The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew7:1–6

Judging Others

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Matthew 7:1–6 — Judging Others. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

1

“Do not judge, or you will be judged.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Mē krinete hina mē krithēte

Word by word5 · parsed
ΜὴMē[Do] notG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
mē: the negative of will and command The volitional negative, used here with a present imperative.
κρίνετεkrinetejudgeG2919
√ κρίνω — by implication, to try, condemn, punishVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
krinō: to separate, decide, try, condemn, punish Present imperative active, 2nd plural, under μή: a prohibition of continuing action. The lexicon's range runs from neutral discrimination to sentencing, and that whole range is why the commentators must narrow it. Gill excludes civil courts, church discipline and harmless private opinion; Barnes excludes the magistrate and the unavoidable forming of an opinion; JFB says what is struck is "the spirit out of which they spring." The grammar supports them: a present imperative forbids an established practice, not the isolated act of discernment.
ἵναhinaorG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
hina: in order that Purpose or result conjunction governing the subjunctive; the BSB's "or" is a consequence-reading of a purpose clause.
μὴmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
mē: not The negative carried into the subordinate clause; the BSB leaves it untranslated (shown as dots) because English folds it into "or."
κριθῆτεkrithēteyou will be judgedG2919
√ κρίνω — by implication, to try, condemn, punishVerbAorist Subjunctive Passive2nd Person Plural
krinō: to judge, condemn Aorist subjunctive passive, 2nd plural. The same verb that was active in your mouth is now passive on your head, and the agent is withheld. That withholding is the whole point: the measure returns, and the one who returns it is not named until the reader supplies God. Ellicott hears the apostolic echo of the same principle in Romans 2:3, 1 Corinthians 4:5 and James 4:11.
2

For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gar en hō krimati krinete krithēsesthe kai en hō metrō metreite metrēthēsetai hymin

Word by word13 · parsed
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
gar: for, assigning a reason Postpositive; it makes v. 2 the argument under v. 1 rather than a fresh saying.
ἐνenwithG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ᾧhōthe sameG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounDative Neuter Singular
κρίματιkrimatijudgmentG2917
√ κρίμα — a decision (the function or the effect, for or against ("crime"))NounDative Neuter Singular
krima: a decision, the verdict and its effect Dative of manner or instrument. The noun names the sentence handed down, and Cambridge's cross-reference to Romans 2:2-3 (the same Greek word of the divine sentence) shows how easily the human verdict and the divine one are spoken of with one term. That is the paradox Ellicott isolates: God's judgment does not become unjust because ours was, yet ours sets the standard by which we are justly measured.
κρίνετεkrineteyou pronounceG2919
√ κρίνω — by implication, to try, condemn, punishVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
krinō: to judge Present indicative active, 2nd plural: the habit already in progress, which the imperative of v. 1 was trying to stop.
κριθήσεσθεkrithēsestheyou will be judgedG2919
√ κρίνω — by implication, to try, condemn, punishVerbFuture Indicative Passive2nd Person Plural
krinō: to judge Future indicative passive, 2nd plural. The shift from present active to future passive inside one clause is the engine of the verse: what you are doing now is what will be done to you then.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐνenwithG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ᾧhōtheG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounDative Neuter Singular
μέτρῳmetrōmeasureG3358
√ μέτρον — a measure ("metre"), literally or figurativelyNounDative Neuter Singular
metron: a measure, a measuring vessel A rare noun (12 verses). The concrete image is a grain measure, the vessel handed back across a counter. The same noun with the same verb governs Mark 4:24 and Luke 6:38, where Luke's form of the saying enlarges the returned measure rather than narrowing it: Cambridge calls it "a further illustration of 'full measure.'"
μετρεῖτεmetreiteyou [use]G3354
√ μετρέω — to measure (iVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
metreō: to measure out Present indicative active, 2nd plural: the measuring is ongoing, an established practice.
μετρηθήσεταιmetrēthēsetaiit will be measuredG3354
√ μετρέω — to measure (iVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
metreō: to measure out Future indicative passive, 3rd person singular, impersonal, agentless. Gill fills page after page with rabbinic instances of the maxim (Sotah 1:7 and parallels), which proves the saying was a commonplace; what is not commonplace is that Jesus applies it to the day when God judges the secrets of men, as JFB says.
ὑμῖνhyminto youG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
sy: thou, you Dative plural: the measure comes back not to an abstraction but to you.
3

Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ti blepeis to karphos to en tō tou sou adelphou ophthalmō tēn de ou katanoeis dokon en tō sō ophthalmō

