The Fallible Study Bible

The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible

Matthew7:15–23

A Tree and Its Fruit

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Matthew 7:15–23 — A Tree and Its Fruit. 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.

15

Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Prosechete apo tōn pseudoprophētōn hoitines erchontai pros hymas en probatōn endymasin de esōthen eisin harpages lykoi

Word by word16 · parsed
ΠροσέχετεProsecheteBewareG4337
√ προσέχω — (figuratively) to hold the mind (3563 implied) towards, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
prosechō: to hold the mind toward A present imperative active, plural: the guard is a standing posture, not a single act. The verb's literal sense is to hold something toward, and with apo it becomes holding the mind off, keeping a distance. It is the first word of the unit and it governs everything that follows: the fruit test of vv. 16 to 20 exists because this command has to be obeyed with something.
ἀπὸapoofG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
ψευδοπροφητῶνpseudoprophētōnfalse prophetsG5578
√ ψευδοπροφήτης — a spurious prophet, iNounGenitive Masculine Plural
pseudoprophētēs: a spurious prophet A compound, false plus prophet, and the Pulpit Commentary presses the compound hard: these are not merely “false teachers” (2 Peter 2:1) misreading true doctrine, but men “falsely claiming to bring messages from God.” Barnes and Poole both widen prophētēs beyond prediction to public religious instruction, so the danger named is the pulpit, not the crystal ball. Ellicott adds the historical frame: the counterfeit always tracks the genuine gift.
οἵτινεςhoitines[They]G3748
√ ὅστις — which some, iPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Plural
hostis: which some, of the kind who The qualitative relative rather than the plain article. It classifies rather than merely identifies: seeing that they are the sort who come.
ἔρχονταιerchontaicomeG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Plural
πρὸςprostoG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
ὑμᾶςhymasyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Plural
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
προβάτωνprobatōnsheep’sG4263
√ πρόβατον — something that walks forward (a quadruped), iNounGenitive Neuter Plural
probaton: sheep, something that walks forward Genitive plural, defining the garment. The flock-word will return as the thing the wolf feeds on; Ellicott connects the picture to John 10:12 and Acts 20:29.
ἐνδύμασινendymasinclothingG1742
√ ἔνδυμα — apparel (especially the outer robe)NounDative Neuter Plural
endyma: apparel, especially the outer robe Dative plural. The word names precisely the outermost, most visible layer, which is the whole point of the disguise: the only thing the eye can reach is the thing that has been chosen to be seen. The fruit test of v. 16 is the answer to a garment that can be put on.
δέdebutG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἔσωθενesōtheninwardlyG2081
√ ἔσωθεν — from insideAdverb
esōthen: from inside An adverb of origin, from within, standing in deliberate opposition to the endyma. The unit's whole architecture sits on this axis: outside garment against inside nature, and then tree-nature against fruit, and then “Lord, Lord” against the doing of the will.
εἰσινeisinthey areG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ἅρπαγεςharpagesravenousG727
√ ἅρπαξ — rapaciousAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
harpax: rapacious, a snatcher An adjective built on the verb to seize or plunder. Barnes reads it of the false teachers' designs on “the property of the people”; Pulpit insists on “both violence and greed.” Either way the indictment is not error only but predation.
λύκοιlykoiwolvesG3074
√ λύκος — a wolfNounNominative Masculine Plural
lykos: a wolf A rare word in the Greek New Testament (5 verses). Its other occurrences are the shepherd discourse and the sending of the Twelve, so the image is fixed: the wolf is what the flock has no defence against except the shepherd's presence. Here the horror is that the wolf is not outside the fold but inside it, wearing the fold's own coat.
16

By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

apo tōn autōn karpōn epignōsesthe autous mēti syllegousin staphylas apo akanthōn ē syka apo tribolōn

Word by word15 · parsed
ἀπὸapoByG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive 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
καρπῶνkarpōnfruitG2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounGenitive Masculine Plural
karpos: fruit as plucked The governing noun of the whole unit, used seven times across vv. 16 to 20. Its root sense is fruit as plucked, that is, fruit at the moment it is taken and handled, which is exactly the situation of a hearer examining a teacher.
ἐπιγνώσεσθεepignōsestheyou will recognizeG1921
√ ἐπιγινώσκω — to know upon some mark, iVerbFuture Indicative Middle2nd Person Plural
epiginōskō: to know upon some mark Future indicative middle. The compound intensifies: not a guess but recognition by evidence. Ellicott links the same strength of knowing to the promise of 1 Corinthians 13:12. Commentators divide sharply on what the marks are: JFB says explicitly “not their doctrines,” but “the practical effect of their teaching”; Gill says the opposite, that a false teacher may behave impeccably and so must be judged by his doctrine. Ellicott sides with the ethical reading on the strength of the “fruits meet for repentance” of Matthew 3:8. ⚙ The unit itself does not adjudicate, and this synthesis does not pretend to.
αὐτούςautousthemG846
√ 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
μήτιmētiG3385
√ μήτι — whether at allIntPrtcl
mēti: whether at all The particle that builds the expected “no” into the question.
συλλέγουσινsyllegousinAre grapes gatheredG4816
√ συλλέγω — to collectVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
syllegō: to collect A relatively rare verb (8 verses). Its other uses are harvest and sorting scenes, which is why the same word can gather grapes here and separate the worthless catch in Matthew 13:48.
σταφυλὰςstaphylas. . .G4718
√ σταφυλή — a cluster of grapes (as if intertwined)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
ἀκανθῶνakanthōnthornbushesG173
√ ἄκανθα — a thornNounGenitive Feminine Plural
akantha: a thorn Cambridge: “The Greek word means, probably, a kind of acacia, or perhaps ‘thistles.’” The pairing of thorn and caltrop is not a random pair of nuisances; in Scripture it is the standing signature of ground under curse, and Hebrews 6:8 uses the same two words of land that is burned.
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
σῦκαsykafigsG4810
√ σῦκον — a figNounAccusative Neuter Plural
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τριβόλωνtribolōnthistlesG5146
√ τρίβολος — properly, a crow-foot (three-pronged obstruction in war), iNounGenitive Masculine Plural
tribolos: properly a crow-foot, a three-pronged obstruction in war Rare in the extreme, appearing in only 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. Strong's own gloss preserves the military image before the botanical one. Pulpit identifies the plant as Centaurea calcitrapa, “in the plains the only fuel,” which quietly anticipates v. 19: what such growth is good for is burning.
17

Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

houtōs pan agathon dendron poiei kalous karpous to de sapron dendron poiei ponērous karpous

Word by word14 · parsed
οὕτωςhoutōsLikewiseG3779
√ οὕτω — in this way (referring to what precedes or follows)Adverb
houtō: in this way The adverb ties the parable of the vineyard question in v. 16 to the general law now stated.
πᾶνpaneveryG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
ἀγαθὸνagathongoodG18
√ ἀγαθός — "good" (in any sense, often as noun)AdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
agathos: good in any sense Applied to the tree, that is, to what cannot be inspected. Gill presses the order and will not let it reverse: the tree “is first good, and then puts forth good fruit,” and its fruit does not make it good but only makes it appear so. This is the anti-moralist edge of the passage and it is why v. 21's demand for doing is not the demand of a man building his own righteousness out of deeds.
δένδρονdendrontreeG1186
√ δένδρον — a treeNounNominative Neuter Singular
ποιεῖpoieibearsG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
poieō: to make or do Present indicative active, and the single most load-bearing verb in the unit. It runs tree (vv. 17, 18, 19), obedient son (v. 21), and self-defending miracle worker (v. 22). Everyone in this passage is a maker of something; the question is what nature is doing the making.
καλοὺςkalousgoodG2570
√ καλός — X better, fair, good(-ly), honest, meet, well, worthyAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
kalos: fair, honest, worthy Accusative plural, applied to the fruit. Where agathos names intrinsic quality, kalos names quality that shows. Pulpit's gloss, “attractive in the eyes of men,” is what makes the fruit usable as evidence at all.
καρποὺςkarpousfruitG2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Masculine Plural
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
δὲdebutG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
σαπρὸνsaprona badG4550
√ σαπρός — rotten, iAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
sapros: rotten, worthless A rare word (6 verses). Its small family of occurrences is instructive: the discarded fish of Matthew 13:48, the “corrupt communication” forbidden in Ephesians 4:29, and the twin sayings of Luke 6:43 and Matthew 12:33. In every case it names something that has to be thrown out rather than repaired.
δένδρονdendrontreeG1186
√ δένδρον — a treeNounNominative Neuter Singular
ποιεῖpoieibearsG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
πονηροὺςponērousbadG4190
√ πονηρός — hurtful, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
ponēros: hurtful, malignant Accusative plural. The adjective describes not defect but damage: fruit that works harm on the one who takes it. Set against v. 15's wolves, the picture is consistent, these teachers are dangerous rather than merely mistaken.
καρποὺςkarpousfruitG2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Masculine Plural
18

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

agathon dendron dynatai ou poiein ponērous karpous sapron dendron oude poiein kalous karpous

Word by word13 · parsed
ἀγαθὸνagathon[A] goodG18
√ ἀγαθός — "good" (in any sense, often as noun)AdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
δένδρονdendrontreeG1186
√ δένδρον — a treeNounNominative Neuter Singular
δύναταιdynataicannotG1410
√ δύναμαι — to be able or possibleVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
dynamai: to be able or possible Present indicative, middle or passive in form. The word of capacity, and the same root that supplies dynameis, the “miracles” of v. 22. ⚙ A quiet irony sits in the unit: the tree that cannot is set beside men who boast of the powers they could.
οὐou. . .G3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ou: the absolute negative Placed with the verb of ability, not with the verb of bearing. The impossibility is in the tree.
ποιεῖνpoieinbearG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPresent Infinitive Active
poieō: to make or do (present infinitive) Durative aspect. Pulpit records that Westcott and Hort read ἐνεγκεῖν, to bring forth, in the first clause against ποιεῖν in the second, so the two halves may not have been identical in wording even in the earliest text available to the editors.
πονηροὺςponērousbadG4190
√ πονηρός — hurtful, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
καρποὺςkarpousfruitG2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Masculine Plural
σαπρὸνsapron[and a] badG4550
√ σαπρός — rotten, iAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
δένδρονdendrontreeG1186
√ δένδρον — a treeNounNominative Neuter Singular
οὐδὲoudecannotG3761
√ οὐδέ — not however, iConjunction
oude: not however, nor yet The negative conjunction carrying the denial of capacity into the second clause.
ποιεῖνpoieinbearG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPresent Infinitive Active
καλοὺςkalousgoodG2570
√ καλός — X better, fair, good(-ly), honest, meet, well, worthyAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
καρποὺςkarpousfruitG2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Masculine Plural
19

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

pan dendron mē poioun kalon karpon ekkoptetai kai balletai eis pyr

Word by word11 · parsed
πᾶνpanEveryG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
δένδρονdendrontreeG1186
√ δένδρον — a treeNounNominative Neuter Singular
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
mē: the subjective negative With the participle it defines a kind rather than denying a fact.
ποιοῦνpoiounthat does not bearG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Neuter Singular
poieō: to make (present participle) The third occurrence of the unit's governing verb, now under negation, now under sentence.
καλὸνkalongoodG2570
√ καλός — X better, fair, good(-ly), honest, meet, well, worthyAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
καρπὸνkarponfruitG2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounAccusative Masculine Singular
karpos: fruit (singular) The shift to the singular is the verse's quiet signal that a reckoning is being made: the life's whole yield taken as one thing.
ἐκκόπτεταιekkoptetaiis cut downG1581
√ ἐκκόπτω — to exscindVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
ekkoptō: to exscind, cut out Present indicative passive. Pulpit draws the inference that the Greek form will bear and that most readers flinch from: the sentence “implies that all trees will be cut down unless there is a reason for the contrary.” Fruitlessness is not an exception requiring judgment; it is the standing condition, and exemption is what needs explaining.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
βάλλεταιballetaithrownG906
√ βάλλω — to throw (in various applications, more or less violent or intense)VerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
ballō: to throw, more or less violent Present indicative passive, paired with ἐκκόπτεται. No agent is named in either verb.
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
πῦρpyr[the] fireG4442
√ πῦρ — "fire" (literally or figuratively, specially, lightning)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
pyr: fire Anarthrous in the Greek (BSB supplies “the”). Gill takes it of “the fire of hell,” “the lake of fire and brimstone”; Ellicott and JFB instead hear the Baptist, whose sentence at Matthew 3:10 this verse repeats almost word for word.
20

