Matthew 7
Do not judge; then the narrow gate and the two kinds of fruit. The sermon closes with two houses — one on rock, one on sand.
So that you may not be judged — the passive does not say by whom.
With the measure you measure — the same words as Mark 4:24.
Speck of chaff (κάρφος, karphos) is a dry stalk or splinter; beam (δοκός, dokos) is a roof timber. The pair is a joke on scale.
Why this rendering
Matt.7.3 Observation
Syntactic observation
κάρφος is a dry twig or speck of chaff; δοκός is a roof-beam. Both occur only at Matthew 7:3, 4, 5 and Luke 6:41, 42, and nowhere in Mark or John — in each book they are shut inside a single paragraph, and it is the same saying. Being both of wood, the contrast rests on size alone: the smallest and the largest thing of one material. The verbs divide too — what is in the other's eye you βλέπεις, see; what is in your own you οὐ κατανοεῖς, do not notice. Seeing and noticing are different words. In v.5 the verb of resolution is διαβλέψεις, you will see clearly — the verb of Mark 8:25, where the blind man touched twice saw distinctly — three places in the four Gospels (Matt 7:5, Mark 8:25, Luke 6:42), and Luke uses it in this same paragraph.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Chooses words of one material so the contrast rests on size; a mote erases the material and keeps only the size.
Basis Uses the settled rendering.
Rejected A mote is closer to dust, so the wood disappears — and with it the structure by which the two words are the extremes of one material.
Let me take — the Greek is a polite request, which makes the picture worse.
Hypocrite names a stage actor — one who speaks from under a mask.
Dogs and pigs are the two unclean animals of the four Gospels; the word for dog here is not the diminutive of Mark 7:27.
Why this rendering
Matt.7.6 Observation
Syntactic observation
The word here is κύων, dog, while the word in the exchange with the Syrophoenician woman at Matthew 15:26-27 and Mark 7:27-28 is κυνάριον, little dog — the plain form against the diminutive. The three books divide three ways: Matthew uses both (κύων at 7:6, κυνάριον at 15:26-27), Mark only κυνάριον (7:27-28), and Luke only κύων (16:21, the dogs licking Lazarus' sores). So the two places are different words even inside Matthew, and keeping 개 and 강아지 apart in Korean shows the difference. The sentence is a chiasm: the holy — dogs, the pearls — pigs. But the clause that follows takes them up in reverse: trampling (the pigs) and then tearing (the dogs), so the fourth element loops back to the first. And after μήποτε one verb is future indicative (καταπατήσουσιν) and the other aorist subjunctive (ῥήξωσιν) — the place SBLGNT marks. SBLGNT marks a variant in this verse (⸀καταπατήσουσιν).
Rendering options · 2
Basis Renders the diminutive and the plain form differently. 강아지 was already fixed for Mark 7:27-28, so that stands and this place is separated from it.
Basis One animal, one word.
Rejected Matthew used two words and Mark one. Merging them blurs the scene in ch. 15 where the woman takes up the diminutive, and erases the lexical difference between the two authors.
Ask, seek, knock — three imperatives in the present, which in Greek means to keep on doing them.
Verse 7 is put again with the persons changed from “you” to “everyone”.
Bread … a stone — the pair looks alike, which is the point.
A fish … a snake — the second pair of look-alikes.
Being evil — said in passing, without argument, of the hearers.
This is the law and the prophets — the same pair as 5:17, closing the middle of the sermon.
Destruction (ἀπώλεια, apōleia) is a loss or ruin word, from the verb “to lose”.
Why this rendering
Matt.7.13 Observation
Syntactic observation
There are two pictures — πύλη, a gate, and ὁδός, a road. A gate is one place, a road goes on; so whether the narrowness attaches to a single passage or to continued walking is split between two words. πύλη occurs four times in Matthew (7:13 twice, 7:14, 16:18), once in Luke (7:12, the gate of Nain) and not at all in Mark. εὐρύχωρος itself occurs once in all four Gospels — here. Verses 13 and 14 mirror each other: wide gate, wide road, destruction, many ↔ narrow gate, pressed road, life, few. The τεθλιμμένη of v.14 is the perfect passive participle of θλίβω, to press or squeeze — not narrow but pressed upon; a different word from the στενή of v.13. Matthew uses στενή of both gates and gives the two roads εὐρύχωρος, spacious, and τεθλιμμένη, pressed. And πλατεῖα ἡ πύλη in v.13 carries SBLGNT's ⸂⸃ marks. SBLGNT marks a variant in this verse (⸂ἡ πύλη⸃).
Rendering options · 2
Basis Matthew gives gate and road different adjectives, so the renderings differ; the perfect passive of τεθλιμμένη is kept.
Basis Smooths the parallel.