Word by word21 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΤίTiWhyG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
tis: who, which, what Accusative neuter used adverbially, "why." The Pulpit Commentary glosses the force of the question as "when it is so contrary to common sense."
βλέπειςblepeisdo you look atG991
√ βλέπω — to look at (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
blepō: to look at Present indicative active: the eye is resting on the object. Set against κατανοέω at word 15, βλέπω is the shallower verb, sight without scrutiny, which is exactly the wrong way round for the situation.
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
κάρφοςkarphosspeckG2595
√ κάρφος — a dry twig or strawNounAccusative Neuter Singular
karphos: a dry twig or straw A rare noun (5 verses), and every one of those verses is this saying or its Lukan twin. It is a word Jesus effectively owns. Benson notes that twig and beam "were proverbially used by the Jews to denote, the one, small infirmities, the other, gross, palpable faults"; the Pulpit Commentary supplies the rabbinic form from Bab. Bathra 15b, and Gill supplies two more, so the imagery is demonstrably borrowed, and the sting is in where Jesus aims it.
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
ἀδελφοῦadelphoubrother’sG80
√ ἀδελφός — a brother (literally or figuratively) near or remote (much like G1 (Α))NounGenitive Masculine Singular
adelphos: a brother, near or remote The person in view is a fellow disciple, not an outsider. The Pulpit Commentary: "Our Lord is here speaking of the relation of believers to fellow-believers." That matters for v. 6, where a different class of person appears.
ὀφθαλμῷophthalmōeyeG3788
√ ὀφθαλμός — the eye (literally or figuratively)NounDative Masculine Singular
ophthalmos: the eye, literal or figurative Dative of place. The Pulpit Commentary argues that since the eye was used spiritually so recently at Matthew 6:22, it should be read the same way here: faults in a man's spiritual sense hindering his spiritual vision.
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
δὲdebutG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
οὐoufailG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ou: the absolute negative of fact Note the change from μή at v. 1: there a command was forbidden, here a fact is denied. You do not consider it.
κατανοεῖςkatanoeisto noticeG2657
√ κατανοέω — to observe fullyVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
katanoeō: to observe fully, fix the mind upon Present indicative active. A rare verb (14 verses) of deliberate mental attention. The indictment is not poor eyesight but refused thought, which is why Henry can say the censorious man is "in a sinful, miserable condition, and not be aware of it" because "the god of this world blinds their minds."
δοκὸνdokon[the] beamG1385
√ δοκός — a stick of timberNounAccusative Feminine Singular
dokos: a stick of timber, a roof beam A rare noun (5 verses), again confined to this saying and Luke's. Accusative feminine, fronted before its clause for weight. Gill reads the beam as the specific Pharisaic sins: "pride, arrogance, a vain opinion of themselves, confidence in their own righteousness, hypocrisy, covetousness." The Pulpit Commentary reads it as the censoriousness itself, so that the beam is the very act of inspecting the twig.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
σῷsōyour [own]G4674
√ σός — thinePersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 2nd Person Singular
sos: thine, thine own Possessive adjective, emphatic by position and by its difference from the σου used of the brother.
ὀφθαλμῷophthalmōeyeG3788
√ ὀφθαλμός — the eye (literally or figuratively)NounDative Masculine Singular
4

How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

ē pōs ereis tō sou adelphō Aphes ekbalō to karphos ek tou sou ophthalmou kai idou hē dokos en sou tō ophthalmō

Word by word22 · parsed
ἢēG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
πῶςpōsHowG4459
√ πῶς — an interrogative particle of mannerAdverb
pōs: in what manner Interrogative of manner. The Pulpit Commentary glosses the implied force as "with any conscience."
ἐρεῖςereiscan you sayG2046
√ ἐρέω — an alternate for G2036 (ἔπω) in certain tensesVerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
ereō: to say, speak Future indicative active, 2nd singular. A future of actual expectation, not of ability: this is what you are in fact about to do.
τῷtōtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
ἀδελφῷadelphōbrotherG80
√ ἀδελφός — a brother (literally or figuratively) near or remote (much like G1 (Α))NounDative Masculine Singular
adelphos: a brother Dative of the person addressed. The offer is made to a brother, which is why Gill's word for it is impudence rather than cruelty.
ἌφεςAphesLetG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
aphiēmi: to send away, release, permit Aorist imperative active, 2nd singular. The courteous request form. The Pulpit Commentary observes that "there is nothing here of the rudeness that so often accompanies censoriousness," which sharpens the indictment: the offer is polite, well-meant, and still monstrous, because the offerer cannot see.
ἐκβάλωekbalōme takeG1544
√ ἐκβάλλω — to eject (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active1st Person Singular
ekballō: to eject, cast out, drive out Aorist subjunctive active, 1st singular, following the imperative: "allow that I may cast out." The same verb returns twice in v. 5, first as a command to yourself and then as an infinitive about your brother. The whole cure turns on who is ejecting what from whose eye.
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
κάρφοςkarphosspeckG2595
√ κάρφος — a dry twig or strawNounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐκekout ofG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
ὀφθαλμοῦophthalmoueyeG3788
√ ὀφθαλμός — the eye (literally or figuratively)NounGenitive Masculine Singular
καὶkaiwhileG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἰδοὺidou[there is still]G2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
idou: lo! behold! A fossilised aorist imperative used as a pointing particle. It arrests the sentence to present the absurd fact.
ἡhēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
δοκὸςdokosa beamG1385
√ δοκός — a stick of timberNounNominative Feminine Singular
dokos: a roof beam Nominative with the article: the beam already named at v. 3, standing as bare subject with no verb, which is why English must insert "there is."
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
σοῦsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
τῷtō[own]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ὀφθαλμῷophthalmōeyeG3788
√ ὀφθαλμός — the eye (literally or figuratively)NounDative Masculine Singular
5