So then, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

ara¦ge apo tōn autōn karpōn epignōsesthe autous

Word by word7 · parsed
ἄρα¦γεara¦geSo thenG686
√ ἄρα — a particle denoting an inference more or less decisive (as follows)Particle
ara: a particle denoting an inference more or less decisive With the added ge it is the most decisive form the particle takes. It marks vv. 16 to 19 as an argument that has now concluded, not as a series of illustrations.
ἀπὸapobyG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive 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
καρπῶνkarpōnfruitG2590
√ καρπός — fruit (as plucked), literally or figurativelyNounGenitive Masculine Plural
karpos: fruit The seventh and last occurrence in the section, closing the inclusio opened at v. 16.
ἐπιγνώσεσθεepignōsestheyou will recognizeG1921
√ ἐπιγινώσκω — to know upon some mark, iVerbFuture Indicative Middle2nd Person Plural
epiginōskō: to know upon some mark Future indicative middle, identical to v. 16. ⚙ Note what the repetition does not say: it does not commission the disciples to judge hearts, only to read evidence. Poole builds a whole doctrine of lay discernment on exactly that limit, sending the hearer to the Scriptures rather than to the teacher's credentials.
αὐτούςautousthemG846
√ 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
21

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Ou pas ho legōn moi Kyrie Kyrie eiseleusetai eis tēn basileian tōn ouranōn all’ ho poiōn to thelēma tou mou Patros tou en tois ouranois

Word by word25 · parsed
ΟὐOuNotG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ou: the absolute negative Placed first, before pas, so the denial lands on “everyone” and not on “says.” Benson and Poole both draw the same careful inference from the word order: some who say “Lord, Lord” are saved, but not every one who does.
πᾶςpaseveryoneG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ὁhowhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
λέγωνlegōnsaysG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
legō: properly to lay forth Present participle under the article. The man is defined by his speech, which is exactly the definition the verse refuses to accept.
μοιmoito MeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Singular
ΚύριεKyrieLordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounVocative Masculine Singular
kyrios: supreme in authority Vocative, and doubled. Pulpit notes the double claim hidden in the sentence: an indirect claim to the title of reverential submission, and “the implied expectation that it will be given him by many.” Gill's picture of who says it is unsparing: men who name Christ “only to take away their reproach,” to gain credit and the goodwill of the people.
ΚύριεKyrieLordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounVocative Masculine Singular
εἰσελεύσεταιeiseleusetaiwill enterG1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
eiserchomai: to enter, literally or figuratively Future indicative middle. Gill restricts it: not entry into the visible church, where such men manifestly do enter, but into eternal glory. Pulpit calls it “The final goal of our hopes.”
εἰςeis. . .G1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
βασιλείανbasileiankingdomG932
√ βασιλεία — properly, royalty, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
basileia: royalty, rule, kingdom Strong's puts the abstract first: royalty, the exercise of rule, before the territory ruled. That is why entry can be conditioned on doing a will rather than on holding a title, since what is entered is a reign and a reign is entered by submission. The commentators divide on the referent: Gill insists it cannot mean the visible church here, because the men described plainly do enter that, so it must mean eternal glory; Benson allows both, membership in the church militant and admission to the church triumphant. Either way the genitive tōn ouranōn is answered at the end of the verse by the Father who is en tois ouranois, so the kingdom is defined by whose will runs in it.
τῶνtōnofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
οὐρανῶνouranōnheavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounGenitive Masculine Plural
ἀλλ’all’but onlyG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
ὁhohe whoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ποιῶνpoiōndoesG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
poieō: to make or do (present participle) The pivot of the unit. The tree poiei fruit; the saved man is ho poiōn the will; the damned plead epoiēsamen many powers. ⚙ The same verb three times means the question is never whether a man makes something, but what his making is made of and whose will it executes.
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
θέλημαthelēmawillG2307
√ θέλημα — a determination (properly, the thing), iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
thelēma: a determination, properly the thing willed Accusative, the object of the doing. Gill takes the Father's will here to include faith in the Son as its source, citing John 6:40, so that doing is not set against believing but grounded in it; Benson takes it as the whole content of the Sermon just delivered. Both readings are in the brief and they are not the same reading.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
μουmouof MyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
ΠατρόςPatrosFatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounGenitive Masculine Singular
patēr: a father, literally or figuratively Genitive, with the emphatic mou. Pulpit: “Not ‘of me,’ but of him whom I represent, and to whom I stand in a unique relation (observe the claim).” The relation is asserted, never argued.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τοῖςtoisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
οὐρανοῖςouranoisheavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounDative Masculine Plural
ouranos: the sky, heaven The word bookends the verse, first as the kingdom's genitive qualifier, then as the Father's dwelling. Pulpit draws the practical line between them: since you desire to enter the kingdom of heaven, be now obeying the will of him who dwells in heaven.
22

Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

polloi erousin moi en ekeinē tē hēmera Kyrie Kyrie eprophēteusamen ou tō sō onomati kai tō sō onomati exebalomen daimonia kai tō sō onomati epoiēsamen pollas dynameis

