The Fallible Study Bible

The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible

Matthew7:7–12

Ask, Seek, Knock

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Matthew 7:7–12 — Ask, Seek, Knock. 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.

7

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Aiteite kai dothēsetai hymin zēteite kai heurēsete krouete kai anoigēsetai hymin

Word by word11 · parsed
ΑἰτεῖτεAiteiteAskG154
√ αἰτέω — to ask (in genitive case)VerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
αἰτέω: to ask, to request Present imperative active, second person plural: the tense commands a continuing action, so the force is “go on asking.” The verb is the ordinary word for a request made by an inferior to a superior, which is why it fits both the beggar and the son. Ellicott hears here the answer to an unspoken question left by the preceding verses about reproof, and insists the absolute promise carries two implied conditions: that we ask for good gifts, and that we ask in Christ's name and according to His spirit.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
δοθήσεταιdothēsetaiit will be givenG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
δίδωμι: to give Future indicative passive, third singular. The passive with no stated agent is the standard reverent circumlocution for God's own action, and it holds the Giver back for four verses before verse 11 discloses Him. Poole notes that the promise is worded as a gift precisely so we cannot read it as wages: “the promise of giving lets us know that our prayers are not meritorious.”
ὑμῖνhyminto youG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
Dative of the person benefited, repeated at the end of the verse: the promise is twice addressed to you, plural, to the whole listening crowd rather than to an elite of the prayerful.
ζητεῖτεzēteiteseekG2212
√ ζητέω — to seek (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
ζητέω: to seek Present imperative active. Asking is a word; seeking adds motion and labour toward the thing wanted. Ellicott distinguishes the three as degrees of intensity: the asking is “in the spoken words of prayer,” the seeking is “in the efforts and labours which are acted prayers.” JFB sharpens the difference of object rather than of heat: we ask for what we wish, we seek for what we miss.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εὑρήσετεheurēseteyou will findG2147
√ εὑρίσκω — to find (literally or figuratively)VerbFuture Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
κρούετεkroueteknockG2925
√ κρούω — to rapVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
κρούω: to rap, to knock Present imperative active, and the rarest verb in the unit (the Verifier records it in only nine verses of the New Testament). In its other uses a door is always named: the shut door of Luke 13:25, the master's door in Luke 12:36, the literal gate Peter keeps rapping at in Acts 12:13 and 12:16, and the figurative door of Laodicea in Revelation 3:20. Matthew is the one place where the verb is left standing before no door at all. Henry reads it as a shut house: “Sin has shut and barred the door against us; by prayer we knock.”
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀνοιγήσεταιanoigēsetai[the door] will be openedG455
√ ἀνοίγω — to open up (literally or figuratively, in various applications)VerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
ἀνοίγω: to open up Future indicative passive, third singular, and objectless in the Greek. What is opened is never said, so the promise is as wide as the need. Pulpit distinguishes the three clauses not by temperature but by direction: they “think of the Giver, the sphere in which the gift lies, the obstacles in the way of obtaining it.”
ὑμῖνhyminto youG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
8

For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gar pas ho aitōn lambanei kai ho zētōn heuriskei kai tō krouonti anoigēsetai

Word by word13 · parsed
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
πᾶςpaseveryoneG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
πᾶς: all, any, every, the whole Nominative masculine singular, standing in front of the whole sentence. The universality is grammatical, not rhetorical: no class of asker is excluded in the Greek, and every restriction found in the commentators (Barnes's “that asks aright,” JFB's “in faith,” Gill's “from right principles”) is imported from elsewhere in Scripture, chiefly James 1:5-7 and James 4:3, which JFB quotes at length here.
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
αἰτῶνaitōnwho asksG154
√ αἰτέω — to ask (in genitive case)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
αἰτέω: to ask Present participle active, nominative, under the article: the asker as a type. Poole reads the very piling up of terms as a diagnosis of us rather than of God: the repetition “lets us know our averseness to the duty.”
λαμβάνειlambaneireceivesG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
λαμβάνω: to receive, to take Present indicative active. Verse 7 promised in the future; verse 8 reports in the present, as an established state of affairs. The three present indicatives (λαμβάνει, εὑρίσκει) and the one remaining future (ἀνοιγήσεται) keep one door still ahead of the asker even in the sentence that grounds the promise.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhohe whoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
The article standing alone for “he who,” a normal Greek substantiser; the BSB supplies the pronoun English requires.
ζητῶνzētōnseeksG2212
√ ζητέω — to seek (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
εὑρίσκειheuriskeifindsG2147
√ εὑρίσκω — to find (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τῷtōto him whoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
κρούοντιkrouontiknocksG2925
√ κρούω — to rapVerbPresent Participle ActiveDative Masculine Singular
κρούω: to rap, to knock Present participle active in the dative, the only one of the three participles not in the nominative: the knocker is not the subject who finds but the person to whom it is opened. The grammar itself concedes that the last of the three acts cannot complete itself from this side of the door.
ἀνοιγήσεταιanoigēsetai[the door] will be openedG455
√ ἀνοίγω — to open up (literally or figuratively, in various applications)VerbFuture Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
ἀνοίγω: to open up Future indicative passive, identical to the form in verse 7 and again without an object. Gill takes the unnamed opening in its widest sense: the constant knocker “shall have entrance into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus.”
9

Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Ē tis anthrōpos estin ex hymōn hon ho autou huios aitēsei arton epidōsei mē autō lithon

Word by word16 · parsed
ἪĒG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
τίςtisWhichG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἄνθρωποςanthrōpos. . .G444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounNominative Masculine Singular
ἄνθρωπος: a human being Nominative masculine singular, and the hinge of the whole argument from verse 9 to verse 11. Jesus does not appeal to the good fathers among them but to any father at all, so that the comparison in verse 11 can run from the worst human case to God. Benson calls the phrase “very emphatical,” an appeal to the assembly's own experience; Pulpit notes the underlying assumption, that “our natural feelings are of the same kind as God's.”
ἐστινestinG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐξexofG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
ὑμῶνhymōnyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Plural
ὃνhonif hisG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Masculine Singular
ὁho. . .G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
αὐτοῦautou. . .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 PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
υἱὸςhuiossonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounNominative Masculine Singular
υἱός: son Nominative masculine singular. The petitioner of verses 7 and 8, anonymous until now, is suddenly a son asking his own father, and the shift governs everything that follows: the promise was never made to a stranger at a counter. The Verifier finds the same lexeme in the Lukan parallel at Luke 11:11.
αἰτήσειaitēseiasks forG154
√ αἰτέω — to ask (in genitive case)VerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αἰτέω: to ask Future indicative active, third singular. The same verb commanded in verse 7 now appears inside the illustration, so that the child's request and the disciple's prayer are lexically the same act. Matthew uses the future where the parallel scene imagines a real case: whenever he shall ask.
ἄρτονartonbreadG740
√ ἄρτος — bread (as raised) or a loafNounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἐπιδώσειepidōseiwill giveG1929
√ ἐπιδίδωμι — to give over (by hand or surrender)VerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐπιδίδωμι: to give over, to hand across Future indicative active. A rare compound (nine verses) and a deliberate change from the δίδωμι of verses 7 and 11: this is the transfer itself, hand to hand. The Verifier's candidate list shows it clustering with bread and fish in Luke 24:30 and Luke 24:42, which is the risen Christ handing food to His own.
μὴmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
μή: not, lest Adverb, here the interrogative particle that builds its own answer into the question and expects the reply “no.” It cannot be rendered as a word, which is why the interlinear prints it “. . .”, and it is the decisive item of grammar in verses 9 and 10: the sentence does not assert that fathers are good, it dares the hearers to produce one who is not. Gill answers the particle exactly as the Greek intends, with a flat “No, by no means.”
αὐτῷautōhimG846
√ 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 Singular
λίθονlithona stoneG3037
√ λίθος — a stone (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
λίθος: a stone Accusative, the fronted object of a question framed by μή. The trick works only because a smooth Galilean stone can be taken for a loaf, and Cambridge fixes the principle behind both illustrations: the things contrasted “have a certain superficial resemblance, but in each case one thing is good, the other unclean or even dangerous.”
10

Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

ē kai aitēsei ichthyn epidōsei mē autō ophin

Word by word8 · parsed
ἢēOrG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
καὶkai[if]G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
The καί here is concessive rather than additive, which is why the interlinear supplies it as “[if]”; the conditional force is carried by the sentence, not by a separate particle.
αἰτήσειaitēseihe asks forG154
√ αἰτέω — to ask (in genitive case)VerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἰχθὺνichthyna fishG2486
√ ἰχθύς — a fishNounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἰχθύς: a fish Accusative masculine singular. With ἄρτον in verse 9 it names the whole diet of the lake, the same pairing that appears in the feeding narratives. The Verifier records the lexeme in eighteen verses, and its co-occurrence with ἐπιδίδωμι at Luke 24:42 is one of only a handful in the New Testament.
ἐπιδώσειepidōseiwill giveG1929
√ ἐπιδίδωμι — to give over (by hand or surrender)VerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐπιδίδωμι: to give over by hand Future indicative active, identical to verse 9. The repetition is the rhetoric: two questions, one verb, one impossible father.
μὴmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
αὐτῷautōhimG846
√ 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 Singular
ὄφινophina snakeG3789
√ ὄφις — a snake, figuratively, (as a type of sly cunning) an artful malicious person, especially SatanNounAccusative Masculine Singular
ὄφις: a snake, figuratively an artful malicious person Accusative masculine singular, the sting in the argument. Barnes takes the resemblance as the point: “A fish has some resemblance to a serpent; yet no parent would attempt to deceive his child in this.” Gill adds from the Lukan parallel the third pair, egg and scorpion, and concludes that “nothing of this kind is to be found among men, unless it be among monsters in nature.”
11

So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

oun ei hymeis ontes ponēroi oidate didonai agatha domata tois hymōn teknois posō mallon ho hymōn Patēr ho en tois ouranois dōsei agatha tois aitousin auton

Word by word26 · parsed
οὖνounSoG3767
√ οὖν — (adverbially) certainly, or (conjunctionally) accordinglyConjunction
εἰeiifG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
ὑμεῖςhymeisyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 2nd Person Plural
ὄντεςonteswho areG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
εἰμί: to be Present participle active, nominative plural, concessive: “although you are.” The participle grants the premise that would ruin any ordinary argument, then builds on it. Placed against verse 9's ἄνθρωπος, the case is now at its worst: not merely a human father, but an evil one.
πονηροὶponēroievilG4190
√ πονηρός — hurtful, iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
πονηρός: hurtful, evil Adjective, nominative masculine plural, spoken to the crowd on the mountain, not about a third party. JFB refuses to let the verdict cancel the analogy: “Bad as our fallen nature is, the father in us is not extinguished.” Gill takes it further, suspecting Jesus “has respect chiefly to the evil of covetousness.”
οἴδατεoidateknow howG1492
√ εἴδω — used only in certain past tenses, the others being borrowed from the equivalent G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι) and G3708 (ὁράω)VerbPerfect Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
εἴδω: to know Perfect indicative active, second plural, with present force: knowledge already in hand. The perfect is the quiet centre of the argument. Evil men do not have to be taught to feed their children, and that untaught instinct is the only evidence Jesus offers for what God is like.
διδόναιdidonaito giveG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbPresent Infinitive Active
ἀγαθὰagathagoodG18
√ ἀγαθός — "good" (in any sense, often as noun)AdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
δόματαdomatagiftsG1390
√ δόμα — a presentNounAccusative Neuter Plural
δόμα: a present, a gift Accusative neuter plural, found in only four verses of the New Testament. Its rarity is what makes the Verifier's link to Ephesians 4:8 and Philippians 4:17 a real lexical thread rather than a coincidence of theme: the same rare noun names the gifts the ascended Christ gives to men and the fruit credited to the Philippians' account.
τοῖςtoistoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Plural
ὑμῶνhymōnyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Plural
τέκνοιςteknoischildrenG5043
√ τέκνον — a child (as produced)NounDative Neuter Plural
πόσῳposōhow muchG4214
√ πόσος — interrogative pronoun (of amount) how much (large, long or (plural) many)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounDative Neuter Singular
μᾶλλονmallonmoreG3123
√ μᾶλλον — (adverbially) more (in a greater degree)) or ratherAdverb
μᾶλλον: more, in a greater degree Adverb, paired with the dative πόσῳ. The comparison is not between good fathers and God but between bad fathers and God, so the gap the argument crosses is infinite in the direction of goodness, not merely large.
ὁho{will}G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ὑμῶνhymōnyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Plural
ΠατὴρPatērFatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounNominative Masculine Singular
πατήρ: father Nominative masculine singular, and the answer at last to the agentless passives of verse 7. The Giver held back through δοθήσεται and ἀνοιγήσεται is named here, and named as your Father. Pulpit grounds the very instinct appealed to in verse 9 on this fatherhood, citing Ephesians 3:15.
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative 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
δώσειdōseigiveG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
δίδωμι: to give Future indicative active, third singular, now with a stated subject. The passive of verse 7 becomes active here: the same promise, with the face of the Giver turned toward us.
ἀγαθὰagathagood thingsG18
√ ἀγαθός — "good" (in any sense, often as noun)AdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
ἀγαθός: good Accusative neuter plural, standing alone without δόματα. Ellicott argues from the context that these are “spiritual and not temporal gifts,” and both Cambridge and Pulpit note that the Lukan parallel at Luke 11:13 reads “the Holy Spirit” in this exact slot. JFB suggests Matthew's more general wording suits the earlier stage of the ministry and the mixed crowd before Him.
τοῖςtoisto thoseG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
αἰτοῦσινaitousinwho askG154
√ αἰτέω — to ask (in genitive case)VerbPresent Participle ActiveDative Masculine Plural
αἰτέω: to ask Present participle active, dative plural: “to the ones asking Him.” The unit ends its argument on the same verb it opened with in verse 7, and the participle is again durative. Gill draws the practical conclusion: “it is but ask and have.”
αὐτόνautonHimG846
√ 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 Singular
12