You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

hypokrita prōton ekbale tēn dokon ek tou sou ophthalmou kai tote diablepseis ekbalein to karphos ek tou tou sou adelphou ophthalmou

Word by word21 · parsed
ὑποκριτάhypokritaYou hypocriteG5273
√ ὑποκριτής — an actor under an assumed character (stage-player), iNounVocative Masculine Singular
hypokritēs: an actor under an assumed character, a stage-player Vocative masculine singular, the only direct address in the unit and the hinge of it. JFB defines the charge precisely: the hypocrisy "consists in the pretense of a zealous and compassionate charity, which cannot possibly be real in one who suffers worse faults to lie uncorrected in himself." The Pulpit Commentary adds that the assumed role is specifically that of a man with clear vision, a part that does not belong to you.
πρῶτονprōtonFirstG4412
√ πρῶτον — firstly (in time, place, order, or importance)AdverbSuperlative
prōton: firstly, in time or order Adverb in the superlative degree. It orders the cure and thereby answers the question the whole unit raises: reproof is not abolished, it is postponed until the reprover can see.
ἔκβαλεekbaletakeG1544
√ ἐκβάλλω — to eject (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ekballō: to eject, cast out Aorist imperative active, 2nd singular: one decisive act, addressed to the individual, after five clauses of plural or general address.
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
δοκόνdokonbeamG1385
√ δοκός — a stick of timberNounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἐκekout ofG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
ek: out of, from within Cambridge argues the preposition matters: ἐκ is "from within," of the deep-seated root of sin, over against the ἀπό ("from the outside surface") that Cambridge reads in the best manuscripts at v. 4. The brief's interlinear gives ἐκ at both places, so Cambridge's contrast depends on a text-critical decision the reader should weigh, not assume.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
σοῦsouyour [own]G4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
ὀφθαλμοῦophthalmoueyeG3788
√ ὀφθαλμός — the eye (literally or figuratively)NounGenitive Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τότεtotethenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
διαβλέψειςdiablepseisyou will see clearlyG1227
√ διαβλέπω — to look through, iVerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
diablepō: to look through, see distinctly Future indicative active. Not the shallow βλέπω of v. 3 but sight driven through to its object. The Pulpit Commentary notes what the verb governs: not "see the mote" but "see clearly to cast out the mote." What self-knowledge restores is not sharper fault-finding but competence to heal.
ἐκβαλεῖνekbaleinto removeG1544
√ ἐκβάλλω — to eject (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
ekballō: to eject, cast out Aorist infinitive active, of purpose or result. Barnes draws the conclusion: "the readiest way to judge of the imperfections of others is to be free from greater ones ourselves."
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
κάρφοςkarphosspeckG2595
√ κάρφος — a dry twig or strawNounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐκekfromG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
ἀδελφοῦadelphoubrother’sG80
√ ἀδελφός — a brother (literally or figuratively) near or remote (much like G1 (Α))NounGenitive Masculine Singular
adelphos: a brother The brother is still there at the end of the sentence, still with a twig in his eye. The unit never says the twig does not matter.
ὀφθαλμοῦophthalmoueyeG3788
√ ὀφθαλμός — the eye (literally or figuratively)NounGenitive Masculine Singular
6

Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Mē dōte tois kysin to hagion mēde balēte tous hymōn margaritas emprosthen tōn choirōn pote mē katapatēsousin autous en tois autōn posin kai straphentes rhēxōsin hymas