Word by word27 · parsed
πολλοὶpolloiManyG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
polys: much, many Not a few frauds at the margin. Gill takes “many” of preachers specifically, “not one, or two, or a few of them only.”
ἐροῦσίνerousinwill sayG2046
√ ἐρέω — an alternate for G2036 (ἔπω) in certain tensesVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
μοιmoito MeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Singular
ἐνenonG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ἐκείνῃekeinēthatG1565
√ ἐκεῖνος — that one (or (neuter) thing)Demonstrative PronounDative Feminine Singular
ekeinos: that one, that thing The demonstrative doing the work of a proper name. JFB compares the same unnamed “that day” in 2 Timothy 1:12 and 4:8.
τῇtēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
ἡμέρᾳhēmeradayG2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounDative Feminine Singular
hēmera: day Dative of time. Barnes: “in the last day, the day of judgment; the time when the principles of all pretenders to prophecy and piety shall be tried.” Cambridge reads the scene as a forecast into a distant future when Christianity would be worth assuming, which is an acute observation about when hypocrisy becomes possible at all.
ΚύριεKyrieLordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounVocative Masculine Singular
ΚύριεKyrieLordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounVocative Masculine Singular
ἐπροφητεύσαμενeprophēteusamendid we not prophesyG4395
√ προφητεύω — to foretell events, divine, speak under inspiration, exercise the prophetic officeVerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Plural
prophēteuō: to speak under inspiration, exercise the prophetic office Aorist indicative active. JFB ranks the gift “next to the apostleship,” citing 1 Corinthians 12:28 and Ephesians 4:11. Pulpit argues that its coupling here with exorcism and powers forbids reading it as mere false prophesying: these are real effects wrought by unreal men.
οὐou. . .G3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
τῷtōinG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Singular
σῷsōYourG4674
√ σός — thinePersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 2nd Person Singular
ὀνόματιonomatinameG3686
√ ὄνομα — a "name" (literally or figuratively) (authority, character)NounDative Neuter Singular
onoma: a name, authority, character Dative, repeated three times in three clauses. JFB reads the triple repetition as expressing “in the liveliest manner the astonishment of the speakers.” ⚙ It is also the only ground they plead: not what they were, but whose name they used.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τῷtō[in]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Singular
σῷsōYourG4674
√ σός — thinePersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 2nd Person Singular
ὀνόματιonomatinameG3686
√ ὄνομα — a "name" (literally or figuratively) (authority, character)NounDative Neuter Singular
ἐξεβάλομενexebalomendrive outG1544
√ ἐκβάλλω — to eject (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Plural
ekballō: to eject, literally or figuratively Aorist. Gill notes the power was given beyond the Twelve, and that men who were not followers used the name (Mark 9:38), as did the sons of Sceva who used it and were not owned by it (Acts 19:13). His conclusion is the sharpest sentence in the brief on this verse.
δαιμόνιαdaimoniademonsG1140
√ δαιμόνιον — a dæmonic beingNounAccusative Neuter Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Singular
σῷsōG4674
√ σός — thinePersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 2nd Person Singular
ὀνόματιonomatiG3686
√ ὄνομα — a "name" (literally or figuratively) (authority, character)NounDative Neuter Singular
ἐποιήσαμενepoiēsamenperformG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Plural
poieō: to make or do (aorist) The verb of the fruit-bearing tree, now on the defendants' own lips.
πολλὰςpollasmanyG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Plural
δυνάμειςdynameismiraclesG1411
√ δύναμις — force (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
dynamis: force, literally or figuratively Accusative plural, the highest item on their list. Barnes makes the doctrinal point without flinching: God may convey such power through any agency he chooses, and “in neither of these cases is there any necessary connection with moral character.” Poole instances Balaam, Saul and Judas. Pulpit, citing Trench, reports that Augustine has many warnings on this very text about the nothingness of all gifts, up to and including the gift of working miracles, where charity is wanting.
23

Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai tote homologēsō autois hoti egnōn Oudepote hymas apochōreite ap’ emou hoi ergazomenoi tēn anomian

Word by word15 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τότεtoteThenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
tote: the when, then The adverb that fixes the sentence at the moment of the plea, answering v. 22's “that day.”
ὁμολογήσωhomologēsōI will tell them plainlyG3670
√ ὁμολογέω — to assent, iVerbFuture Indicative Active1st Person Singular
homologeō: to assent, acknowledge openly Future indicative active. The verb is confession, which makes the verdict the exact mirror of Matthew 10:32 rather than a mere refusal. Pulpit: “Openly in the face of all men.” ⚙ Christ does not decline to speak of them; he speaks, before the same Father, and what he confesses is an absence.
αὐτοῖςautois. . .G846
√ 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 PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ἔγνωνegnōnI never knewG1097
√ γινώσκω — to "know" (absolutely) in a great variety of applications and with many implications (as follow, with others not thus clearly expressed)VerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ginōskō: to know, in a great variety of applications Aorist indicative active. Gill and Barnes both read it in the covenantal sense of Psalm 1:6, where knowing means owning and approving, and Gill spells out the negation across every register: never in the Father's choice, never in the covenant, never as sheep called by name. Pulpit notes that this sense of ἔγνων is otherwise rare in the Synoptics and common in John, and defines it as “that personal knowledge of you which is only the result of heart-sympathy.” Barnes takes the verse as decisive against falling from grace; that is Barnes's system speaking, and readers should weigh it as such.
ΟὐδέποτεOudepote. . .G3763
√ οὐδέποτε — not even at any time, iAdverb
oudepote: not even at any time The emphatic compound negative. It excludes not only present relation but any past one.
ὑμᾶςhymasyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 2nd Person Plural
ἀποχωρεῖτεapochōreitedepartG672
√ ἀποχωρέω — to go awayVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
apochōreō: to go away Present imperative active, and rare (3 verses). Pulpit's observation that Matthew chose it over the Septuagint's and Luke's ἀπόστητε is the single most concrete textual fact in the unit: the evangelist is quoting, and adjusting, and the adjustment adds distance.
ἀπ’ap’fromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
ἐμοῦemouMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
οἱhoi[you]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleVocative Masculine Plural
ἐργαζόμενοιergazomenoiworkersG2038
√ ἐργάζομαι — to toil (as a task, occupation, etcVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveVocative Masculine Plural
ergazomai: to toil, as a task or occupation Present participle, vocative. Strong's root sense is occupation, a trade. That is the indictment: lawlessness was not their lapse but their line of work, and it is still being worked as sentence is passed.
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ἀνομίανanomianof lawlessnessG458
√ ἀνομία — illegality, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
anomia: illegality, lawlessness The Sermon's last noun about men, and Pulpit argues it is chosen over hamartia on purpose, since sin is defined as lawlessness at 1 John 3:4 and the Sermon has been expounding the Law's final meaning throughout (most recently at v. 12). ⚙ The irony closes the unit: men who did powers in the name of the Lawgiver are dismissed as men with no law in them at all.

