Matthew 7:6

Mat_7:6

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs.

Prudence necessary in conversing upon religious subjects

I. The bad characters and dispositions of some; men here represented by the allusion of dogs and swine.

1. We may be sure they are unworthy the powers and dignity of human nature. There are in their character-

(1) Stupid impunity;

(2) Stubborn forwardness. They snarl at admonitions.

2. How deplorably human nature is capable of being corrupted.

3. Watch against all tendencies towards the beginnings of these evil dispositions.

II. The necessity and reasonableness of treating the affairs of religion with caution and prudence in our conversing with others.

1. Since we know that sacred things are so liable to be abused by profane persons.

2. That it may be attended with bad consequences of ill treatment to ourselves-lest they turn again and rend you. (J. Abernethy, M. A.)

The dogs and the swine

The lesson is one of reverence and discretion.

I. As to the preaching of the gospel.

II. As to statements of spiritual experience.

III. As to the admission to sacred privileges and functions in the Church. (D. Fraser, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 7:6. Give not, &c. — Even when the beam is cast out of thine own eye. Give not that which is holy unto dogs — That is, talk not of the deep things of God to those whom you know to be wallowing in sin; neither declare the great things God hath done for your soul, to the profane, furious, persecuting wretches. Talk not of high degrees of holiness, for instance, to the former; nor of your own experience to the latter. But our Lord does in no wise forbid us to reprove, as occasion is, both the one and the other. There is a transposition in the latter clauses of this verse, where, of the two things proposed, the latter is first treated of. The sense is, Give not — to dogs — lest, turning, they rend you. Cast not — to swine, lest they trample them under their feet.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7:6 Rabbis often referred to important ideas or Scripture verses as pearls. The mysteries of the Kingdom (13:11) are holy (see Exod 29:33; Lev 2:3; 22:10-16; Num 18:8-10). • Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy: Literally Don’t give the sacred to dogs. Jews often referred to Gentiles as dogs (see Matt 15:26; see Ps 22:16, 20) or pigs because those animals were unclean (Lev 11). Some interpreters understand this statement as warning that the message of the Kingdom would not be well received by many Gentiles. Others see it as a warning about offering the message of the Kingdom to the resistant Jewish leaders (see Matt 5:20; 10:11-14; see also Heb 10:29) or to unbelievers in general (see Matt 18:17; see also 1 Cor 2:13-16; 2 Pet 2:21-22).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mat 7:6. Μὴ δῶτε, give not) Here we meet with the other extreme; for the two extremes are, to judge those who ought not to be judged, and to give holy things to the dogs. Too much severity and too much laxity.[303]—κυσὶ, χοίρων, dogs, swine) Dogs feed on their own filth, swine on that of others. See Gnomon on 2Pe 2:22; Php 3:2. The holy and dogs are put in opposition to each other in Exo 22:30;[304] a dog is not a wild beast, but yet it is an unclean animal.—ὑμῶν, your) An implied antitheton.[305] That which is holy is the property of GOD; pearls are the secret treasures of the faithful, intrusted to them by GOD.—ῥήξωσιν, rend) This also appears to refer to the swine.[306]—ὑμᾶς, you) From whom they expected something else, husks, etc.

[303] This admonition especially has regard to our daily conversation. When such things are set before them in public, such persons lightly pass over them.—V. g.

[304] This is the Hebrew notation. In the Septuagint, Vulgate, and English Version it is reckoned as the thirtieth. It runs thus—“And ye shall be HOLY men unto me; neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field: ye shall cast it to the DOGS.”—(I. B.)

[305] Sc. between you and swine.—(I. B.)

[306] Swine attack the pearls with their feet, the saints with their tusk. A well-disposed man is more than once apt to suppose, that what seems sacred and precious to him, ought to seem so to others also, until he learns, by experience of the contrary, to act with more caution.—V. g.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat_7:6. The endeavour to correct the faults of others must be confined within its proper limits, and not allowed to become a casting of holy things to the dogs. As is usual, however, in the case of apophthegms, this progress in the thought is not expressed by a particle (ἀλλά). To abandon the idea of connection (Maldonatus, de Wette, Tholuck), or to suppose (Kuinoel, Neander, Bleek; Weiss doubtful) that Mat_7:6-11, at least Mat_7:6, do not belong to this passage, is scarcely warranted.

τὸ ἅγιον] the holy, not the holy flesh, בְּשַׂר קֹדֶשׁ, Jer_11:15, Hag_2:12, the flesh of sacrifices (v. d. Hardt, Paulus, Tholuck), which, besides, would require to be more precisely designated, otherwise there would be just as much reason to suppose that the holy bread, לחם קדש (1Sa_21:5), or any other meat-offering (Lev_22:2), was meant. Christ has in view the holy in general, figuratively designating in the first clause only the persons, and then, in the second, the holy thing. What is meant by this, as also by τοὺς μαργαρίτας immediately after, is the holy, because divine evangelic, truth by which men are converted, and which, by τοὺς μαργαρ. ὑμῶν, is described as something of the highest value, as the precious jewel which is entrusted to the disciples as its possessors. For Arabian applications of this simile, comp. Gesenius in Rosenm. Rep. I. p. 128.

Dogs and swine, these impure and thoroughly despised animals, represent those men who are hardened and altogether incapable of receiving evangelic truth, and to whom the holy is utterly foreign and distasteful. The parallelism ought to have precluded the explanation that by both animals two different classes of men are intended (the snappish, as in Act_13:46; the filthy livers, Grotius).

μήποτε καταπ., κ.τ.λ., καὶ στραφέντες, κ.τ.λ.] applies to the swine, who are to be conceived of as wild animals, as may be seen from αὐτούς and the whole similitude, so that, as the warning proceeds, the figure of the dogs passes out of view, though, as matter of course, it admits of a corresponding application (Pricaeus, Maldonatus, Tholuck). But this is no reason why the words should be referred to both classes of animals, nor why the trampling should be assigned to the swine and στράφ. ῥήξ. to the dogs (Theophylact, Hammond, Calovius, Wolf, Kuinoel). For the future καταπ. (see the critical remarks), comp. note on Mar_14:2; Mat_13:15.

ἐν τοῖς ποσὶν αὐτ.] instrumental.

στραφέντες] not: having changed to an attitude of open hostility (Chrysostom, Euth. Zigabenus), or to savagery (Loesner), but manifestly, having turned round upon you from the pearls, which they have mistaken for food, and which, in their rage, they have trampled under their feet; the meaning of which is, lest such men profane divine truth (by blasphemy, mockery, calumny), and vent upon you their malicious feeling toward the gospel. In how many ways must the apostles have experienced this in their own case; for, their preaching being addressed to all, they would naturally, as a rule, have to see its effect on those who heard it before they could know who were dogs and swine, so as then to entice them no further with the offer of what is holy, but to shake off the dust, and so on. But the men here in view were to be found among Jews and Gentiles. It is foreign to the present passage (not so Mat_15:26) to suppose that only the Gentiles as such are referred to (Köstlin, Hilgenfeld).