Word by word26 · parsed
ΜὴMē{Do} notG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
δῶτεdōtegiveG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Plural
didōmi: to give Aorist subjunctive active, 2nd plural, prohibitive. Note the return to the plural: the individual rebuke of v. 5 ends, and the whole company is addressed again.
τοῖςtoisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
κυσίνkysindogsG2965
√ κύων — a dog ("hound") (literally or figuratively)NounDative Masculine Plural
kyōn: a dog, a hound A rare noun (5 verses). The other four are Luke 16:21, Philippians 3:2, 2 Peter 2:22 and Revelation 22:15, and the commentators reach for exactly those: Ellicott cites Philippians and Revelation for impurity, Barnes cites Philippians and 2 Peter for snarling malignity. JFB adds the cultural fact that Eastern dogs were scavengers feeding on carrion, so the word carries no domestic warmth at all. Who is meant is disputed: see the apparatus.
τὸtowhat isG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ἅγιονhagionholyG40
√ ἅγιος — sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated)AdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
hagios: sacred, consecrated, set apart Articular neuter adjective used as a noun. Ellicott, Gill and the Pulpit Commentary take it of consecrated sacrificial flesh (Leviticus 22; Exodus 22:31; Gill cites the rabbinic maxim that holy things are not redeemed to feed dogs). Cambridge and Barnes take it of spiritual truth or gospel doctrine simply. Both readings end in the same practical warning, but they rest on different grounds and the brief's sources do not agree.
μηδὲmēde{do} notG3366
√ μηδέ — but not, not evenConjunction
βάλητεbalētethrowG906
√ βάλλω — to throw (in various applications, more or less violent or intense)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Plural
ballō: to throw, with violence or intensity Aorist subjunctive active. The verb of hurling, as one scatters feed to swine, not the measured handing of δίδωμι.
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
ὑμῶνhymōnyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Plural
μαργαρίταςmargaritaspearlsG3135
√ μαργαρίτης — a pearlNounAccusative Masculine Plural
margaritēs: a pearl Cambridge notes these are "the only gems mentioned in the Gospels, twice named by Jesus," here and at Matthew 13:46, where the pearl of great price is the kingdom itself. The Pulpit Commentary adds the physical joke: pearls are not unlike the beans or nuts swine are fed, which is why the animal tries them and then rages. The possessive ὑμῶν is emphatic: these are your pearls, what the disciples themselves delight in.
ἔμπροσθενemprosthenbeforeG1715
√ ἔμπροσθεν — in front of (in place (literally or figuratively) or time)Preposition
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
χοίρωνchoirōnswineG5519
√ χοῖρος — a hogNounGenitive Masculine Plural
choiros: a hog Genitive plural after ἔμπροσθεν. The Pulpit Commentary argues the articles before both animals bring "the particular dogs and swine to whom these are given more vividly before us." JFB notes both animals were ceremonially unclean and "peculiarly repulsive to the Jews, and indeed to the ancients generally."
ποτεpoteIf you doG4219
√ πότε — interrogative adverb, at what timeConjunction
μή‿mē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
καταπατήσουσινkatapatēsousinthey may trampleG2662
√ καταπατέω — to trample downVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
katapateō: to trample down Future indicative active, 3rd plural. A rare verb (5 verses), and the company it keeps is severe: the salt that lost its savour trodden under foot (Matthew 5:13), the seed trodden down (Luke 8:5), the crowd treading on one another (Luke 12:1), and the man who tramples the Son of God underfoot (Hebrews 10:29). The same verb that here guards holy things from beasts is used there of what men did to the Holy One.
αὐτοὺςautousthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἐνenunderG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τοῖςtoisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
αὐτῶνautōntheirG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ποσὶνposinfeetG4228
√ πούς — a "foot" (figuratively or literally)NounDative Masculine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
στραφέντεςstraphentesthen turn [and]G4762
√ στρέφω — to twist, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Plural
strephō: to twist, to turn Aorist passive participle. The animal that was fed turns on the feeder; the gift becomes the occasion of the attack.
ῥήξωσινrhēxōsintear you to piecesG4486
√ ῥήγνυμι — G2608 (κατάγνυμι) being its intensive (with the preposition in composition), and G2352 (θραύω) a shattering to minute fragmentsVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
rhēgnymi: to burst, to shatter to fragments Aorist subjunctive active, 3rd plural. A rare verb (7 verses). The Pulpit Commentary reads the rending as rage "at the disappointment experienced," and says the clause "expresses the personal enmity which those who wilfully reject the gospel often feel towards those that have offered it to them."
ὑμᾶςhymas. . .G4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Plural

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The measure that comes back — 7:1-2

The unit opens with Μὴ κρίνετε, a present imperative under the negative of the will, which the Pulpit Commentary renders with care: "not merely 'do not condemn,' for this would leave too much latitude; nor, on the other hand, 'do not ever judge,' for this is sometimes our duty; but 'do not be always judging.'" Every commentator in this brief feels the same pressure and narrows the verb the same way. Gill excludes civil magistrates, church discipline, and harmless private opinion, leaving "rash judgment, interpreting men's words and deeds to the worst sense." Barnes excludes the magistrate and notes that Luke 6:37 explains the word "in the sense of 'condemning.'" Poole gives five numbered classes of forbidden judgment and four classes of permitted judgment. JFB cuts to the disposition: "what our Lord aims at is the spirit out of which they spring."

Ellicott alone presses the difficulty honestly rather than dissolving it: "Must we not, even as a matter of duty, be judging others every day of our lives?" His answer is that our Lord "gives principles rather than rules, and embodies the principle in a rule which, because it cannot be kept in the letter, forces us back upon the spirit." That is the best account of the grammar available in this brief, and it is Ellicott's, not this tool's.

