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Matthew 7:6-14
New American Bible (Revised Edition)

Pearls Before Swine. 6 “Do not give what is holy to dogs,[a] or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.(A)

The Answer to Prayers. 7 (B)“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.(C) 8 For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.(D) 9 Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread,[b] 10 or a snake when he asks for a fish? 11 If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.(E)

The Golden Rule. 12 [c]“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.(F) This is the law and the prophets.

The Narrow Gate. 13 [d]“Enter through the narrow gate;[e] for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many.(G) 14 How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.

False Prophets.[f]

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Footnotes

  1. 7:6 Dogs and swine were Jewish terms of contempt for Gentiles. This saying may originally have derived from a Jewish Christian community opposed to preaching the gospel (what is holy, pearls) to Gentiles. In the light of Mt 28:19 that can hardly be Matthew’s meaning. He may have taken the saying as applying to a Christian dealing with an obstinately impenitent fellow Christian (Mt 18:17).
  2. 7:9–10 There is a resemblance between a stone and a round loaf of bread and between a serpent and the scaleless fish called barbut.
  3. 7:12 See Lk 6:31. This saying, known since the eighteenth century as the “Golden Rule,” is found in both positive and negative form in pagan and Jewish sources, both earlier and later than the gospel. This is the law and the prophets is an addition probably due to the evangelist.
  4. 7:13–28 The final section of the discourse is composed of a series of antitheses, contrasting two kinds of life within the Christian community, that of those who obey the words of Jesus and that of those who do not. Most of the sayings are from Q and are found also in Luke.
  5. 7:13–14 The metaphor of the “two ways” was common in pagan philosophy and in the Old Testament. In Christian literature it is found also in the Didache (1–6) and the Epistle of Barnabas (18–20).
  6. 7:15–20 Christian disciples who claimed to speak in the name of God are called prophets (Mt 7:15) in Mt 10:41; Mt 23:34. They were presumably an important group within the church of Matthew. As in the case of the Old Testament prophets, there were both true and false ones, and for Matthew the difference could be recognized by the quality of their deeds, the fruits (Mt 7:16). The mention of fruits leads to the comparison with trees, some producing good fruit, others bad.
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Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.