning): given when a word translated literally in the text requires, in the translator’s opinion, an indication of its special semantic connotation in a given context.
In some manuscripts(in some manuscripts): used when quoting textual variants in Greek manuscripts.
Greek(Greek): used when it is important to show which Greek word is used in the original text. The word is given in Russian transcription.
Ancient lane(ancient translations): used when you need to show how a particular passage of the original was understood by ancient translations, perhaps based on another original text.
Friend. possible lane(another possible translation): given as another, although possible, but, in the opinion of the translators, less substantiated translation.
Friend. reading(other reading): given when, with a different arrangement of signs denoting vowel sounds, or with a different sequence of letters, a reading different from the original, but supported by other ancient translations, is possible.
Heb.(Hebrew): used when it is important to show which word is used in the original. Often it is impossible to convey it adequately, without semantic losses, into Russian, so many modern translations introduce this word in transliteration into the native language.
Or: used when the note provides another, sufficiently substantiated translation.
Nekot. manuscripts are added(some manuscripts add): given when a number of copies of the New Testament or Psalter, not included in the body of the text by modern critical editions, contain an addition to what is written, which, most often, is included in the Synodal translation.
Nekot. manuscripts are omitted(some manuscripts are omitted): given when a number of copies of the New Testament or Psalter, not included in the body of the text by modern critical editions, do not contain an addition to what was written, but in a number of cases this addition is included in the Synodal translation.
Masoretic text: text accepted as the basis for translation; a footnote is given when, for a number of textual reasons: the meaning of the word is unknown, the original text is corrupted, the translation has to deviate from the literal rendering.
TR(textus receptus) - an edition of the Greek text of the New Testament prepared by Erasmus of Rotterdam in 1516 based on lists of the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire. Until the 19th century this publication served as the basis for a number of famous translations.
LXX- Septuagint, translation of the Holy Scriptures (Old Testament) into Greek, made in the 3rd-2nd centuries. BC References to this translation are given from the 27th edition of Nestlé-Aland. Novum Testamentum Graece. 27. revidierte Auflage 1993. Stuttgart.
ABBREVIATIONS USED
OLD TESTAMENT (OT)
Life - Genesis
Exodus - Exodus
Leo - Levite
Number - Numbers
Deut - Deuteronomy
Joshua - Book of Joshua
1 Samuel - First Book of Samuel
2 Kings - Second Book of Kings
1 Kings - Third Book of Kings
2 Kings - The Fourth Book of Kings
1 Chronicles - 1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles - 2 Chronicles
Job - Book of Job
Ps - Psalter
Proverbs - Book of Proverbs of Solomon
Ekkl - Book of Ecclesiastes, or Preacher (Ecclesiastes)
Is - Book of the Prophet Isaiah
Jer - Book of the Prophet Jeremiah
Lamentations - Book of Lamentations of Jeremiah
Eze - Book of the Prophet Ezekiel
Dan - Book of the Prophet Daniel
Hos - Book of the Prophet Hosea
Joel - Book of the Prophet Joel
Am - Book of the Prophet Amos
Jonah - Book of the Prophet Jonah
Micah - Book of the Prophet Micah
Nahum - Book of the Prophet Nahum
Habak - Book of the Prophet Habakkuk
Hagg - Book of the Prophet Haggai
Zech - Book of the Prophet Zechariah
Mal - Book of the prophet Malachi
NEW TESTAMENT (NT)
Matthew - Gospel according to Matthew (Holy gospel from Matthew)
Mark - Gospel according to Mark (Holy gospel from Mark)
Luke - Gospel according to Luke (Holy gospel from Luke)
John - Gospel according to John (Holy gospel from John)
Acts - Acts of the Apostles
Rome - Epistle to the Romans
1 Cor - First Epistle to the Corinthians
2 Cor - Second Epistle to the Corinthians
Gal - Epistle to the Galatians
Eph - Epistle to the Ephesians
Philippians - Epistle to the Philippians
Col - Epistle to the Colossians
1 Thess - First Epistle to the Thessalonians
2 Thess - Second Epistle to the Thessalonians
1 Tim - First Timothy
2 Tim - Second Timothy
Titus - Epistle to Titus
Hebrews - Epistle to the Hebrews
James - Epistle of James
1 Peter - First Epistle of Peter
2 Peter - Second Epistle of Peter
1 John - First Epistle of John
Revelation - Revelation of John the Theologian (Apocalypse)
OTHER ABBREVIATIONS
ap. - apostle
aram. - Aramaic
V. (centuries) - century (centuries)
g - gram
year(s) - year(s)
Ch. - head
Greek - Greek language)
other - ancient
euro - Hebrew (language)