Verse 2 supplies the ground with two matched relative clauses, ἐν ᾧ κρίματι and ἐν ᾧ μέτρῳ, each running from a present active verb to a future passive. Cambridge names the shape: "the form which the 'lex talionis,' or law of reciprocity, takes in the kingdom of heaven." Gill shows the saying was already a commonplace, quoting the Mishnah's "with what measure a man measures, they measure to him" together with its catalogue of instances from Samson to Absalom; the Pulpit Commentary independently traces it to Sotah 1:7 and observes that the Revised Version drops "again" from the end of the verse on manuscript authority. Ellicott states the paradox that keeps the maxim from becoming mechanical: "the unjust judgment of man does not bring upon us a divine judgment which is also unjust; but the severity which we have unjustly meted out to others, becomes, by a retributive law, the measure of that which is justly dealt out to us."

ii. Twig, timber, and the eye that cannot see — 7:3-5

The address now drops from plural to singular and the argument turns comic. κάρφος is a dry twig; δοκός is, in Barnes's words, "a large piece of squared timber." Both are wood, and the joke is scale. Ellicott records that the image was not original: "a proverb all but verbally identical is found as a saying of Rabbi Tarphon," and the Pulpit Commentary gives a rabbinic form from Bab. Bathra 15b in which each party tells the other to cast out his own mote. Gill adds two more from the Talmud, including R. Taphon's lament that no one in his generation would receive reproof. Benson states the proverbial value directly: twig and beam denoted "the one, small infirmities, the other, gross, palpable faults."

The verbs carry the weight the English cannot. You βλέπεις the twig, shallow sight; you do not κατανοεῖς the beam, which by the lexicon is "to observe fully" and by Cambridge marks "the contrast between judging from the outside, and examination of the heart." Cambridge claims the Greek prepositions of the next two verses carry the same contrast, ἀπό of the surface against ἐκ of the deep-seated root, though that claim depends on a manuscript reading at v. 4 which the brief's interlinear does not share, and the reader should weigh it accordingly.

Verse 5 names the man: ὑποκριτά, a stage-player. Ellicott gives the reason for the title, that he "acts the part of a teacher and reformer, when he himself needs repentance and reform the most," and then the sharpest sentence in the unit, that "the hypocrisy is all the greater because it does not know itself to be hypocritical." JFB calls the charge one our Lord makes "not without indignation," and draws the positive rule: "He only is fit to be a reprover of others who jealously and severely judges himself." Poole reaches the same place from the other side, that our charity in this kind "should begin at home." And then the promise, which the censorious never hear: διαβλέψεις, you will see through. The Pulpit Commentary notices what the verb governs. Not see the mote. See clearly to cast out the mote. Henry's summary of the whole movement is six words: "first reform thyself."

iii. The holy thing, the dogs, and an unsettled question — 7:6

Verse 6 reverses direction so abruptly that Cambridge admits "the connection between this verse and the preceding section is not quite obvious," and JFB frames it as "the opposite extreme to that of censoriousness," namely "want of discrimination of character." Cambridge's formula is the neatest in the brief: "The Christian must be judicious, not judicial." The Pulpit Commentary agrees that recognising fundamental differences between men is not the censoriousness just forbidden.

What τὸ ἅγιον means is disputed in these sources. Ellicott, Gill and the Pulpit Commentary take it of consecrated sacrificial flesh, and Gill supplies the rabbinic maxim that holy things are not redeemed to be fed to dogs. Cambridge calls the allusion "very doubtful," and Barnes takes the word simply of "anything connected with religion." Who the dogs and swine are is disputed harder still. Geneva says flatly that "the stiff-necked and stubborn enemies of the gospel are unworthy to have it preached unto them." Barnes names them as classes of men, the snarling and the sensual. Poole keeps two possibilities open, tame sinners wallowing and malicious sinners barking. Ellicott refuses the personal identification altogether, arguing that the animals represent "not men and women as such, but the passions of this kind or that which make them brutish," and notes that Paul, who did not preach to the mob at Ephesus, would at another time have told any man in that crowd that he too was redeemed. JFB, who has just called the dogs "savage or snarling haters of truth," nonetheless warns against "too readily setting our neighbors down as dogs and swine, and excusing ourselves from endeavoring to do them good on this poor plea."

This edition does not settle that. Two things in the Greek are settled. The moods are unequal, καταπατήσουσιν future indicative against ῥήξωσιν aorist subjunctive, so that (as the Pulpit Commentary notes) the trampling is more certain than the rending. And Barnes's introverted parallelism, dogs and rending in the outer lines, swine and trampling in the inner, is a genuine reading of the word order that the grammar permits without requiring.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text. Read the unit as one argument about eyesight and it stops contradicting itself. Verses 1 and 2 forbid a verdict. Verses 3 to 5 explain why: not because faults do not exist, but because the organ you would judge with is obstructed, and obstructed by the judging. Verse 6 then requires the very discrimination that verse 1 seemed to forbid. The resolution is not that Jesus permits a little judging after all; it is that διαβλέψεις is a promise. The man who casts out his own beam is not thereby retired from all assessment of others. He is qualified for it, and what he is qualified for is surgery, not sentencing: the verb governs "to cast out the mote," never "to see the mote." So the unit forbids the verdict and commands the cure, and puts self-knowledge between them as the only door.