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 7:6 . A complementary counsel . No connecting word introduces this sentence. Indeed the absence of connecting particles is noticeable throughout the chapter: Mat 7:1 ; Mat 7:6-7 ; Mat 7:13 ; Mat 7:15 . It is a collection of ethical pearls strung loosely together. Yet it is not difficult to suggest a connecting link, thus: I have said, “Judge not,” yet you must know people, else you will make great mistakes, such as, etc. Moral criticism is inevitable. Jesus Himself practised it. He judged the Pharisees, but in the interest of humanity, guided by the law of love. He judged the proud, pretentious, and cruel, in behalf of the weak and despised. All depends on what we judge and why. The Pharisaic motive was egotism; the right motive is defence of the downtrodden or, in certain cases, self -defence. So here . καταπατήσουσι : future well attested, vide critical note, with subjunctive, ῥήξωσι , in last clause; unusual combination, but not impossible. On the use of the future after μήποτε and other final particles, vide Burton, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses in N. T. Greek , § 199. τὸ ἅγιον , τοὺς μαργαρίτας : what is the holy thing, and what are the pearls? In a moral aphorism special indications are not to be expected, and we are left to our own conjectures. The “holy” and the “pearls” must define themselves for each individual in his own experience. They are the things which are sacred and precious for a man or woman, and which natural feeling teaches us to be careful not to waste or expose to desecration. For this purpose knowledge of the world, discrimination, is necessary. We must not treat all people alike, and show our valuables, religious experiences, best thoughts, tenderest sentiments, to the first comer. Shyness, reserve, goes along with sincerity, depth, refinement. In all shyness there is implicit judgment of the legitimate kind. A modest woman shrinks from a man whom her instinct discerns to be impure; a child from all hard-natured people. Who blames woman or child? It is but the instinct of self-preservation. κυσίν , χοίρων . The people to be feared and shunned are those represented by dogs and swine, regarded by Jews as shameless and unclean animals. There are such people, unhappily, even in the judgment of charity, and the shrewd know them and fight shy of them; for no good can come of comradeship with them. Discussions as to whether the dogs and the swine represent two classes of men, or only one, are pedantic. If not the same they are at least similar; one in this, that they are to be avoided. And it is gratuitous to limit the scope of the gnome to the apostles and their work in preaching the gospel. It applies to all citizens of the kingdom, to all who have a treasure to guard, a holy of holies to protect from profane intrusion. μήποτε , lest perchance. What is to be feared? καταπατήσουσιν , ῥήξωσιν : treading under foot ( ἐν τ . π ., instrumental , with, de Wette; among , Weiss) your pearls ( αὐτους ), rending yourselves. Here again there is trouble for the commentators as to the distribution of the trampling and rending between dogs and swine. Do both do both, or the swine both, or the swine the trampling and the dogs the rending? The latter is the view of Theophylact, and it has been followed by some moderns, including Achelis. On this view the structure of the sentence presents an example of ἐπάνοδος or ὑστέρησις , the first verb referring to the second subject and the second verb to the first subject. The dogs street dogs, without master, living on offal rend, because what you have thrown to them, perhaps to propitiate them, being of uncertain temper at the best, is not to their liking; the swine trample under foot what looked like peas or acorns, but turns out to be uneatable.

Before passing from these verses (Mat 7:1-6 ) two curious opinions may be noted. (1) That ἅγιον represents an Aramaic word meaning ear-ornaments, answering to pearls. This view, once favoured by Michaelis, Bolten, Kuinoel, etc., and thereafter discredited, has been revived by Holtzmann (H. C.). (2) That ὀφθαλμός (Mat 7:3 ; Mat 7:5 ) means, not the eye, but a village well . So Furrer. Strange, he says, that a man should need to be told by a neighbour that he has a mote in his eye, or that it should be a fault to propose to take it out! And what sense in the idea of a beam in the eye? But translate the Aramaic word used by Jesus, well , and all is clear and natural. A neighbour given to fault-finding sees a small impurity in a villager’s well and tauntingly offers to remove it. Meantime his own boys, in his absence, throw a beam into his own well ( Zeitsch. für M. und R. vide also Wanderungen , p. 222).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The stiffnecked and stubborn enemies of the Gospel are unworthy to have it preached unto them.

A pearl hath his name among the Grecians, for the orient brightness that is in it: and a pearl was in ancient time in great estimation among the Latins: for a pearl that Cleopatra had, was valued at two hundred and fifty thousand crowns, and the word is now borrowed from that, to signify the most precious heavenly doctrine.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs--savage or snarling haters of truth and righteousness.

neither cast ye your pearls before swine--the impure or coarse, who are incapable of appreciating the priceless jewels of Christianity. In the East, dogs are wilder and more gregarious, and, feeding on carrion and garbage, are coarser and fiercer than the same animals in the West. Dogs and swine, besides being ceremonially unclean, were peculiarly repulsive to the Jews, and indeed to the ancients generally.

lest they trample them under their feet--as swine do.

and turn again and rend you--as dogs do. Religion is brought into contempt, and its professors insulted, when it is forced upon those who cannot value it and will not have it. But while the indiscriminately zealous have need of this caution, let us be on our guard against too readily setting our neighbors down as dogs and swine, and excusing ourselves from endeavoring to do them good on this poor plea.

Prayer (Mat 7:7-11). Enough, one might think, had been said on this subject in Mat 6:5-15. But the difficulty of the foregoing duties seems to have recalled the subject, and this gives it quite a new turn. "How shall we ever be able to carry out such precepts as these, of tender, holy, yet discriminating love?" might the humble disciple inquire. "Go to God with it," is our Lord's reply; but He expresses this with a fulness which leaves nothing to be desired, urging now not only confidence, but importunity in prayer.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 6. Give not that which is holy] το αγιον, the holy or sacred thing; i.e. any thing, especially, of the sacrificial kind, which had been consecrated to God. The members of this sentence should be transposed thus: -

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs,

Lest they turn again and rend you:

Neither cast ye your pearls before swine,

Lest they trample them under their feet.

The propriety of this transposition is self-evident. There are many such transpositions as these, both in sacred and profane writers. The following is very remarkable: -

"I am black but comely;

"As the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon."

That is,

"I am black as the tents of Kedar,

"Comely as the curtains of Solomon."

See many proofs of this sort of writing in Mr. WAKEFIELD'S Commentary.

As a general meaning of this passage, we may just say: "The sacrament of the Lord's supper, and other holy ordinances which are only instituted for the genuine followers of Christ, are not to be dispensed to those who are continually returning like the snarling ill-natured dog to their easily predominant sins of rash judgment, barking at and tearing the characters of others by evil speaking, back biting and slandering; nor to him who, like the swine, is frequently returning to wallow in the mud of sensual gratifications and impurities."

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(6) That which is holy.—The words point to the flesh which has been offered for sacrifice, the “holy thing” of Lev_22:6-7; Lev_22:10; Lev_22:16, of which no un clean person or stranger, and à fortiori no unclean beast, was to eat. To give that holy flesh to dogs would have seemed to the devout Israelite the greatest of all profanations. Our Lord teaches us that there is a like risk of desecration in dealing with the yet holier treasure of divine truth. Another aspect of the same warning is brought out in the second clause. The fashion of the time had made pearls the costliest of all jewels, as in the parable of Mat_13:45 (comp. also 1Ti_2:9), and so they too became symbols of the preciousness of truth. The “dogs” and the “swine,” in their turn, represent distinct forms of evil, the former being here, as in Php_3:2, Rev_22:15, the type of impurity, the latter (as in Psa_80:13) of ferocity. The second comparison may possibly imply, as in a condensed fable, the disappointment and consequent rage of the swine at finding that what they took for grain was only pearls. We are to beware lest we so present the truth, either in direct teaching or by an undiscerning disclosure of the deeper religious emotions of the soul, to men, that we make them worse and not better than before.