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 garment and the inside — 7:15

The unit opens on an imperative of posture. Προσέχετε (G4337) is present, plural, and literally means to keep the mind held toward, here held away from; Pulpit observes that in the true text there is no adversative particle, so the warning lands “all the more emphatic” with nothing to soften the turn. What is to be guarded against is named with the article, τῶν ψευδοπροφητῶν, which Pulpit reads as “The whole class of them.” Pulpit further insists the word is not “false teachers” (2 Peter 2:1) but false prophets, men “falsely claiming to bring messages from God,” while Barnes and Poole both widen prophētēs in Scriptural usage to any public religious instructor, so that for Poole “a false prophet is of the same significance with a false teacher.” Ellicott supplies the historical nerve: such teachers had been there in the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah and would be again, because “the true gift of prophecy is always followed by its counterfeit.”

Then the verse builds its own axis. ἐνδύμασιν (G1742) is the outermost robe, the only layer an observer can reach; ἔσωθεν (G2081) is the adverb from-within. Gill piles up rabbinic sources on the long woollen talith and the deceiver who covers himself with it “as if they were righteous men,” and records the Jewish phrase for what results, a “wolfish humility.” Benson's Doddridge notes that the wolf in sheep's clothing had already “grown into a proverb.” And ἅρπαγες (G727) is not hunger only: Pulpit reads “both violence and greed,” Barnes reads designs on the people's property, Benson reads men “feeding themselves by the destruction of the flock.” Every commentator in the brief agrees the threat is predation, not mere error.

ii. Fruit, and only fruit — 7:16-7:20

The test is stated, proved, and restated, and the frame is exact: ἐπιγνώσεσθε (G1921) opens v. 16 and closes v. 20 in the identical future middle. Ellicott calls the compound “knowledge that is full, clear, decisive”; Pulpit renders it “Ye shall come to know them to the full.” Between the two occurrences stands an argument, and Pulpit, citing Winer, marks the ἄραγε of v. 20 as “rigorous logical inference,” not refrain.

What counts as fruit is precisely where the brief's voices split, and the split should not be papered over. JFB is blunt: “not their doctrines,” but “the practical effect of their teaching.” Gill takes the opposite line and gives a reason with teeth, that “a false prophet may so behave, as not to be discovered thereby,” so doctrine must be the test. Ellicott sides with the ethical reading, appealing to the “fruits meet for repentance” of Matthew 3:8. Poole, characteristically, refuses to send hearers to examine credentials at all and sends them instead to the Scriptures, so that they are “not taking divine truths upon trust.” ⚙ The Greek does not decide it: karpos is simply fruit as plucked, and both doctrine and life are things that get plucked and handled.

The proof runs on a four-word chiasm that English translation dissolves. The tree is ἀγαθόν (G18) or σαπρόν (G4550); the fruit is καλούς (G2570) or πονηρούς (G4190). Pulpit separates the first pair exactly: the tree “intrinsically sound,” the fruit “attractive in the eyes of men.” Barnes corrects a translator's trap on the second: sapros does not mean a tree that “had been” good and went bad, but “a tree of a useless character.” Gill fixes the order of causation and will not let it reverse: the tree “is first good, and then puts forth good fruit,” and the fruit “does not make the tree good, but makes it appear to be so.” Then v. 18 converts the observation into a law by a single word, δύναται (G1410): not does not, cannot. Ellicott marks the step from “practical experience” to “a necessary law”; Pulpit, honest about the cost, concedes that “There are apparent anomalies in the world of spirit as of nature.”

Verse 19 then drops the axe, and the commentators are unanimous that the words are borrowed. Ellicott: the crowd “must, for the most part, have recognised the words as those which they had heard before from the lips of the Baptist.” JFB simply refers the reader to Matthew 3:10. Pulpit records the one difference, the oun of the Baptist's version applying it to an impending crisis, and then presses the Greek form to a hard conclusion: the sentence implies that all trees are cut unless there is a reason for the contrary.

iii. Lord, Lord, and the doing of the will — 7:21-7:23

Pulpit ties these verses tightly to what precedes: since external actions are the product of internal life, it is deeds and not words, nor even miracles, by which Christ's followers are finally distinguished. The Greek carries the join on one verb. ποιέω (G4160) makes fruit in vv. 17, 18 and 19; in v. 21 it is ὁ ποιῶν τὸ θέλημα, the one doing the will; in v. 22 it is ἐποιήσαμεν, “we did many powers.” The same word runs from the orchard to the judgment seat, and BSB's idiomatic “bears” for the tree hides the cord.

Ellicott sees in v. 22 the most marvellous claim in the whole Sermon: at the outset of his ministry, in a discourse that gives no prominence to his messiahship, Christ “yet claims, with the calmness of assured conviction, to be the Judge.” JFB notes that “that day” is “emphatically unnamed.” The defendants' plea is triply structured on τῷ σῷ ὀνόματι, and Pulpit argues from the dative that the Revised Version's “by thy name” is right against “in thy name,” since “in” would imply a vital connexion these men never had. Barnes states the doctrine flatly, that “the power of working miracles had no necessary connection with piety”; Poole instances Balaam, Saul and Judas; Gill closes with the sharpest line in the brief, that men should be able to cast out devils “and at last be cast to the devil.”