Two consequences follow, and both cut. First, the beam is most probably the censoriousness itself, as the Pulpit Commentary suggests, which means the censorious man's disqualifying fault is invisible to him by its own nature: he is using the diseased organ to look for disease. Ellicott's line that the hypocrisy "does not know itself to be hypocritical" is the same observation from the moral side. Second, verse 6 is the most abusable sentence in the Sermon, and the brief's own authorities show how: Geneva reaches "unworthy to have it preached unto them" while JFB, in the same breath as his own harsh gloss, warns that the verse becomes a "poor plea" for refusing to do anyone good. A man who has just been called a stage-player for misreading a twig is in no position to start classifying his neighbours as swine. The order of the verses is itself the safeguard: nobody reaches verse 6 honestly who has not been through verse 5.

Not Scripture, an editorial line offered for testing: the beam is not merely in the eye of the judge, it is the judging, which is why he alone cannot see it.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The twig and the timber in Luke's sermon verbal / quotation: confirmed

Luke 6:41-42 carries the same saying with the same rare vocabulary: κάρφος and δοκός occur in only five verses each in the whole New Testament, and those five are this passage and Luke's. κατανοέω (14 verses) is shared as well. Cambridge notes that the passage stands in Luke's report of the Sermon on the Mount "with a different context, and a further illustration of 'full measure,'" and the Pulpit Commentary lists Luke 6:41 and 6:42 as the parallels to vv. 3 and 4 respectively. Luke's version adds the vocative "hypocrite" at the same hinge.

Luke 6:41 · Luke 6:42

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2595 κάρφος (in 5 vv) and G1385 δοκός (in 5 vv), both rare and effectively confined to this saying, plus G2657 κατανοέω (in 14 vv) and G3788 ὀφθαλμός (in 85 vv). Greek to Greek; a genuine verbal identity, not a quotation of one book by another

The measure handed back verbal / quotation: confirmed

The measuring clause of 7:2 recurs at Mark 4:24 and Luke 6:38 with the same pair of rare words, μέτρον (12 verses) and μετρέω (9 verses). JFB names both places and says the maxim is used "as a great principle in the divine administration," with "a slightly different application" in Luke. The Pulpit Commentary notes that at Mark 4:24 the passive reference to God's own judging is "even more clear" than here, and Cambridge says Luke's context supplies "a further illustration of 'full measure.'" In Matthew the returned measure is severity; in Luke, on Cambridge's and JFB's reading of the different application, it is generosity. The same law runs both directions.

Mark 4:24 · Luke 6:38

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3358 μέτρον (in 12 vv) and G3354 μετρέω (in 9 vv), both rare, at both refs; Luke 6:38 adds G1325 δίδωμι (in 378 vv, common, not load-bearing). Greek to Greek

You who judge are without excuse structural / thematic: confirmed

Barnes sends the reader of 7:1 to Romans 2:1, and Ellicott to Romans 2:3, as apostolic echoes of the Master. Cambridge goes further and ties the noun: the κρίμα of 7:2 "is used Romans 2:2-3 of the divine sentence or decision: see that passage and context which are closely parallel to these verses." Poole cites the same chapter as Paul's exposition of the beam and the twig. The Verifier confirms a shared lexeme but only the common one, κρίνω, so the link recorded here is the structural one the commentators argue, not a scored verbal identity.

Romans 2:1

basis: Verifier pair check: shared Greek lexeme G2919 κρίνω (in 98 vv), too common to carry a verbal tier on its own. Cambridge separately attests that G2917 κρίμα stands at Romans 2:2-3 of the divine sentence; Barnes, Ellicott and Poole all name Romans 2 here. Tiered structural because the shared vocabulary is common and no citation is claimed

What gets trodden underfoot verbal / quotation: confirmed

καταπατέω appears in only five verses, and the company is grim. It is the verb used of savourless salt trodden underfoot at Matthew 5:13 (which the Pulpit Commentary cross-references at this very word), of seed trodden down at Luke 8:5, of a crowd treading on itself at Luke 12:1, and at Hebrews 10:29 of trampling the Son of God underfoot. The verb that 7:6 uses to guard holy things from beasts is the verb the writer to the Hebrews uses for what men do to the Holy One himself. The lexeme list is the Verifier's; the wording of each of those verses should be checked in the text itself, since this brief supplies only the shared Strong's number.

Matthew 5:13 · Hebrews 10:29 · Luke 8:5

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2662 καταπατέω (in 5 vv) at all three refs, a rare lexeme; Matthew 5:13 also shares G906 βάλλω (in 107 vv, common). Greek to Greek. Verbal identity of an uncommon word, not a quotation

The dogs of the New Testament verbal / quotation: confirmed

κύων occurs in five verses only. Ellicott sends the reader to Philippians 3:2 and Revelation 22:15 as the type of impurity; Barnes to Philippians 3:2, 2 Peter 2:22 and Revelation 22:15 as "people of special sourness and malignity of temper"; Cambridge to 2 Peter 2:22 and Philippians 3:2; JFB notes the scavenging habits behind the image. Luke 16:21 supplies the remaining occurrence, where the dogs lick the sores of Lazarus and the term carries no invective at all. That last instance is a caution against reading the noun as automatic condemnation of persons.