We are met by the questions, Are we, then, to class our fellow-men under these heads, and to think of them as dogs and swine? Is not this to forget the previous teaching, and to judge with the harshest judgment? The answer to these questions must be found, we may believe, in thinking of the dogs and swine as representing not men and women as such, but the passions of this kind or that which make them brutish. So long as they identify themselves with those passions, we must deal cautiously and wisely with them. St. Paul did not preach the gospel to the howling mob at Ephesus, or to the “lewd fellows of the baser sort” at Thessalonica, and yet at another time he would have told any member of those crowds that he too had been redeemed, and might claim an inheritance among those who had been sanctified. We need, it might be added, to be on our guard against the brute element in ourselves not less than in others. There, too, we may desecrate the holiest truths by dealing with them in the spirit of irreverence, or passion, or may cynically jest with our own truest and noblest impulses.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(b) The Father’s love for the children of the Kingdom shewn by answering prayer, 7–11.

6. The connection between this verse and the preceding section is not quite obvious. It seems to be this. Although evil and censorious judgment is to be avoided, discrimination is needful. The Christian must be judicious, not judicial.

that which is holy] i. e. “spiritual truths.” Some have seen in the expression a reference to the holy flesh of the offering (Hag_2:12). But this allusion is very doubtful; see Meyer on this passage.

dogs … swine] Unclean animals; see the proverb quoted 2Pe_2:22; cp. Php_3:2, “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers;” also Hor. Ep. i. 2. 25, “vel canis immundus vel amica luto sus.” See note on ch. Mat_15:26.

pearls] The only gems mentioned in the Gospels, twice named by Jesus: here, where they signify the deepest spiritual thoughts of God and heaven, and ch. Mat_13:46, where “the pearl of great price” is the kingdom of heaven itself. The general sense is “use discrimination, discern between holy and unholy, between those who are receptive of these high truths and those who are not.” The profane will despise the gift and put the giver to shame. Want of common sense does great harm to religion.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Give not that which is holy to the dogs,.... Dogs were unclean creatures by the law; the price of one might not be brought into the house of the Lord, for a vow, Deu 23:18 yea, these creatures were not admitted into several temples of the Heathens (h). Things profane and unclean, as flesh torn by beasts, were ordered to be given to them, Exo 22:31 but nothing that was holy was to be given them, as holy flesh, or the holy oblations, or anything that was consecrated to holy uses; to which is the allusion here. It is a common maxim (i) with the Jews,

, "that they do not redeem holy things, to give to the dogs to eat".''

Here the phrase is used in a metaphorical sense; and is generally understood of not delivering or communicating the holy word of God, and the truths of the Gospel, comparable to pearls, or the ordinances of it, to persons notoriously vile and sinful: to men, who being violent and furious persecutors, and impudent blasphemers, are compared to "dogs"; or to such, who are scandalously vile, impure in their lives and conversations, and are therefore compared to swine;

neither cast ye your pearls before swine. But since the subject Christ is upon is reproof, it seems rather to be the design of these expressions, that men should be cautious, and prudent, in rebuking and admonishing such persons for their sins, in whom there is no appearance or hope of success; yea, where there is danger of sustaining loss;

lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you: that is, despise the admonitions and reproofs given, and hurt the persons who give them, either by words or deeds; see Pro 9:7. The Jews have some sayings much like these, and will serve to illustrate them (k);

, "do not cast pearls before swine", nor deliver wisdom to him, who knows not the excellency of it; for wisdom is better than pearls, and he that does not seek after it, is worse than a swine.''

(h) Vid. Alex. ab. Alex. Gaeial. Dier. l. 2. c. 14. (i) T. Bab. Temura, fol. 17. 1. & 31. 1. & 33. 2. Becorot, fol. 15. 1. Hieros. Pesachim, fol. 27. 4. & Maaser Sheni, fol. 53. 3. (k) Mischar Happeninim apud Buxtorf. Florileg. Heb. p. 306.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Ver. 6. Give not that which is holy to dogs, &c.] Having shown how, here our Saviour shows whom {a} we should admonish. Give not holy things, wholesome counsels or rebukes (called elsewhere "reproofs of life," Pro 15:31, precious balms, excellent ointments, which may heal a wound but make none, Psa 141:1) to dogs, that will not be taken by the ears; or swine, that if they light upon such a pearl, will only grunt and go their ways. "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers," Php 3:2, such especially as have wrought so hard, walked so far and so fast, that now they are set down to rest in the seat of the scornful. {b} Beware of such botches; there is no good to be done upon them, or to be gotten by them, but a great deal of danger. The Cynics admonished all they met; if men would not hearken, they counted it an easy loss to cast away a few words upon them. But our Saviour prescribeth us prudence and caution. He will not have holy speeches spent and spilt upon despisers, his pearls trampled on by swinish epicures. Mourn we may, with Jeremiah, {Jer 9:1} for such mad dogs as furiously fly in the face of them that fairly tell them of their faults. Pray we must and pity such sensual swine, such sottish and scurrilous wretches, as grunt against goodness, and feed insatiably upon the garbage of carnal contentments. {c} As dogs and swine were unclean creatures and unfit for sacrifice, so are those for admonition that would entertain it with cruelty or scurrility. "Speak not in the ears of a fool," saith Solomon, "for he will despise the wisdom of thy words," Pro 23:9. And again, "Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee; rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee," Pro 9:8. David prays for a friendly reprover, Psa 141:5. Job cries, {Job 13:23} "Make me to know my transgression and my sin." Hezekiah stormed not at that sharp and sad message, Isa 39:8. Jonah, though testy enough, lays his hand upon his mouth, and seals up his prophecy with silence after God’s reprehension. Tacuit virgo licet publice perstricta. The Virgin Mary held her peace, Joh 2:4, when her Son took her up so short for her forwardness, before all the company. So did St Peter, when St Paul took him up for halting at Antioch, Gal 2:14, and commendeth that epistle wherein St Paul had witnessed that reproof, among the rest, 2Pe 3:16. The two disciples going to Emmaus constrained that stranger that had chided them for their unbelief, to abide and eat with them, Luk 24:29. And lukewarm Laodicea, so roundly reproved and sorely threatened with shameful spewing out, repented, and was reformed; as some ground and gather from that title our Saviour assumes in the preface to the epistle, "the beginning of the creation of God." Eusebius also testifieth that there was a flourishing Church there in his days. {d} Next to the not deserving of a reproof, is the well taking of it. No sugar can deprive a pill of its bitterness. None but the gracious can say, "Let the righteous smite me." Bees only pass by roses and violets, and sit upon thyme, which is hot and biting. Most men, when we seek to fetch them out of their sins, to awaken them out of the snare of the devil, they fret and snarl, as those that are wakened out of sleep are apt to do. They snuff and take scorn, are as horse and mule, untameable, untractable; the more you rub their galled backs the more they kick. These stray asses will not be brought home, Exo 23:4-5. These old bottles will break with such new wine. The more you touch these toads, the more they swell; the more you meddle with these serpents, the more they gather poison to spit at you. Go about to cool them, you shall but add to their heat, as the smith’s forge fries when cold water is cast upon it; and as hot water if stirred casteth up the more fume. Joseph is for his good will in this kind hated of his brethren; Jonathan of Saul, who cast a javelin at him; Micaiah of Ahab, Amos of Amaziah, Jeremiah of his flagitious countrymen, Christ of the Jews, Paul of the Galatians, John Baptist of Herod. If John touch his white sin (and who will stand still to have his eyes picked out?) John must to prison. In other things he will dance after John’s pipe; but if his incest be meddled with, John must hop headless. Stay to wrest that string in tune, and it will snap and break upon you. Now for such scoffing Ishmaels and furious opposites, that refuse to be reformed, hate to be healed, let them read their doom, Psa 50:21-22, and see here their destiny. Every good man is bound in conscience to pass by them as incorrigible, irreformable, and not to afford them so much as a pull out of the fire, so much as a caveat to prevent those curses that are coming upon them. But he that is filthy must be filthy still; he must wallow as a swine, and perish in his own corruptions; he must rage as a mad dog, and run into the pit of hell, nobody must offer to stop or stay him in his career.