The verdict is given in a confessional verb. ὁμολογήσω (G3670) is the word of open acknowledgement, and Ellicott sets it against Matthew 10:32: this is the exact counterpart of “whosoever shall confess Me before men.” JFB hears in “I never knew you” a repudiation “with a certain scornful dignity,” and glosses it, “Our acquaintance was not broken off, there never was any.” Gill and Barnes both read ἔγνων in the covenantal sense of Psalm 1:6, knowledge that means approval and regard, and Barnes builds a whole doctrine of perseverance on it. Then ἀνομίαν (G458), which Cambridge glosses “Literally, lawlessness ,” and which Pulpit argues is chosen over the general word for sin because the whole Sermon has been insisting on the Law in its final meaning. Pulpit also records the source of the sentence: the clause “reproduces verbally the LXX. of Psalm 6:8,” except that Matthew writes ἀποχωρεῖτε where the psalm has ἀπόστητε, a word carrying more distance in the removal.

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. The passage is usually preached as a test we apply to other people, and it is that. But read from the Greek up, its architecture is a single axis repeated four times, and the last repetition turns the axis on the reader. Verse 15 sets ἔνδυμα (the garment, the outermost visible layer) against ἔσωθεν (from within). Verses 17 and 18 set ἀγαθός (the tree's hidden constitution) against καλός (the fruit's visible quality). Verse 21 sets the said “Lord, Lord” against the done will. And verse 22 sets the most spectacular visible output imaginable, prophecy, exorcism, δυνάμεις, against a relation that turns out never to have existed. Each pass moves the same test inward and each pass raises the stakes of the visible layer, until the final one has nothing left to examine but whether Christ knew the man.

Two things follow, and they pull against each other hard enough that neither can be dropped. First, the test really is about doing: ποιέω is the unit's spine, and Pulpit is right that words and even miracles are excluded as evidence while deeds are not. Second, the doing is never presented as the thing that produces the nature. Gill's order is the text's own order, the tree is good before its fruit is, and v. 18's δύναται makes the point by denying an ability, not by forbidding an act. So the fruit is diagnostic, never constitutive. The men in v. 22 fail not because their output was too small but because output was the only thing they had; they are, exactly, garment without inside. ⚙ And if that is right, then the passage cannot be used the way it is most often used, as a lever for self-inspection of one's works, without immediately handing the inspector back to the question he cannot answer about himself: not what have I made, but whose am I, and has he ever known me. That question the passage puts, and does not answer. It ends on a verdict from the bench, not on a method for the defendant.

The wolf's problem was never the fleece; it was that there was a wolf inside it. (This line is the tool's own synthesis, not Scripture.)

⚙

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 twin saying: the tree and its fruit in Luke and in Matthew 12 verbal / quotation: confirmed

The saying of vv. 16 to 18 stands in two other places in the Gospels, and Pulpit lists the correspondences at the head of the section: “vers. 16, 18, parallel with Luke 6:43, 44 , cf. also infra , Matthew 12:33 .” The Verifier confirms the link lexically rather than by memory: Luke 6:44 shares συλλέγω (G4816, in 8 verses), σῦκον (G4810, in only 4 verses) and καρπός (G2590); Luke 6:43 and Matthew 12:33 both share σαπρός (G4550, in only 6 verses) with this passage. The rarity of sykon and sapros is what makes this more than a shared topic. ⚙ Pulpit's own list of parallels shows something the lexemes alone do not: he pairs vv. 16 and 18 with Luke 6:43 and 44, and then v. 21 with Luke 6:46. In Luke the tree-saying and the “Lord, Lord” saying stand within a few verses of each other, exactly as the two halves of this unit do here. Whatever the tradition-history, the fruit test and the judgment scene travel together.

Luke 6:43 · Luke 6:44 · Matthew 12:33

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4816 συλλέγω (in 8 vv), G4810 σῦκον (in 4 vv), G4550 σαπρός (in 6 vv), G2590 καρπός (in 56 vv). Three rare lexemes across the pair, and Pulpit independently lists Luke 6:43-44 and Matthew 12:33 as parallels. Greek to Greek, so a verbal tier is available.

The Baptist's axe, repeated by the one he baptized verbal / quotation: confirmed

Verse 19 is not new material. Ellicott says the crowd “must, for the most part, have recognised the words as those which they had heard before from the lips of the Baptist,” and treats the repetition as “a link connecting the teaching of our Lord with that of the forerunner.” JFB simply refers the reader to Matthew 3:10 without comment. Pulpit identifies the single difference, that in Matthew 3:10 the general statement is applied by oun to “a definite time of impending judgment,” which implies the rest of the sentence stands as it stands here. The Verifier records the shared vocabulary for both Matthew 3:10 and its Lukan twin Luke 3:9.

Matthew 3:10 · Luke 3:9

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1186 δένδρον (in 18 vv) and G2590 καρπός (in 56 vv), both twice. The verbal tier rests less on lexeme rarity than on three independent commentators (Ellicott, JFB, Pulpit) treating Matthew 7:19 as the Baptist's own sentence repeated, with Pulpit naming οὖν as the only difference. All refs are New Testament.

Thorns and caltrops: the signature of cursed ground verbal / quotation: confirmed

The pair in v. 16 is not a random pair of nuisances. τρίβολος (G5146) is extremely rare, standing in only 2 verses of the Greek New Testament, and the Verifier reports that its single other occurrence is Hebrews 6:8, which also shares ἄκανθα (G173, in 11 verses) with this verse. The two words occur together nowhere else. ⚙ The link is lexical and this synthesis will not characterize the Hebrews context beyond what the Verifier supplies; what it does establish is that Matthew's pair is not an ad hoc pair of nuisances but a fixed collocation. Pulpit's botanical note pushes the same way, identifying the plant as the common thistle of Palestine, “in the plains the only fuel,” which is why v. 16's growth and v. 19's fire belong in one sequence.