km - kilometer
l - liter
m - meter
note - note
R.H. - Nativity
Rome. - Roman
Syn. lane - Synodal translation
cm - centimeter
see - look
Art. - poem
Wed - compare
those. - that is
so-called - so-called
h. - hour
1 Judge not, lest ye be judged,
2 For with the judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the plank that is in your own eye?
4 Or how will you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” but behold, there is a plank in your eye?
5 Hypocrite! First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see how to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
6 Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.
7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you;
8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
9 Is there a man among you who, when his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?
10 And when he asks for a fish, would you give him a snake?
11 If you therefore, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him.
12 Therefore in everything that you would have people do to you, do so to them, for this is the law and the prophets.
13 Enter ye in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go in thereat;
14 For narrow is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few find it.
15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
16 By their fruits you will know them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
21 Not everyone who says to Me: “Lord! Lord!” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Heavenly Father.
22 Many will say to Me on that day: Lord! God! Have we not prophesied in Your name? and was it not in Your name that they cast out demons? and did they not perform many miracles in Your name?
23 And then I will declare to them: I never knew you; Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.
24 Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them will be likened to a wise man, who built his house on the rock;
25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it did not fall, because it was founded on rock.
26 But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand;
27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and he fell, and his fall was great.
28 And when Jesus had finished saying these words, the people marveled at his teaching,
29 For He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes and Pharisees.
1 Knot and log; 6 pearls before swine; 7 prayer for the good gifts of God. 12 Do to others what you would have them do to you. 13 The narrow gate to life. 15 False prophets; “According to their fruits...” 21 “Not everyone who says: Lord! Lord..." 24 The prudent and foolish builder. 28 Jesus teaches as one who has authority.
1 Judge not lest ye be judged,
2 for by what judgment do you judge, like this you will be judged; and with what measure do you measure, like this and they will measure you.
3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not feel the plank in your own eye?
4 Or how will you say to your brother: “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” but behold, there is a beam in your eye?
5 Hypocrite! First take the beam out of your eye and then you will see How take the speck out of your brother's eye.
6 Do not give holy things to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces..
7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you;
8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened..
9 Is there a man among you who, when his son asks him for bread, would give him a stone?
10 and when he asks for a fish, would you give him a snake?
11 So if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?.
12 Therefore, in everything that you want people to do to you, do so to them, for this is the law and the prophets..
13 Enter in at the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go therein.;
14 for narrow is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few find it.
15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves..
16 By their fruits you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit..
18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit..
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire..
20 So by their fruits you will know them.
21 Not everyone who says to Me: “Lord! Lord!” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Heavenly Father.
22 Many will say to Me on that day: “Lord! God! Have we not prophesied in Your name? and was it not in Your name that they cast out demons? and didn’t they do many miracles in Your name?”
23 And then I will declare to them: “I never knew you; Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.".
24 Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.;
25 and the rain fell, and the rivers overflowed, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it did not fall, because it was founded on rock..
26 But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.;
27 and the rain fell, and the rivers overflowed, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and he fell, and his fall was great.
28 And when Jesus had finished saying these words, the people marveled at his teaching,
29 For He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes and Pharisees.
Found an error in the text? Select it and press: Ctrl + Enter
Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7
Similar articles
The best amulets against the evil eye and damage Amulet against the evil eye with hands for children
How to read the Psalter correctly
Delicious dishes with sausages
A glimpse of Bella. Romantic chronicle. A glimpse of genius. Messerer about Akhmadulina Boris Messerer glimpse of Bella romantic chronicle
I dreamed that I was sailing on a boat on the river
How to cook beef entrecote in a frying pan
About the company Foreign language courses at Moscow State University
Which city and why became the main one in Ancient Mesopotamia?
Why Bukhsoft Online is better than a regular accounting program!
Which year is a leap year and how to calculate it