{a} Hinc illud monitum, Pythag. σιτιον εις αμισθα μη εμβαλλειν. Plut.

{b} Psa 1:1, εν καθεδρα των λοιμων. Sept.

{c} χοιρος, of χερας, filth. So porcus; quasi spurcus.

{d} Post tam gravem επιτιμιαν haud dubie resipuit. Pareus.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Give not that which is holy ... - By some the word “holy” has been supposed to mean “flesh offered in sacrifice,” made holy, or separated to a sacred use; but it probably means here “anything connected with religion” - admonition, precept, or doctrine. Pearls are precious stones found in shell-fish, chiefly in India, in the waters that surround Ceylon. They are used to denote anything especially precious, Rev 17:4; Rev 18:12-16; Mat 13:45. In this place they are used to denote the doctrines of the gospel. “Dogs” signify people who spurn, oppose, and abuse that doctrine; people of special sourness and malignity of temper, who meet it like growling and quarrelsome curs, Phi 3:2; 2Pe 2:22; Rev 22:15. “Swine” denote those who would trample the precepts underfoot; people of impurity of life; those who are corrupt, polluted, profane, obscene, and sensual; those who would not know the value of the gospel, and who would tread it down as swine would pearls, 2Pe 2:22; Pro 11:22. The meaning of this proverb, then, is, do not offer your doctrine to those violent and abusive people who would growl and curse you; nor to those especially debased and profligate who would not perceive its value, would trample it down, and would abuse you. This verse furnishes a beautiful instance of what has been called the “introverted parallelism.” The usual mode of poetry among the Hebrews, and a common mode of expression in proverbs and apothegms, was by the parallelism, where one member of a sentence answered to another, or expressed substantially the same sense with some addition or modification. See the Introduction to the Book of Job. Sometimes this was alternate, and sometimes it was introverted - where the first and fourth lines would correspond, and the second and third. This is the case here. The dogs would tear, and not the swine; the swine would trample the pearls under their feet, and not the dogs. It may be thus expressed:

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs,

Neither cast ye your pearls before swine,

Lest they (that is, the swine) trample them under their feet,

And turn again (that is, the dogs) and rend you.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Give not that which is holy, holy things, (as in the Greek) to dogs; i.e. to scandalous libertines, or infidels, who are not worthy to partake of divine mysteries and sacraments, who sacrilegiously abuse them, and trample them under their feet, as hogs do pearls. (Witham) --- The sacred mysteries should not be given to those that are not properly instructed in the sublime nature of them; nor should we hold any communication of religion with those that are enemies to the truths of Christ, which they tread under their feet and treat contemptuously, and will be so far from having any more friendship for you on account of such a criminal complaisance, that it is more probable they will betray you and turn against you. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

By swine and dogs, our Saviour doubtless understandeth wicked men of several sorts, either such as are more tame sinners, trampling upon holy things, and with swine wallowing in the mire of lusts and corruptions, Pro 26:11; 2Pe 2:22; or, by dogs, more malicious, revengeful, boisterous sinners may be meant, whose consciences will serve them to bark and grin at the word of God, to mock at holy things, to persecute those that bring them the gospel, and are their open enemies, because they tell them the truth. The gospel is to be preached to every creature, Mar 16:15. But when the Jews were hardened, and spake evil of that way before the multitude, & c., Act 19:9, the apostles left preaching to them. The precept doubtless is general, directing the ministers of Christ to administer the holy things, with which they are intrusted, only to such as have a right to them, and under prudent circumstances, so as the holy name of God may not be profaned, nor they run into needless danger.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. Dogs… swine — Our Lord in these last verses has cautioned us how we hastily judge a good man, a brother. He now teaches us how to estimate the reverse character, or any character. The dog and the swine are symbols of depraved men, the ferocious and the sensual.

The dogs of the East, especially the street dogs, who have no owners, and exist in great hordes as a nuisance, are an abomination often mentioned in Scripture. The swine, ceremonially unclean by the Mosaic law, and physically filthy and disgusting to all view, properly comes in with the dog to represent conjointly the ferocious and the sensual.

Now we must discern these characters. We must not intrust a holy thing to a dog. Apostles and bishops must not commit the office of the ministry to a wicked man. No sacred deposit, or responsibility, or even principle (symbolized by pearls) must be imparted to an unfit man. No doctrines or religious experiences must be brought before an incapable sensualist. In fine, in imparting the official trusts and the truths of the Gospel, we must discern men’s moral qualities, and deal with them accordingly.

In the latter part of the verse, the phrase, lest they trample them under their feet, refers to the swine. It describes the gross disregard which sensual men have for the most perfect gems of truth. Turn again and rend you, refers to the dogs. It alludes to the bitter irritation with which fierce natures treat the offers of truth to which they are opposed. Give the dog a pearl, and he will bite and tear you.

In regard to pearls, see note on Mat_13:45.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Matthew only. Give not that which is holy, etc. While you are not to be censorious towards brethren (vers. 1-5), you must recognize the great and fundamental differences that there are between men. You must not treat those who are mere dogs and swine as if they were able to appreciate either the holiness or the beauty and wealth of spiritual truth. Give Observe that "give," "cast," are naturally used of feeding dogs and swine respectively. That which is holy (to agion). The metaphor is taken from the law that the things offered in sacrifice were no longer to be treated as common food. (Lev_22:1-16, especially ver. 14, to agion) Unto the dogs. The scavengers of Eastern cities, which by nature and habit love and greedily devour the most unholy of things. (cf. Exo_22:31) Neither cast ye your pearls, Pearls. Only here and Mat_13:45, 46 in the Gospels. In form not so very unlike swine"s food of beans or nuts, they here represent the beauty and precious wealth of the various parts of the Gospel, in which Christ"s disciples are accustomed to delight (umwn). Ignatius ("Ephesians," calls his bonds his "spiritual pearls." Before swine; before the swine (Revised Version). Probably in both cases the article is used with the object of bringing the particular dogs and swine to whom these are given more vividly before us. Swine. Which have no care for such things, but rather wallow in filth. (2Pe_2:22) Dogs... swine. The terms seem to so far indicate different classes of men, or more truly different characters in men, as that the one term points to the greedy participation of the wicked in open profanation, the ether to the sottish indifference of sinners to that which is most attractive. Lest they; i.e. the swine. Dogs, even though wild in the East, would not "tread down" the food. Trample them under their feet. (Mat_5:25, note) It here expresses the greater certainty of the trampling than of the rending (aorist subjective). And turn again Revised Version omits "again" and rend you. In rage at the disappointment experienced. The clause expresses the personal enmity which those who wilfully reject the gospel often feel towards those that have offered it to them. It might be thought difficult to carry out this command, as it is evident that we cannot know beforehand who will accept the gospel or not. But in cases where the character of the person is not known (e.g. as when St. Paul preached at Athens, etc.), the command does not apply. Our Lord supposes the case where the character is apparent. (cf. Luk_11:9-13. Nearly verbally identical, but in the son"s request, reads egg" and scorpion" for "bread" and "stone," and reverses the order of the sentences.

