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MATTHEW 7:6 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 7:5Matt 7:7
“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.”
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. The apparent contradiction with the non-judgment instruction: the community must exercise discernment about where to offer what is sacred. Dogs and pigs were unclean animals in the Jewish context, and using them as metaphors communicates the absence of the capacity to value what is offered. The pearls-before-pigs image is not contempt for particular people but a recognition that sacred teaching offered to those who are actively hostile will be wasted and will put the teacher at risk. Matthew 10:14 gives the practical application: if a town does not welcome the disciples, shake the dust off your feet and leave. Discernment about where to invest the message is not judgment of persons but wisdom about receptivity.

Church Fathers on Matthew 7:6

Because the simplicity to which He had been directing in the foregoing precepts might lead some wrongly to conclude that it was equally wrong to hide the truth as to utter what was false, He well adds, 'Give not that which is holy to the dogs, and cast not your pearls before swine.'

Augustine · 4th century

Otherwise; The Lord had commanded us to love our enemies, and to do good to those that sin against us. That from this Priests might not think themselves obliged to communicate also the things of God to such, He checked any such thought saying, 'Give not that which is holy to the dogs;' as much as to say, I have bid you love your enemies, and do them good out of your temporal goods, but not out of My spiritual goods, without distinction. For they are your brethren by nature…

Pseudo-Chrysostom · 5th century

And to those that are right-minded and have understanding, when revealed they appear good; but to those without understanding, they seem to be more deserving reverence because they are not understood.

Chrysostom · 4th century
Read all 15 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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