Smoodock's Blog

Chapter six of the Gospel of Matthew has Jesus continuing in what we call the Sermon on the Mount. There is some controversy, however, over how the chapter should begin, because the earliest manuscripts in our possession, have a different Greek word than alms (eleemosune, G1654) at Matthew 6:1. The earliest manuscripts, or what we call the critical texts, have the word dikaiosune (righteousness, G1343). The theory behind the different wording is that verses 2-4 do have alms (G1654) so the later copyists thought a change was necessary in verse-1 to agree with alms (G1654), which came later in the text. In fact, in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Covenant Hebrew text, sometimes uses G1654 (eleemosune) to translate H6666 (tsedâqâh),[1] so the copyist may have interpreted the true meaning of Jesus’ words to be alms (G1654) rather than righteousness (G1343) and believed the change would be helpful to the non-discerning reader.

If this, or something similar, is true, the copyist made a mistake, because righteousness (G1343) works better to introduce the disciples acts of righteousness in the following themes that Jesus discusses, namely: alms, prayer and fasting, none of which were to be done to be seen of others.

Jesus begins this section of his discourse by warning his disciples to consider the motive behind the good they do (Matthew 6:1). Many folks do good deeds in this world, but not everyone do them for the glory of God. Some advertise what they do or what their group does (foundation, business etc.), such as building a library, adding a wing on the local hospital, or provide food and clothing for the needy, praying, or delaying the fulfillment of one’s own needs for the sake of fulfilling the needs of others etc. While Jesus doesn’t condemn acts of righteousness done for one’s own reputation, he does differentiate between this type of thing and doing the same kind of things anonymously and for the purpose of bringing glory to God. On the one hand, one’s righteousness adds to the glory or reputation of men (or the business or foundation they represent), while the other lifts up God in the presence of men, that the Lord, not the man or the group he represents, may be glorified and honored.

Jesus warns his disciples that providing for the needs of others, whatever those needs may be, education, health, food and clothing etc., if they do them for the sake of their own honor, like the hypocrites/actors in the religious institutions do or the hypocrites/actors in the streets[2] do (G4505), then that one has received his reward in the glory men give him for the good he has done (Matthew 6:2).

However, Jesus has called his disciples and separated them from the world, and he expects them to live for the honor and glory of God, not for their personal honor. Therefore, they need to be private about their righteousness. The idea is expressed metaphorically in that the left hand shouldn’t “know” what the right hand does, thus attributing mental faculties to one’s hands. What Jesus seems to mean is that the right hand, vis-à-vis one’s spiritual tendencies, should be yielded to, for one’s spiritual nature is “unknown” to one’s baser, self-seeking nature (left hand). Therefore, if one practices this type of good behavior, our Father, who sees what we do privately and for his glory, will reward him openly (Matthew 6:3-4; cp. Psalm 23:1, 5-6).           ______________________________________________________

[1] See Deuteronomy 6:25; 24:13; Psalm 24:5; 33:5; 103:6; Isaiah 1:27; 28:17; 59:16; Daniel 4:27; 9:16.

[2] I believe the phrase, “the streets,” is in contrast to the synagogues/religious institutions, and might be interpreted as public or secular institutions.