In Luke the verses are closely connected ("and I say unto you") with the parable of the friend at midnight, which itself immediately follows the Lord"s Prayer. It seems probable that, as with the Lord"s Prayer (ch. 6:9-13, note), so with these verses, the original position is given in Luke; yet, as also with the Lord"s Prayer, Matthew"s form of the individual clauses may be the more original (cf. ver. 11, note). With the general promise contained in these verses, cf. Mar_11:24.

The connexion with the preceding verse is probably not

(1) pray for others who have no apparent capacity for receiving the truths of the gospel (Weiss); nor

(2) in answer to the question suggested by ver. 6, if this be the measure of the Divine dealings, what bounties can sinners expect at God"s hands? Let them, nevertheless, ask of God, and it shall be given them (cf. Alford); but

(3) in close connexion with the whole subject from vers. 1-6, you feel conscious of want of wisdom for the true and loving judgment of others without censoriousness ask for this special grace. With this connexion ver. 12 follows on naturally; i.e. the key to the right treatment of others may be found in one"s own feelings and wishes; from the perception of what we desire to receive from others we may learn what others ought to receive from us.

Ask... seek... knock. Gradation in urgency. Further, the three clauses think of the Giver, the sphere in which the gift lies, the obstacles in the way of obtaining it.

Vers. 7-11. Encouragements for prayer.

Jesus is revealing the Fatherhood of God, and now he is showing how that great truth is the basis of faith, and, in particular, the ground for confidence in prayer.

I THE CALL TO PRAYER.

1. Thrice repeated. This threefold invitation shows us

(1) the importance of prayer;

(2) the backwardness of unbelief;

(3) the gracious kindness of Christ. It is not only permissible for us to pray; we are invited and urged to avail ourselves of the great privilege.

2. In varied forms.

(1) Ask. There are things that we want to receive. The simplest prayer is to ask for them.

(2) Seek. There are truths we desire to know hidden treasures out of sight which urge our pursuit; and God himself is unseen, and at first seemingly distant and hidden behind the clouds. The soul cries in its distress, "Oh that I knew where I might find him!" This is a deeper, a more spiritual prayer.

(3) Knock. Now we have reached the third stage of prayer not to obtain a gift, not to reach after the hidden treasure, but ourselves to enter the kingdom. Nothing apart from God will satisfy. Our great evil is not our poverty, but our exile. Our great blessing is not an enrichment where we are, but our reception into the Father"s home.

3. With promise of success. Prayer is more than confiding in God. It is not a voice crying in the dark for its own relief, and satisfied without any reply. It must be answered, or it will despair. Christ teaches us that God gives in response to prayer what we should not receive without it. This cannot be because God is ignorant of our needs, (Mat_6:32) nor that he is reluctant to help. It must be because he sees that blessings which it would not be fitting to bestow on the careless, the distrustful, or the self-satisfied, may be bestowed with wholesome results on those who humbly trust him and prepare themselves to receive them.

II THE GROUNDS OF CONFIDENCE.

1. The Fatherhood of God. This is a greater reason for confidence than any definite assurance of help. We delight to plead the promises; but what if we need something lying outside the range of them? or what if we dare not apply some of them to ourselves? We assure ourselves by meditating on the Divine covenant. But how can we be certain that we are parties to the covenant? And are there no blessings to be had that are not named in that deed? Here we have assurances of uncovenanted mercies. The father does not bind down his kindness to the limits of his promises. Because God is our Father, there is no limit to his willingness to help and bless.

2. The analogy of human families. It is customary with Christ to use his parables as arguments. He is often found reasoning from what is generally accepted among men. With him religion is so natural a thing that the very course of nature is a ground of assurance. It would be quite contrary to nature that God should not show his love as a Father. To disbelieve it is to believe an amazing monstrosity of unnatural heartlessness.

3. The superior goodness of God. The argument is a fortiori. Blind unbelief will not credit God with the common paternal instinct found even in sinful human parents. Thus it places him below man. But he is infinitely above man. Then he must be a better Father than the best of human parents. If imperfect fathers on earth will not deceive their children, much less will the perfect Father in heaven. Apply this

a. to the cry for forgiveness;

b. to the pursuit of the better life;

c. to the hunger for a future life. W.F.A.

The generous challenge.

The trio clauses of this verse will all be best understood if they are sufficiently viewed as what may be called representative words. They stand for a whole type of thought, fact, truth. These same challenges and assurances linked, we find repeated much later in the life of Christ. (Luk_11:29) It adds to our conviction that these utterances of our great Teacher were of the nature that might be designated very studied and deliberate, very designed and far on-looking. The three clauses cannot for a moment be supposed to be merely repetitions, nor even merely three ways of putting the same essential thing. They require to be considered seriatim. Each grows on that which precedes it, and the added force is only obtainable at the end. The first of the clauses is sure to be the most generic, elementary, fundamental. The prospect which it holds out seems to one sometimes vague, sometimes too comprehensive to be anything but the language of extravagance or exaggeration. It has had the effect perhaps of producing misgiving in the heart. Note then

I CHRIST IS NOT SPEAKING OF MEN IN THEIR WIDE, SCATTERED, UNCERTAIN RELATIONS TO THE WORLD AND TO ONE ANOTHER; HE HAS THE BEGINNING OF HIS OWN SCHOOL BEFORE HIM, WHICH SHOULD INDEED BECOME LARGE AND VARIOUS TILL IT GATHERED ALL IN ITS EMBRACE, AND IT IS WHAT THESE, AS HIS LEARNERS, HIS FOLLOWERS, HIS SERVANTS, MAY RELY UPON, THAT HE DECLARES. Let the world speak for itself, publish its manifesto, which it does large enough, loud enough, false enough. Jesus here speaks his own manifesto, and it is deficient by no means in largeness, but awaiting the test of quality and reliableness! Ever since, all who have in any sense, in any appreciable degree, really known Jesus, have been investigating, testing, pronouncing upon these two things what his Word is good for, and how good he is to his Word.

II CHRIST HAS AN OPEN EAR AND AN OPEN" HAND; FOSTERS EXPECTATION, AND DOES NOT DISAPPOINT IT; INVITES PRAYER PRAYER WIDE, VARIOUS, IMPORTUNATE, LARGE AND THEN" DEALS BOUNTIFULLY FROM HIS TREASURY AND WITH HIS OWN INFINITE RESOURCES. Facts all answer to these assertions. The very genius of Christ"s truth points to them. That truth is not repressive to the mind, not contracting to the heart, not crushing to the life, not adverse to knowledge, to civilization, to brotherly fellowship, to practical benevolence. To all appearance Christ himself was nowhere without exciting a vast amount of inquiry and a vast variety of it. Never was breath of wind so healthful, so enlivening, so purifying by a millionth part, as was the breath of his Word. And wherever his truth has travelled, rested, paid the casual visit, or rooted itself, its force has been of similar kind. It has taught and provoked men to ask for things outside of and above themselves, and with no idle fancy and no unrewarded desire has their eye rolled from earth to heaven. Things they never dreamed of before have become visions of brightness at which they gazed, objects of attraction that never lost their power, and of solemn practical quest which they never rested till they found and secured. They have been led to want to ask, have asked, and have found. In all this world there is no asking which conies near to that which Christ has originated in it so large, so various, so deep or again high in its nature, and so richly rewarded. Souls ask, and souls have given to them, beyond all ambition"s asking, or love of money"s asking, or love of pleasure"s asking, or love of life"s asking, or the goading of misery"s asking. Most native, therefore, to the spirit of Christ was it, is it, to say "Ask," and in his radiant generosity of nature to "give" to the asking! Oh! wonderful fountain of fresh life, Giver of good, Pitier of sorrow, Rescuer from death it is he whose free, unqualified invitation needs but one short word in which to express itself, and that word "Ask. B.