Rejected Smoothness costs one of the two words. τεθλιμμένη speaks of pressure, not width, and its root returns as θλῖψις, tribulation, at Matthew 24:9 and 21 — θλῖψις stands at four in Matthew, three in Mark, two in John and none in Luke — the picture of a road under pressure runs that way.
Pressed (θλίβω, thlibō) is the crowding-word behind the noun for affliction.
Ravenous (ἅρπαξ, harpax) is from the verb for snatching away.
Recognise (ἐπιγινώσκω, epiginōskō) is a knowing-upon, a recognition.
Rotten (σαπρός, sapros) is a word for spoiled fish or fruit, not simply “bad”.
The line is verse 17 turned into an impossibility.
The words are John's at 3:10, repeated here without change.
So then — verse 16 is repeated to close the paragraph.
Lord, Lord — the doubling is a form of address, and the sentence turns against it.
On that day — the day is not named.
Lawlessness (ἀνομία, anomia) is a word built on “law” with a negative — this book uses it four times.
Prudent (φρόνιμος, phronimos) is practical good sense, not learning. In this book the house is built on the rock; Luke 6:48 says the builder dug deep.
Fell against — the verb is not the one used in verse 27, and this edition keeps them apart.
Foolish (μωρός, mōros) is the word behind “moron” — and the word of 5:22.
Why this rendering
Matt.7.26 Observation
Syntactic observation
The last parable of the sermon calls a man μωρός — and this root is here for the third time in the sermon. At 5:13 salt that μωρανθῇ, becomes foolish, is good for nothing; at 5:22 calling a brother Μωρέ, fool, brings liability to Gehenna; at 7:26 the one who hears these words and does not do them is likened to an ἀνὴρ μωρός, a foolish man. The name one was forbidden to use returns at the end as the sermon's own verdict. μωρός occurs six times in Matthew and never in the other three books — in the four Gospels the word is Matthew's alone. Its opposite φρόνιμος, prudent, stands seven times in Matthew and twice in Luke, and never in Mark. The two house-stories are symmetrical to the word, with one place out of step — the house of v.24 receives προσέπεσαν, they fell against it, and the house of v.27 προσέκοψαν, they struck against it. SBLGNT marks a variant in this verse (⸂αὐτοῦ οἰκίαν⸃).
Rendering options · 2
Basis Renders all three with one root so the sermon can be seen closing on its own word.
Basis Chooses what suits each place.
Rejected That the three share a root is part of the sermon's fabric. To see the address forbidden at 5:22 return as the parable's name at 7:26, the renderings must match.
Struck against (προσκόπτω, proskoptō) is a harder verb than the one in verse 25.
When Jesus had finished these words — the formula that closes each of this book's five great speeches (also 11:1, 13:53, 19:1, 26:1).
Their scribes — the same line as Mark 1:22, with “their” added.
Why this rendering
Matt.7.29 Observation
Syntactic observation
This sentence matches Mark 1:22 word for word. Mark: ἐξεπλήσσοντο ἐπὶ τῇ διδαχῇ αὐτοῦ, ἦν γὰρ διδάσκων αὐτοὺς ὡς ἐξουσίαν ἔχων καὶ οὐχ ὡς οἱ γραμματεῖς. Matthew 7:28-29: ἐξεπλήσσοντο οἱ ὄχλοι ἐπὶ τῇ διδαχῇ αὐτοῦ· ἦν γὰρ διδάσκων αὐτοὺς ὡς ἐξουσίαν ἔχων καὶ οὐχ ὡς οἱ γραμματεῖς αὐτῶν. Two differences only — Matthew names the astonished as οἱ ὄχλοι, the crowds, and adds αὐτῶν, their, to the scribes. Overlaps this long between the two books are rare in the four Gospels and are directly verifiable by collation. Luke 4:32 opens the same way (ἐξεπλήσσοντο ἐπὶ τῇ διδαχῇ αὐτοῦ) but ends otherwise — ὅτι ἐν ἐξουσίᾳ ἦν ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ, with no scribes at all. Only Matthew and Mark give the authority someone to be measured against. The settings differ: in Mark it follows a first teaching in a synagogue; in Matthew it closes a sermon spanning three chapters. And Matthew uses this closing formula (Καὶ ἐγένετο ὅτε ἐτέλεσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς…) as a frame he repeats five times in his book. SBLGNT marks a variant in this verse (⸀αὐτῶν.).
Rendering options · 2
Basis Where the two books share a sentence the renderings match, so the overlap is visible and only the two differing words stand out.
Basis Tidies a redundant possessive.
Rejected αὐτῶν is in Matthew and not in Mark — one of the only two points where the books differ here; dropping it erases the divergence.
Lost in translation
That the two books share a sentence is invisible to a reader of either one alone. This is why this edition renders both under one set of rules — and even so, the reader must set the two places side by side.