Hebrews 6:8

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G5146 τρίβολος (in 2 vv, one of the rarest lexemes in the unit) and G173 ἄκανθα (in 11 vv). Greek to Greek. No quotation is claimed in either direction; the tier rests on the rarity of the shared pair, which occurs together in only these two places.

“Depart from me, ye that work iniquity”: the Judge speaks the psalmist's line structural / thematic: confirmed

Pulpit states it as a matter of record: this clause “reproduces verbally the LXX. of Psalm 6:8 , except in St. Matthew's word used for ‘depart’ ( ἀποχωρεῖτε ), which gives more idea of distance in the removal than the word used in the psalm and in Luke ( ἀπόστητε ).” Gill adds that some copies read “all the workers of iniquity,” “as in Psalm 6:8 from whence the words are taken.” Pulpit draws the theological consequence in one line: “The assurance of the psalmist becomes the verdict of the Judge.” Ellicott independently hears Psalm 15:2-3 and Psalm 24:3-4 behind the whole scene, and suggests David's ideal for his earthly kingdom is here transferred to the kingdom of heaven.

⚙ On the tier: the correspondence is as close to verbatim as a quotation gets, but this synthesis cannot tier it verbal. Shared Strong's numbers are computed within one language, and a Greek lexeme cannot be matched against a Hebrew one, so the Verifier supplies no cross-Testament lexical basis here. The recorded basis is Pulpit's and Gill's testimony about the Septuagint wording, which is a real and specific claim about a Greek text, not about Matthew's relation to the Hebrew psalm.

Psalm 6:8 · Matthew 7:23

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so shared Strong's numbers cannot be computed and a verbal tier is unavailable by rule. Basis is documentary: Pulpit states the clause reproduces the LXX of Psalm 6:8 verbatim apart from ἀποχωρεῖτε (G672) for ἀπόστητε, and Gill records a textual variant matching the psalm's fuller phrase. Tiered structural, under-claiming deliberately.

Wolves and sheep: the flock has one defence and it is not the fence structural / thematic: confirmed

λύκος (G3074) is rare, standing in 5 verses, and the Verifier finds it shared with both John 10:12 and Matthew 10:16, in each case alongside πρόβατον (G4263). Ellicott makes the connexion himself, saying the disguise here adds “a special feature” to “the general allegory of John 10:12 and Acts 20:29 .” ⚙ The three scenes are not the same scene. At John 10:12 the wolf is outside and the hireling flees; at Matthew 10:16 the sheep are sent out deliberately into the midst of wolves; here the wolf is already inside, wearing the flock's own coat. The progression is worth noticing precisely because no shared quotation ties the three together.

John 10:12 · Matthew 10:16

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3074 λύκος (in 5 vv) and G4263 πρόβατον (in 37 vv) with both refs. A real verbal link within a shared motif, but no quotation is made in either direction, so tiered structural rather than verbal despite the rarity of λύκος.

Sorting the catch: the same two words in the dragnet structural / thematic: confirmed

Matthew 13:48 shares three lexemes with this unit, two of them uncommon: συλλέγω (G4816, in 8 verses), σαπρός (G4550, in 6 verses) and καλός (G2570). Pulpit cites Matthew 13:48 by name when glossing sapros at v. 17. ⚙ The overlap is instructive about the word rather than the scene: sapros in the dragnet names fish that are thrown away rather than fish that are repaired, and that is exactly the force it has to carry at v. 17, against the English connotation Barnes warns about. Ephesians 4:29, which also shares sapros with this unit, applies the same word to speech, which is one more reason Gill's doctrinal reading of “fruits” cannot simply be dismissed.

Matthew 13:48 · Ephesians 4:29

basis: Verifier: Matthew 13:48 shares G4816 συλλέγω (in 8 vv), G4550 σαπρός (in 6 vv), G2570 καλός (in 90 vv); Ephesians 4:29 shares G4550 σαπρός (in 6 vv) and G18 ἀγαθός (in 90 vv). Greek to Greek and lexically real, but the link is a shared vocabulary of sorting and discarding, not a quotation, so tiered structural.

“The Lord knoweth them that are his”: an alleged apostolic echo flagged: verify source

JFB writes that “That the apostle alludes to these very words in 2Ti 2:19 there can hardly be any doubt,” pointing to the double seal, the Lord knowing his own and every one that names his name departing from iniquity. Barnes cites 2 Timothy 2:19 in the same connexion at v. 23, and Pulpit calls the collocation of the Lord's knowing and man's departing “perhaps, more than a coincidence,” citing Resch's Agrapha.

⚙ This thread is flagged rather than confirmed, and deliberately so. The Verifier's candidate list for this unit contains no entry for 2 Timothy 2:19, so there is no computed lexical basis at all; the link rests entirely on three commentators' judgment that Paul is alluding, and Pulpit himself hedges it with “perhaps.” Readers should treat it as a proposal by named interpreters, not as an established citation.

2 Timothy 2:19

basis: No Verifier candidate and therefore no computed shared-lexeme basis for this pair. The link is asserted by JFB (“there can hardly be any doubt”), cited by Barnes, and hedged by Pulpit (“perhaps, more than a coincidence,” citing Resch, Agrapha, p. 207). Provenance of the alleged allusion is a matter of interpretive judgment; flagged pending verification.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Judge who is also the name invoked ancient/widely-held

Ellicott puts the weight where it belongs: no part of the Sermon on the Mount is more marvellous in its claims than v. 22, and to those who see in Christ only a human teacher with a higher morality than Hillel or Seneca, none more incomprehensible. At the beginning of his ministry, in a discourse that gives no prominence to his messiahship, he “yet claims, with the calmness of assured conviction, to be the Judge before whom the faithful and the hypocrites will alike have to give an account.” JFB traces the same ascent, observing that Christ rises higher still without formally announcing himself as Judge, intimating instead what men will say to him, and he to them, when he sits as their final judge.