Philippians 3:2 · 2 Peter 2:22 · Revelation 22:15 · Luke 16:21

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2965 κύων (in 5 vv) at all four refs, a rare lexeme exhaustively listed; Philippians 3:2 also shares G991 βλέπω (in 117 vv, common). Greek to Greek

The holy thing not for dogs structural / thematic: confirmed

Ellicott reads τὸ ἅγιον as "the flesh which has been offered for sacrifice, the 'holy thing' of Leviticus 22:6-7; 22:10; 22:16, of which no unclean person or stranger, and a fortiori no unclean beast, was to eat." The Pulpit Commentary makes the same connection and adds Exodus 22:31, where flesh torn by beasts is precisely what is thrown to the dogs, so that the two halves of the law are the two halves of the saying. Gill supplies the rabbinic maxim "that they do not redeem holy things, to give to the dogs to eat." Cambridge dissents, calling the allusion "very doubtful" and citing Meyer. The link cannot be scored verbally: Greek and Hebrew do not share Strong's numbers, so no shared-lexeme basis exists across the Testaments even when the allusion is real.

Leviticus 22:10 · Exodus 22:31

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers cannot exist across the two lexicons, so no verbal tier is available in principle. Basis is the shared cultic pattern of consecrated flesh withheld from the unclean and cast to dogs, named explicitly by Ellicott (Leviticus 22:6-7, 10, 16) and the Pulpit Commentary (Exodus 22:31). Cambridge contests the allusion, which is why this is tiered structural and not higher

Seeing through, as the blind man did structural / thematic: confirmed

διαβλέπω is not the ordinary verb of sight. The Pulpit Commentary notes it recurs "in the right text of Mark 8:25, itself after the recovery of full power of sight," of a blind man whose sight has just been restored. ⚙ The resonance is suggestive: in Mark the verb marks the moment when partial sight becomes whole. Here it marks a sight that has to be earned by self-surgery. The Verifier's computed basis between the two verses is only the common word for eye, so the connection rests on the Pulpit Commentary's lexical observation rather than on a scored rare lexeme.

Mark 8:25

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G3788 ὀφθαλμός (in 85 vv), common, and therefore not sufficient for a verbal tier. The load-bearing point, that G1227 διαβλέπω itself stands in the preferred text of Mark 8:25, is the Pulpit Commentary's attestation and is not scored in the Verifier candidates

Judgment without mercy, and the brother who speaks against a brother flagged: verify source

Ellicott names James 4:11 alongside Romans 2:3 and 1 Corinthians 4:5 as places where the apostles "echo the teaching of their Master," and the Pulpit Commentary cites James 2:12-13 and James 5:9 for the judging that is by God and at the last day. Benson reaches the same formula independently: "they must expect judgment without mercy, who have showed no mercy." The connection is real to these readers, but it is asserted by them and not scored: a Verifier pair check on Matthew 7:2 and James 2:13 returns no shared original-language lexeme at all. It is recorded here at the lowest tier for that reason.

James 2:13 · James 4:11

basis: Verifier pair check on Matthew 7:2 and James 2:13 returned no shared original-language lexeme; the Verifier's own note is that any connection is thematic and must be argued, not asserted. The link exists only as the named judgment of Ellicott (James 4:11) and the Pulpit Commentary (James 2:12-13; James 5:9). Flagged so the reader tests it rather than trusting it

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The one eye without a beam novel

⚙ The unit disqualifies every reprover on a single ground: the organ is obstructed. JFB states the positive rule that follows, "He only is fit to be a reprover of others who jealously and severely judges himself," and Ellicott observes that the disqualification is self-concealing, since "the hypocrisy is all the greater because it does not know itself to be hypocritical." Push that rule to its limit and it empties the office: every candidate reprover is himself under 7:3, and the fault that disqualifies him is the one fault he cannot see. ⚙ This tool's reading: the Sermon is not advice offered from inside the same predicament as its hearers. Its speaker is the one figure in the narrative whom the indictment of vv. 3 to 5 does not touch, and that asymmetry is what makes the passage a command rather than a shared complaint. JFB's own outline of the chapter notes where it ends, at 7:28-29, with the people astonished at his doctrine.

The commentators in this brief do not draw this christological conclusion; they stop at the moral rule. It is marked novel for that reason. What they do supply is its premise, unanimously.

Matthew 7:5 · Matthew 7:29

The Holy Thing trampled underfoot novel

Ellicott reads τὸ ἅγιον as the consecrated flesh of Leviticus 22, which no unclean beast might eat, and says "to give that holy flesh to dogs would have seemed to the devout Israelite the greatest of all profanations." The verb of the consequence, καταπατέω, stands in only five verses, and one of them is Hebrews 10:29, where the object trampled underfoot is the Son of God. ⚙ The shared lexeme is a Verifier-computed fact, not an inference: the same rare word for what beasts do to holy things is the word Hebrews chooses for what men did to the Holy One. Read with Ellicott's cultic sense, the warning of 7:6 describes in advance what the Gospel will narrate, a holy thing handed over to those who trample it and then turn and tear. The difference is that Christ was not thrown; he was given, and given deliberately, which is the one case where the prohibition of 7:6 is overruled by the will of the Giver.