In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Panta hosa ean oun hymeis poieite autois houtōs kai thelēte hina poiōsin hoi anthrōpoi hymin gar houtos estin ho nomos kai hoi prophētai

Word by word23 · parsed
ΠάνταPantaIn everythingG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
πᾶς: all, every, the whole Accusative neuter plural, fronted for emphasis and picked up by ὅσα ἐὰν. The rule is given no boundary of person or case, which is what Gill contrasts with the rabbinic parallels: the Jewish forms he cites speak of “brethren,” but “our Lord's rule reaches to all without exception.”
ὅσαhosa. . .G3745
√ ὅσος — as (much, great, long, etcPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Neuter Plural
ἐὰνean. . .G1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
οὖνounthenG3767
√ οὖν — (adverbially) certainly, or (conjunctionally) accordinglyConjunction
οὖν: therefore, accordingly The inferential particle that binds the golden rule to the preceding promise, and the most disputed word in the verse. Cambridge draws the inference from both halves of the chapter: “The thought of the divine judgment teaches forbearance; the thought of the divine goodness teaches kindness.” Poole reports that most interpreters of his day thought it “redundant,” since “it is hard to make out this to be a proper inference from the premises.”
ὑμεῖςhymeisG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 2nd Person Plural
ποιεῖτεpoieitedoG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
ποιέω: to make or do Present imperative active, second plural, the only command in the verse and the same durative present as Αἰτεῖτε in verse 7. The unit opens and closes with a continuous-action imperative: keep asking God, keep doing to men.
αὐτοῖςautoisto othersG846
√ 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
οὕτωςhoutōsasG3779
√ οὕτω — in this way (referring to what precedes or follows)Adverb
καὶkai. . .G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
θέλητεthelēteyou would haveG2309
√ θέλω — to determine (as an active option from subjective impulseVerbPresent Subjunctive Active2nd Person Plural
θέλω: to determine, to will Present subjunctive active with ἐὰν. The subjunctive makes the standard hypothetical and personal: whatever you might actually resolve to want. Ellicott sees the danger and states the necessary limit, that the rule “is only safe when our own will has been first purified.”
ἵναhinaG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
ποιῶσινpoiōsinthem doG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPresent Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
οἱhoi. . .G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἄνθρωποιanthrōpoi. . .G444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounNominative Masculine Plural
ἄνθρωπος: a human being Nominative masculine plural, the same noun that carried the appeal in verse 9. There it was any man's fatherly instinct; here it is all men as the field of obligation. The lexical repetition is the seam between the two halves of the unit.
ὑμῖνhyminto youG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
γάρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
οὗτοςhoutosthisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐστινestinis [the essence of]G1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
Present indicative of εἰμί: a bare equation, with “the essence of” supplied by the translators.
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
νόμοςnomosLawG3551
√ νόμος — law (through the idea of prescriptive usage), genitive case (regulation), specially, (of Moses (including the volume)NounNominative Masculine Singular
νόμος: law, through the idea of prescriptive usage Nominative masculine singular with the article, paired with οἱ προφῆται: the standing Jewish name for the whole of Scripture. Pulpit notes that this returns the sermon to its announced subject at Matthew 5:17 and limits the claim to the second table, as Matthew 22:40 does. JFB calls the summary “all Scripture in a nutshell.”
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
προφῆταιprophētaiProphetsG4396
√ προφήτης — a foreteller ("prophet")NounNominative Masculine Plural
προφήτης: a foreteller, a prophet Nominative masculine plural under its own article. The doubled article (“the Law and the Prophets”) keeps two collections in view rather than one blended authority, and the singular verb ἐστιν binds them into one verdict.

