Day 3: Pearls Before Swine
Reading: Matthew 7:6
6“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
Matthew 7:6 (ESV)
What They Had Heard
TODO — what a first-century hearer already had in their head when Jesus said this: the commandment itself, and the tradition of the elders built on top of it. What ruling was this teaching aimed at?
The Other Witness
TODO — Luke preserves nothing of this saying. Say so plainly, and ask what that omission is worth: this is material that needs a Jewish reader to land. Matthew keeps the sermon whole; Luke keeps what travels.
The Older Word
TODO — the Old Testament text underneath the teaching. Not a proof text: the passage Jesus is reaching back to, and what the Law actually said before the case law grew over it.
He Did It
TODO — where Jesus personally demonstrated this, usually later in the Gospels. If there is no scene — only a claim — say that instead of forcing one.
They Did It
TODO — the apostles, both halves. Where they taught this in the letters, and where they lived it in Acts.
Now Us
TODO — the payoff. Not “try harder”: what this looks like on an ordinary Tuesday, for a reader who has just watched three generations do it.
Reflection Questions
- TODO
Prayer
TODO