The verbal link is Verifier-scored. The christological application of it is this tool's, and the brief's commentators do not make it.

Hebrews 10:29 · Leviticus 22:10 · Acts 3:14

The pearl and the kingdom ancient/widely-held

Cambridge records that pearls are "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. Matthew 13:46, where 'the pearl of great price' is the kingdom of heaven itself." Geneva adds that the word "is now borrowed from that, to signify the most precious heavenly doctrine," and Barnes that the pearls here "denote the doctrines of the gospel." The identification of the pearl with the kingdom, and of the kingdom with the person of its King, is the settled reading of the parable among these authorities, and 7:6 assumes it: what is withheld from swine is not a rule of conduct but the treasure for which, three parables later, a man sells everything he has.

Matthew 13:45 · Matthew 13:46

Judged in the place of those who judged novel

Verse 1 forbids judging on the ground of a coming reciprocity, and every commentator here supplies the unnamed agent of the passive κριθῆτε: Cambridge, "by Christ on the Last Day"; the Pulpit Commentary, "by God, with special reference to the last day"; JFB, "at the great day"; Gill, "which will be the most awful and tremendous." ⚙ Two things follow that the brief's sources leave adjacent but do not join. The Judge of that day is the speaker of this sentence. And the same Gospel that records this sentence records its speaker standing under human judgment, silent, measured out to with the measure the world had (Matthew 27:11-26). The reciprocity of 7:2 is not suspended at the cross; it is absorbed there by the one person to whom nothing was owed. Benson's reading of the measure, "so we may, as it were, choose for ourselves, whether God shall be severe or merciful to us," states the terrifying half. The gospel's answer to it is that mercy was paid for, not chosen.

The last sentence is this tool's, and it goes beyond anything the ten commentators in this brief state here.

Matthew 7:1 · Romans 2:1

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. The English base is the Berean Standard Bible; the word-by-word Greek, parsing and Strong's numbers are from the Berean interlinear as supplied in the brief. Two textual points inside this unit are noted by the sources themselves and are not settled here. At 7:2 the Pulpit Commentary observes that "again" at the end of the verse is absent from the manuscripts and was "naturally inserted by the copyists," the Revised Version omitting it. At 7:4 Cambridge builds an argument on reading ἀπό ("from the outside surface") where the brief's interlinear has ἐκ; Cambridge's contrast between the surface preposition at v. 4 and the inward ἐκ at v. 5 therefore rests on a reading this edition's interlinear does not carry, and the reader should treat that contrast as contested.

Sources. Ten public-domain commentators are quoted verbatim by anchor: Ellicott, Benson, Henry, Barnes, JFB, Gill, Geneva, Cambridge, the Pulpit Commentary and Poole. Henry's entry is his single Concise note on 7:1-6 and is repeated by the source across all six verses; it is quoted once. Poole's note on 7:3 and 7:4 is only a cross-reference to his note on 7:5, and Geneva's entries on 7:2, 7:3, 7:4 and 7:5 are bare repetitions of the Authorised Version text with no gloss, so those authors appear only where they actually comment. Gill's rabbinic citations (Pirke Aboth, Sotah, Bab. Bathra, Temurah, and the Mischar Happeninim) are reported as Gill gives them and have not been independently checked against the rabbinic sources.

What is uncertain in this unit. First, the referent of "the dogs" and "the swine" at 7:6 is genuinely disputed among these authorities. Geneva identifies them with persons, "the stiff-necked and stubborn enemies of the gospel," and calls those persons unworthy of preaching. Barnes and Poole also identify classes of men. Ellicott expressly refuses that identification and reads the animals as "the passions of this kind or that which make them brutish." JFB gives a harsh gloss and then warns against the very use Geneva makes of it. This edition reports the dispute and does not adjudicate it. Second, whether τὸ ἅγιον alludes to sacrificial flesh (Ellicott, Gill, Pulpit) or means spiritual truth simply (Cambridge, citing Meyer against the allusion; Barnes) is likewise open. Third, whether the beam of 7:3-5 is the gross sin of the censor (Gill) or his censoriousness itself (Pulpit) changes the force of the passage and is not resolved by the grammar.

Machine layer. Everything marked ⚙, including the sola reading, the pullquote, the argument that the beam is the judging, and all four Christ entries, is this tool's fallible synthesis and carries no authority. Three of the four Christ entries are marked novel because the brief's commentators do not draw them. The threads to Luke 6:41-42, Mark 4:24 with Luke 6:38, the καταπατέω group and the κύων group rest on Verifier-computed rare shared lexemes. The Romans 2:1 and Mark 8:25 threads are tiered structural because their computed bases (κρίνω in 98 verses, ὀφθαλμός in 85 verses) are too common to carry a verbal claim, whatever the commentators assert. The Leviticus and Exodus thread cannot be scored verbally at all, because Greek and Hebrew do not share Strong's numbers. The James thread is flagged: a Verifier pair check returned no shared lexeme whatever, and it stands only on Ellicott's and the Pulpit Commentary's assertion.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)