The challenge to the seeker.

When we pass on to the consideration of this second challenge, with accompanying assurance, of Jesus Christ, we may at once inwardly notice a leading difference between it and that which went before, and that difference one in the nature of an advance. It is true that when a child "asks" he expects to receive, and to receive "bread," and not a "stone," at the hand of his father. And Jesus emphasizes this fact to his present purpose: "if ye then, being evil, know bow to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall that Father of yours, which is in heaven, give good gifts to them that ask him?" On the other hand, it is a most certain thing that when as grown men we "ask not like children asking of their father our voice is not very acceptable to the world, even when it is attended to, and very often is not attended to. "Asking" is not liked. And it is no little evidence of this that we do not like "asking." We all feel that a solitary act of asking means some sort and some little degree of humiliation; more asking means that we are run into some extremity; and perpetual asking, that we are lost to self-respect. Nor have we fashioned this rough code without some good reason; for we have been sometimes sharply reminded that stones may be sent for bread, and serpents for fish. But, again, who can deny that the world has some admiration for the man who "seeks"? The better part of the world despise those who live ever on the "ask" system, but are prone to respect those who set to work, "quit them like men," and "seek" with mind and heart and strength. May we not, then, note, that while Christ does love, for his own reasons and in his own sense, what the world and the better part of it do not over and above love, viz. the "askers," yet this is no reason why he does not love the "seekers"? "Faith without works is dead." And so in a sense is asking without seeking. Prayer and work are far too often divorced. Note, then

I SEEKING LOOKS LIKE HONESTY; SHOWS SINCERITY; PROVES REALITY; ADDS TO FAITH, AS SURELY AS DILIGENCE SCOUTS DOUBT; WAKES SLEEPING POWERS; PREVENTS THEM FALLING ASLEEP AGAIN; AND ACQUIRES FRESH FORCE. Whatever advantage genuinely belongs to the real observing of practical work in our worldly life, is the merest shadow of that which any one may find who shall heartily, lovingly take to it in the conduct of his Christian life.

II SOME THINGS ARE IN THEIR VERY NATURE TO BE HAD MORE REALLY IN SEEKING THAN IN ASKING, THOUGH EVEN THE ASKING BE OF GOD. The great thing, sanctification as compared with justification, may illustrate this. The latter is to be had, from that first solemn moment which finds us, with all the deepest anguished desire of a sin-convicted conscience and soul, begging, crying, or "asking" for it. But sanctification is not to be had for the mere asking for it, any more than that "increase of faith" which the disciples so ignorantly, yet so innocently, "asked" from Christ. But sanctification needs a long, patient, earnest "seeking" for. How many are fatally faulty in this very matter! They wish for forgiveness, beg for pardon, cry for mercy; and these got, or supposed to be so, they do not continuously and with holy perseverance and patience seek sanctification. Other, perhaps we should rather say all, Christian graces demand the same earnest practical seeking; certainly those that follow on that root of all graces, faith as, for instance, hope and love. We "seek" these by using them, doing the works of them, trying their strength.

III SPECIAL PROMISES ARE MADE TO SEEKING. How wide is the range of these even through the Old Testament! "They that seek me early shall find me;" "Blessed are they that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways;" "Seek good and not evil, that ye may live, saith the Lord; yea, seek ye me;" "Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad;" "He is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him;" "To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life." Whatever best things diligent and honourable earthly seeking has found, as lesson and encouragement by the way, what are they all by the side of the things given to the seeking of what is contained in three such words as those, "glory, honour, immortality,"! It is surely this kind of "seeking" to which Christ here gives the sanction of his emphatic invitation. It is to this matter of seeking, to these objects of seeking, that an illimitable prospect of supply opens. For these none can seek too early, too perseveringly, too earnestly, too long. The seeker is blessed because he seeks, blessed all the while he seeks, and blessed in the entire escape assured to him, from illusion now or disappointment hereafter, in respect of the fact and the habit of seeking, which mark him. B.

The challenge of the closed door.

This clause marks the climactic challenge of the three which the verse contains. It certainly equally bespeaks the climactic stage in the inner experience of many a timid, or doubting, or unbelieving, or disbelieving soul. After many askings of mere words, their accents betraying distrust; after wayward and intermittent seeking, that scarcely earned its name, at length strife and conflict have wrought themselves up to the crucial point, the task of one distinct effort. Upon that one distinct effort close has come the answer, and with this answer content and peace, progress and happiness, have come. In this third part of the triplet of reviving impulse offered by the language of Christ, the preacher may bring up the subject, make general and comprehensive observation of the working of human nature, as baulked by the difficulties incident to individual peculiarities of character (legion by name), to the petty and untractable tyrannies of habit, and to the confrontings of the events and circumstances of (that element, which acts so largely on human nature) the outer world, with all its cotemporary history, looming large now, and now diminishing to the deceptively trivial. The instances of the places and the manners, the concealed, unconscious motives, and the manifest determining impulses of the resurrections of the soul"s life and health, are as boundlessly interesting as they are various and innumerable. And they show for how much misery and ruin the pale features of hesitation and indecision are answerable. Against all this, like the sound of some welcome trumpet of morning, are these words spoken by the voice of heaven upon earth, "Knock, and it shall be opened." Consider

I THE NECESSITY TO CHRISTIAN LIFE, TO THE BEGINNING OF IT AND CONTINUOUSLY TO THE VERY CLOSE OF IT, OF HOLDING A DIRECT, UNDIVIDED CONVICTION THAT THERE IS AN ACCESSIBLE AND AN APPROACHABLE PLACE OF MERCY AND OF VARIOUS HELP.

II THE NECESSITY OF AN UNDETERRED FORCE OF RESOLUTION IN MAKING DEFINITE APPLICATION AT THAT PLACE.

III THE SUGGESTION WHICH THE FIGURE HERE EMPLOYED CONTAINS, AS TO THREE LEADING PETITIONS FOR MERCY AND VARIOUS HELP, APPROPRIATELY MADE AT THAT PLACE CALLED A DOOR OR GATE, VIZ.

(1) INFORMATION AND DIRECTION ON THE ROAD;

(2) BREAD TO EAT, WINE TO DRINK;

(3) SHELTER FROM STORM PRESENT OR THREATENING, AND FOR THE CERTAINLY COMING NIGHT.

IV THE UNLIMITED, UNCONDITIONED PROMISE. "It shall be opened." That you are challenged to "knock" points to the supposition that you have arrived at a door, and that a closed door. It also means that the door need not certainly remain closed, for that there is a power on the other side, from within, that may open it, to your wish, to your need, and to your confession and expression of the same. But in this case it means all this and yet much more; the challenge is accompanied with a promise to the full as unconditioned and unlimited. "It shall be opened.." On the other side there is compassion and there is good will, there is mercy and there is love; and these all decide to "open;" and their promise is engaged thereto. B.