The structure of the claim is threefold and the Greek keeps it exact. He is the Κύριε addressed, and JFB notes he accepts the title elsewhere without qualification. He is the one in whose ὄνομα (G3686) prophecy, exorcism and δυνάμεις were genuinely performed, Geneva glossing “name” as “mighty working power of God.” And he is the bench. ⚙ The three roles cannot be separated without the verse collapsing: the works these men did really were done in his name and really were effective, which is only possible if the name is what Geneva says it is, and it is the same person who then disowns them.

Matthew 7:22 · Matthew 7:23 · Matthew 10:32

The confession that answers a confession ancient/widely-held

The verdict verb is not a judicial term but a confessional one. ὁμολογήσω (G3670) is “to assent, to acknowledge openly,” and Ellicott is the voice in the brief who sees what that does: “The words form a remarkable complement to the promise, ‘Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven’ ( Matthew 10:32 ).” The same verb governs both scenes. Ellicott adds the condition: the confession recognised in Matthew 10 “is more than lip-homage, and implies the loyal service of obedience,” which is precisely the distinction v. 21 draws between saying and doing.

⚙ So the judgment of v. 23 is not Christ falling silent on men who confessed him. It is Christ confessing, openly, before the same Father, what the relation actually was. The symmetry is exact and grim: they said “Lord, Lord” and he says “I never knew you,” and both statements are called confession. JFB catches the tone, calling it a repudiation made “with a certain scornful dignity,” and his fuller words are given verbatim among the voices at v. 23.

Matthew 10:32 · Matthew 7:23

The wolf inside, and the Shepherd who does not flee novel

Ellicott links the sheep's clothing of v. 15 to “the general allegory of John 10:12 and Acts 20:29 ,” and the rare word λύκος (G3074, in 5 verses) holds the connexion lexically. Pulpit closes his note on the verse with Ezekiel 34:4 on false shepherds, which is the Old Testament indictment that the shepherd discourse answers.

⚙ Put the three scenes in order and a redemptive-historical shape appears that no single verse states. Ezekiel's shepherds fail the flock; Matthew 7:15's wolves have got inside the fold wearing its clothing; John 10 names one Shepherd who does not flee because the sheep are his own and not another man's. The disguise in v. 15 works only because sheep-garment is the right thing for a shepherd of this flock to be wearing, which is an unsettling way of saying that the counterfeit is shaped like the real. ⚙ This reading is offered as the tool's own construction. The individual links are sourced (Ellicott to John 10:12 and Acts 20:29, Pulpit to Ezekiel 34:4), but no commentator in the brief assembles them into this sequence, and it should be tested rather than trusted.

John 10:12 · Ezekiel 34:4 · Matthew 7:15

Good before it bears: the tree is not made good by its fruit ancient/widely-held

Gill draws the order of causation out of v. 17 and refuses to let it run backwards: the good tree “is good antecedent to the fruit it produces; it is first good, and then puts forth good fruit: it is not the fruit that makes the tree good, but makes it appear to be so.” Verse 18 then states the same thing as an incapacity rather than a rule, with δύναται (G1410) negated: not that the sound tree does not bear hurtful fruit, but that it cannot. JFB draws the Reformation consequence, that “the heart determines and is the only proper interpreter of the actions of our life,” and turns it against every scheme that reckons merit apart from the motive that prompts it. Geneva compresses the whole unit into one gloss: “Even the best gifts that exist are nothing without godliness.”

⚙ This is the passage's answer to the objection that vv. 21 to 23 teach salvation by performance. The men of v. 22 have performance in abundance, and it saves no one. What the fruit test detects is a nature already there, and Scripture nowhere locates the power to change that nature in the tree. The redemptive-historical point follows without strain: if fruit follows nature and nature cannot produce itself, then the whole weight of the passage rests on someone else doing the planting.

Matthew 7:17 · Matthew 7:18 · John 15:5

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: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbers; all parse data, lexeme frequencies and thread bases in this unit come from that apparatus and from the Verifier's computed candidate list, not from the machine layer.

Textual points recorded in the sources, not resolved here. At v. 18 the Pulpit Commentary notes that Westcott and Hort read ἐνεγκεῖν in the first clause against ποιεῖν in the second, so the two halves may not have matched in wording; the interlinear before us gives ποιεῖν twice, and this synthesis follows the interlinear while recording the variant. At v. 15 Pulpit states that “the true text” has no adversative particle before the warning. At v. 21 Gill reports that the Vulgate and Munster's Hebrew Matthew add a repeated clause, “he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” At v. 22 Pulpit attributes the “Western” addition of eating and drinking to Luke 13:26. At v. 23 Gill notes copies reading “all the workers of iniquity,” matching Psalm 6:8.

What is genuinely contested among the sources. (1) What “fruits” means: JFB excludes doctrine by name, Gill argues that doctrine is precisely what is meant, Ellicott and Pulpit read life and conduct. This synthesis records the disagreement and does not settle it. (2) Who the false prophets were: Gill identifies them with the Scribes and Pharisees, Pulpit with teachers inside the church at the time Matthew wrote, Ellicott with the successors of the false prophets of Isaiah's and Jeremiah's days. (3) Gill restricts the tree figure to ministers rather than to men in general, a restriction the text does not state and which he needs in order to concede that an unregenerate man may preach sound doctrine; his excerpt at v. 18 is given with that noted.

Two links carry explicit warnings. The Psalm 6:8 correspondence at v. 23 is as close to a quotation as this unit contains, and it is nonetheless tiered structural, because shared Strong's numbers cannot be computed across languages and this apparatus will not assert a verbal tier it cannot verify by its own method. The 2 Timothy 2:19 allusion has no Verifier candidate at all and is flagged accordingly; it rests on JFB's confidence, Barnes's citation and Pulpit's explicit hedge.

Voices in this unit: Ellicott, Benson, Henry, Barnes, JFB, Poole, Gill, Geneva, Cambridge and Pulpit, every author present in the brief. Two entries in the brief (Gill at 7:16 and at 7:22) are capped; no excerpt used here comes from beyond a cap. The ⚙ passages are this tool's synthesis: fallible, marked, and offered to be tested against the Word itself.

✦ = 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)