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. Three present imperatives and two agentless passives — 7:7-7:8

⚙ The unit opens with three commands that are all present imperatives, Αἰτεῖτε … ζητεῖτε … κρούετε, so the Greek asks for a habit rather than an act. Against them stand two futures in the passive with no agent named, δοθήσεται and ἀνοιγήσεται, and one of them has no object either: the interlinear has to print “[the door]” in brackets because Matthew never says what is opened. That double reticence, unnamed Giver and unnamed door, is the engine of the passage, and it is not resolved until ὁ Πατὴρ ὑμῶν in verse 11. The commentators divide honestly over what the triad means. Ellicott reads a climb: the three words “imply distinct degrees of intensity,” asking in words, seeking in “efforts and labours which are acted prayers,” knocking with importunity at the Father's gate. Cambridge agrees and calls it a climax where “the fervour of the prayer must grow more and more intense.” JFB reads three different lacks instead of one rising heat: we ask for what we wish, we seek for what we miss, we knock for what we feel shut out of. Pulpit offers a third division, that the clauses “think of the Giver, the sphere in which the gift lies, the obstacles in the way of obtaining it.” The Greek settles none of these. Verse 8 then grounds the imperatives with γὰρ and an unqualified πᾶς, and Henry presses that universality to its edge: “whether Jew or Gentile, young or old, rich or poor, high or low, master or servant, learned or unlearned.” Every qualification the tradition adds is imported: Barnes supplies “every one that asks aright,” JFB imports James 1:5-7 and James 4:3, Gill requires asking “from right principles.” The imported conditions are true to Scripture; they are not in this sentence. Note, too, what the grammar concedes: of the three participles in verse 8, only κρούοντι is dative. The knocker is not the one who opens.

ii. The bad father as the only evidence offered — 7:9-7:11

⚙ The argument now narrows to a single household, and the Greek chooses its nouns carefully. Verse 9 asks not what disciple or what believer but what ἄνθρωπος, what human being, and Gill hears the bare humanity in it: no one would do such a thing “unless he is become a mere brute, and devoid of all humanity.” Twice the question is framed by μὴ, the particle that builds its own answer in, and twice the verb is the rare compound ἐπιδώσει, a hand-to-hand delivery found in only nine verses of the New Testament. The substitutions are chosen for resemblance, not for absurdity: JFB notes that the stone is “round and smooth like such a loaf or cake as was much in use, but only to mock him,” and that the serpent is “like it, indeed, but only to sting him.” Cambridge states the rule behind both: the paired things “have a certain superficial resemblance, but in each case one thing is good, the other unclean or even dangerous.” Ellicott adds the local colour, that bread and fish were the staple of Galilean peasants, and Gill that Christ was standing in “a fish country” from which He had called fishermen. Then verse 11 springs the argument from the lesser to the greater, and its premise is deliberately the worst available: ὑμεῖς πονηροὶ ὄντες, you being evil, spoken to the crowd in front of Him. The pivot is the perfect οἴδατε, which Pulpit glosses as knowing “intuitively.” The only evidence Jesus offers for the character of God is an instinct that evil people have without being taught it. Ellicott states the balance exactly: the words “at once recognise the fact of man's depravity, and assert that it is not total,” and JFB the same from the other side: “Bad as our fallen nature is, the father in us is not extinguished.” One detail deserves more weight than the English can carry. The men give δόματα ἀγαθά, good gifts, using a noun the Verifier finds in only four verses of the New Testament; the Father gives simply ἀγαθά, good things, with the noun dropped. Pulpit asks whether the omission is meant to prevent us imagining a grace that can be “possessed apart from the Giver.” Ellicott, Cambridge, Gill and Pulpit all read the unspecified good things through the parallel at Luke 11:13, where the slot is filled by the Holy Spirit; JFB alone offers a reason for Matthew's reticence, that at this early stage and before such an audience Jesus avoids the sharper doctrinal wording He uses later with the disciples alone.