Vers. 7-12. Prayer.

From the subject of giving our Lord turns to that of asking. The text instructs us in

I THE NATURE OF PRAYER.

1. It is asking.

(1) Asking of God. He requires our prayer, not to induce him to give, but to fit us to receive.

(2) Asking implies want. We have needs for our fellows; for ourselves temporal, spiritual (cf. ver. 11; Luk_11:13).

(3) We ask with the heart.

2. It is seeking.

(1) Seeking for the hidden riches of promise.

(2) Seeking implies loss. The loss of God. The loss of heaven. The loss of the soul.

(3) This term "seek" suggests the way, viz. to eternal life. To asking we add diligent endeavour.

(4) We seek with the understanding.

3. It is knocking.

(1) To seeking we add importunity. Our need is urgent. Our loss is serious.

(2) Knocking suggests perseverance. "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.

(3) It suggests, moreover, the obtaining of admission to the house and kingdom of God.

(4) We knock with the life.

II THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAY.

1. In the promises of God.

(1) "Ye shall receive;" "Ye shall find; It shall be opened.

(2) They are free for all. "Every one that asketh," etc. Jew and Gentile. Rich and poor. Bond and free. No sinner is too vile.

2. In the character of the promises.

(1) Our Father. We give good gifts to our children. He is the Author of our nature. He made us after his own image.

(2) The Father of goodness. We are evil: "If ye then, being evil. " Here is a testimony to original sin. Yet natural affection will not allow us to give our" child a stone for bread, a scorpion for a fish. The good father cannot mock his children with false promises. He delights to give good things

(3) Note: Christ speaking in the second person, "If ye then, being evil," excepts himself from original sin. Through the merits of the Son of God we receive.

(4) Sonship comes in with prayer. "How much more will your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

III THE CONDITIONS OF PRAYER.

1. These are given in the promises.

(1) They are sometimes expressed in them.

(2) They are evermore implied.

(3) Without compliance with the conditions we have no claim upon the promises. (cf. Jam_1:5-7 Jam_4:3 1Jn_5:14)

2. They are embodied in the golden rule.

(1) Prayer, to have weight with God, must be in charity towards men. As our heavenly Father is kind to us, so in kindness to our fellows are we his children. (see Mat_5:45) Let our brotherly love be practical, and our Father will acknowledge us in blessing.

(2) The equity of this rule comes home to every conscience. Read it negatively: "What ye would not that men should do unto you," etc. Read it positively: "What ye would," etc. "If our heart condemn us, then have we not confidence before God". (see 1Jn_3:19-22)

(3) This rule sums up the Law and the prophets. (cf. Mat_22:39, 40 Rom_13:8 Gal_5:14) The Law, prophets, and gospel are essentially one. The gospel is the spirit and glory of the Law. The prophets bring the gospel out of the Law by anticipation. The golden rule is the law of heaven.

3. Apply this rule.

(1) In thought. Where, then, will be evil surmisings and suspicions?

(2) In word. Where, then, will be evil-speaking; abuse, backbiting, detraction?

(3) In deed. In buying and selling. In service and remuneration.

(4) This law requires, not exchanges of states, but simply of places. Exchanges of states would be exchanges of identity, so nothing would be gained.

(5) To fulfil this rule we need the converting grace and constant help of God. J.A.M.

The condition on which answer to prayer depends.

The reference to prayer seems to be introduced here as an "aside;" but the connection is not difficult to trace. Our Lord had been calling his disciples to duties which would make the most serious demands on them. They would be sure to feel the need of sustaining and supporting grace, such as comes only from God. Then let them be quite sure that they could always have this grace for the asking; but let them be also quite sure that they would not get the grace apart from the asking. In dealing with this familiar passage, it is usual to fix attention on the apparently unlimited promises of answer to prayer. "Ye shall receive." It may, however, be that thus our Lord"s point is missed. He put emphasis on the "asking," the "seeking," the "knocking," as if he had said, "You must ask, if you would have a good hope of receiving." Compare For all these things will I be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them;" "Ye have not, because ye ask not." The three terms, "ask," seek," "knock," have been shown to represent an ascending scale. They are each what the man himself must do; the condition on which alone he gains the blessing. Are we ever conscious, then, of failing powers in the Christian life? we may never say that we are straitened in God: it must be that we are straitened in ourselves. We expected God to give, but we did not meet his conditions, and ask. An objection should be dealt with, which is perhaps oftener felt than expressed If God knows everything we need, why does he require us to ask? The answer is twofold.

1. If he does require us to ask, there must be reasons for his so doing, in his Divine Fatherhood; and children should obey when they do not understand.

2. We can see that the asking becomes an agency of spiritual culture to us. It nourishes that dependence which takes us out of ourselves, and checks self-confidence. It might be added that it helps to keep before us the connection between our blessings and God"s providings. The condition that we must ask may be shown to work out into

(1) we must ask earnestly;

(2) must ask persistently.

I HE WHO "ASKS" MAKES REQUEST.

II HE WHO "SEEKS" PRESSES HIS REQUEST.

III HE WHO "KNOCKS" PERSISTS IN HIS REQUEST. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Here is another instance of that transposition, where of the two things proposed, the latter is first treated of. Give not - to dogs - lest turning they rend you: Cast not - to swine - lest they trample them under foot. Yet even then, when the beam is cast out of thine own eye, Give not - That is, talk not of the deep things of God to those whom you know to be wallowing in sin. neither declare the great things God hath done for your soul to the profane, furious, persecuting wretches. Talk not of perfection, for instance, to the former; not of your experience to the latter. But our Lord does in nowise forbid us to reprove, as occasion is, both the one and the other.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

An additional counsel:

v. 6. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Moral criticism is necessary, religious teaching cannot be discarded. But it would be the height of folly and the very contrary of unauthorized judging to unload one’s religious beliefs and experiences, tender sentiments, moral convictions, on any one that comes along, no matter in what condition he might be. For Christians especially the sacred doctrines of Christ are the precious pearls on the ring of His mercy. To cast these before dogs and swine, before people to whom nothing is sacred, that blaspheme everything holy, is to expose the most sacred beauty to coarseness. And the result is that those very people are encouraged to profane the holy name of God, to think it a proper subject of blasphemous attacks. And it cannot fail: some of the mud will spatter on him that lacked judgment; he will be responsible for the desecration, and therefore also guilty before God. Note the figure of speech used by the Lord, the second verb referring to the first subject, and the first verb to the second subject.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By that which is holy, understand the word and ordinances in general, but admonition and reproof in particular: By dogs and swine, incorrigible and unreclaimable sinners, hardened scorners of holy things: It is a proverbial speech, expressing how sure charitable reprehensions are to be cast away upon incorrigble sinners.

Learn, 1. That it is possible for sinners to arrive at such a height and pitch in wickedness and sin, that it may be a Christian’s duty not to admonish or reprove them.

Observe, 2. How Christ provides, as for the honour of his word, so for the safety of those that publish it. As Christ will not have his word offered to some sinners, lest they should abuse it, so also lest they should abuse those that bring it: When sinners turn swine, and we are in danger of being rent by them, Christ himself gives us a permission to cease reproving of them.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. Give not that which is holy unto dogs. The dog was regarded an unclean animal by the Jewish law. They probably represent snarling, scoffing opposers. The characteristic of dogs is brutality. To try to instill holy things into such low, unclean, and sordid brutal minds is useless. Neither cast pearls before swine. The swine were also unclean. They would have no use for pearls, and perhaps would rush upon those who scattered the pearls. So, too, there are men so dull, imbruted and senseless, as to reject the pearls of truth. It is our duty to help and to try to save others, but we must use common sense.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

Jesus is talking to a group of people about what they as individuals should or should not do. The instances of "you" and "your" are all plural.

dogs ... hogs

Jews considered these animals dirty, and God told the Jews not to eat them. They are metaphors for wicked people who do not value holy things. It would be best to translate these words literally. (See: Metaphor)

pearls

These are similar to round, valuable stones or beads. They are a metaphor for the knowledge of God or precious things in general. (See: Metaphor)

they may trample

"the pigs may trample"

then turn and tear

"the dogs will then turn and tear"

translationWords

holy

pig

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

6. καταπατήσουσιν for καταπατήσωσιν the subjunctive was a correction to a more regular construction.

6. The connection between this verse and the preceding section is not quite obvious. It seems to be this. Although evil and censorious judgment is to be avoided, discrimination is needful. The Christian must be judicious, not judicial.

τὸ ἅγιον, i.e. ‘spiritual truths.’ Some have seen in the expression a reference to the holy flesh of the offering (Hag 2:12). But this allusion is very doubtful; see Meyer on this passage.

κυσίν … χοιρῶν. Unclean animals; see the proverb quoted 2Pe 2:22; cp. Php 3:2, βλέπετε τοὺς κύνας, βλέπετε τοὺς κακοὺς ἐργάτας; also Hor. Ep. I. 2. 25, ‘vel canis immundus vel amica luto sus.’ See note on ch. Mat 15:26.

μαργαρίτας. The only gems mentioned in the Gospels, twice named by Jesus: here, where they signify the deepest spiritual thoughts of God and heaven, and ch. Mat 13:46, where ‘the pearl of great price’ is the kingdom of heaven itself. The general sense is ‘use discrimination, discern between holy and unholy, between those who are receptive of these high truths and those who are not.’ The profane will despise the gift and put the giver to shame. Want of common sense does great harm to religion.

μήποτε καταπατήσουσιν. The future indicative is sometimes used in final clauses in place of the subjunctive after ὅπως and ὄφρα, very rarely (in Classics) after μή. Goodwin, Greek Moods and Tenses, § 44, note 1.

ἐν τοῖς ποσίν. (1) ‘with their feet,’ or (2) ‘at their feet.’

This verse is a good example of Hebrew poetical form; the fourth line, καὶ στραφέντες ῥήξωσιν ὑμᾶς, being in parallel relation to the first, μὴ δῶτε κ.τ.λ.; the third, μήποτε καταπατήσουσιν κ.τ.λ. in relation to the second. Thus the appropriate actions are ascribed to the κύνες and the χοιροί.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6.] The connexion, see below.

τὸ ἅγιον] Some have thought this a mistranslation of the Chaldee, קָדָשָׁא, an earring, or amulet; but the connexion is not at all improved by it. Pearls bear a resemblance to peas or acorns, the food of swine, but earrings none whatever to the food of dogs. The similitude is derived from τὸ ἅγιον, or τὰ ἅγια, the meat offered in sacrifice, of which no unclean person was to eat (Lev 22:6, Lev 22:7, Lev 22:10, Lev 22:14 (where τὸ ἅγ. is used), 15, 16). Similarly in the ancient Christian Liturgies and Fathers, τὰ ἅγια are the consecrated elements in the Holy Communion. The fourteenth canon of the Council of Laodicæa orders μὴ τὰ ἅγια … εἰς ἑτερας παροικίας διαπέμπεσθαι. Again, Cyril of Jerus.: μετὰ ταῦτα λέγει ὁ ἱερεύς Τὰ ἅγια τοῖς ἁγίοις. ἅγια, τὰ προκείμενα, ἐπιφοίτησιν δεξάμενα ἁγίου πνεύματος. (See Suicer on the word.) Thus interpreted, the saying would be one full of meaning to the Jews. As Abp. Trench observes (Serm. Mount, p. 136), “It is not that the dogs would not eat it, for it would be welcome to them; but that it would be a profanation to give it to them, thus to make it a σκύβαλον, Exo 22:3.” The other part of the similitude is of a different character, and belongs entirely to the swine, who having cast to them pearls, something like their natural food, whose value is inappreciable by them, in fury trample them with their feet, and turning against the donor, rend him with their tusks. The connexion with the foregoing and following verses is this: “Judge not,” &c.; “attempt not the correction of others, when you need it far more yourselves:” still, be not such mere children, as not to distinguish the characters of those with whom you have to do. Give not that which is holy to dogs,” &c. Then, as a humble hearer might be disposed to reply, ‘If this last be a measure of the divine dealings, what bounties can I expect at God’s hand?’ (This, to which Stier objects, R. Jesu, i. 233, edn. 2, I must still hold to be the immediate connexion, as shewn by the knowing how to give good gifts, and the instances adduced below.)—(ver. 7), ‘Ask of God, and He will give to each of you: for this is His own will, that you shall obtain by asking (ver. 8),—good things, good for each in his place and degree (vv. 10, 11), not unwholesome or unfitting things. Therefore (ver. 12) do ye the same to others, as ye wish to be done, and as God does, to you: viz. give that which is good for each, to each, not judging uncharitably on the one hand, nor casting pearls before swine on the other.’

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. Perverted zeal.

(L)

6. Give not that which is holy to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them with their feet, and turn and rend you.] This saying occurs only in Mt., and has no particular connection with the preceding. But it may have stood here in the Logia. 6:19-20, 7:1-5 and this verse form a group of three prohibitions.

The “swine” and the “dogs” symbolise alien and heathen men. For “dogs,” cf. Php 3:2, Rev 22:15. The “pearls” symbolise religious truth; cf. 13:46.

The verse is, of course, capable of infinite adaptation. As it stood in the Logia (and here in the mind of the editor?) it may express the Jewish-Christian point of view with regard to the preaching of Christianity to pagans; cf. Introduction, p. lxxvii, and the application of κυνάρια to Gentiles in 15:26. It was applied to the Eucharist in the second century. Cf. Didaché ix.; Tert. de Prœscr. xli.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That which is holy [το αγιον] . The holy thing, as of something commonly recognized as sacred. The reference is to the meat offered in sacrifice. The picture is that of a priest throwing a piece of flesh from the altar of burnt - offering to one of the numerous dogs which infest the streets of Eastern cities.

Pearls before swine [μαργαριτας εμπροσθεν των χοιρων] . Another picture of a rich man wantonly throwing handfuls of small pearls to swine. Swine in Palestine were at best but half - tamed, the hog being an unclean animal. The wild boar haunts the Jordan valley to this day. Small pearls, called by jewellers seed - pearls, would resemble the pease or maize on which the swine feed. They would rush upon them when scattered, and, discovering the cheat, would trample upon them and turn their tusks upon the man who scattered them.

Turn [στραφεντες] . The Rev. properly omits again. The word graphically pictures the quick, sharp turn of the boar.

Rend [ρηξωσιν] . Lit., break; and well chosen to express the peculiar character of the wound made by the boar's tusk, which is not a cut, but a long tear or rip.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.