iii. Therefore: the rule that is the Law and the Prophets — 7:12

⚙ The οὖν of verse 12 is the hardest word in the unit, and the tradition does not hide it. Poole reports that most interpreters of his day called the particle “redundant,” since “it is hard to make out this to be a proper inference from the premises.” Benson supplies a condition, that God gives “only on this condition … that ye follow the example of his equity and benevolence.” Cambridge draws the line from both halves of the chapter at once: “The thought of the divine judgment teaches forbearance; the thought of the divine goodness teaches kindness.” Pulpit takes it as summing up verses 1 to 11 together, and had already argued at verse 7 that the key to the right treatment of others is found in what we ourselves wish to receive. The grammar rewards the last reading: ποιεῖτε is a present imperative, exactly like Αἰτεῖτε in verse 7, so the unit opens and closes on the same continuous command in two directions. Two precisions matter. First, οὕτως is an adverb of manner, and Pulpit observes that Jesus “carefully avoids any expression that might lead to a legal enumeration of different details”: not these things, but thus. Second, the rule is positive where its famous parallels are negative. Ellicott and Gill both record Hillel's form, “whatsoever is hateful to thee, that do not thou to thy neighbour,” and Gill adds the Karaite maxim and Maimonides; Barnes notes something similar “among the ancient Greeks and Romans, and … in the writings of Confucius”; Ellicott traces Aristotle's reply that we should act toward friends “as we would they should act to us.” JFB concedes every parallel and then locates the difference in the setting rather than the wording: “so expressed as it is here … it is to be found nowhere else.” Ellicott supplies the necessary guard, that the rule “is only safe when our own will has been first purified.” And on the closing equation Poole is exact where translations soften: the BSB's “the essence of” is a supplied phrase, and “Christ doth not say, this is all the law and the prophets, but this is the law and the prophets.” Geneva makes the same restriction structurally, calling the verse an explanation of the second table.

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

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against Scripture and discarded if it fails. Read the unit backwards and it stops being two subjects. Verse 12 does not append ethics to prayer; it tells you what was being asked for the whole time. The promise of verses 7 and 8 is left deliberately empty: no object for ἀνοιγήσεται, no agent for δοθήσεται, no content for the asking. Verses 9 to 11 then fill it from the only direction that can be trusted, a father's hands, and even there the content stays unnamed: ἀγαθά, good things, with the rare noun δόματα pointedly not repeated of God. Then verse 12 hands us the one thing the passage will actually name as good, which is that we should treat men as we would be treated. If that sequence holds, the good gift the Father is being asked for in verse 7 is, among other things, the ability to keep verse 12. This coheres with the immediate context the commentators keep reaching for: Ellicott, Cambridge and Pulpit all connect verse 7 to the preceding problem of judging others, and say the thing to ask for is discernment toward our neighbour. It coheres with the grammar, since both ends of the unit stand in the same durative present imperative. And it explains the particle Poole's contemporaries wanted to call redundant. Two cautions against my own reading. Matthew, unlike Luke, does not name the gift, and I should not name it more tightly than he does; Ellicott, Cambridge, Gill and Pulpit all import “the Holy Spirit” from Luke 11:13, which is a reasonable harmony but is not this text. And the μὴ questions of verses 9 and 10 cut against every attempt to make God's giving predictable in kind: the father gives bread, not what the child specified. Poole says it as well as it can be said, that when we ask and do not receive we may conclude we thought it bread and it was a stone. The line below is my summary, not Scripture, and must be tested as such.

The good thing the child does not know to ask for is a heart that would hand over bread.

⚙

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 Lukan twin: the same three verbs in another setting verbal / quotation: confirmed

The nearest parallel in Scripture is Luke 11:9-13, and it is close to word for word. The Verifier confirms the overlap lexeme by lexeme across five consecutive verses: αἰτέω (G154), ζητέω (G2212), εὑρίσκω (G2147), κρούω (G2925) and δίδωμι (G1325), with υἱός (G5207) shared at Luke 11:11. Pulpit reports the differences precisely: Luke “reads ' egg' and ' scorpion' for 'bread' and 'stone,' and reverses the order of the sentences,” and there the saying follows the parable of the friend at midnight. Pulpit judges that the original setting is probably Luke's while “Matthew's form of the individual clauses may be the more original.” The doctrinally weighty divergence is at the last line: where Matthew has the bare ἀγαθά, Luke has the Holy Spirit. Cambridge takes Luke as interpreting Matthew; Pulpit suggests instead that Luke singles out “that gift which ultimately produces all others” while Matthew keeps “a more distributive expression”; JFB attributes the difference to audience and stage of ministry.

Luke 11:9 · Luke 11:10 · Luke 11:11 · Luke 11:12 · Luke 11:13

basis: Verifier: Greek to Greek, shared lexemes across five verses including the rare G2925 κρούω (freq 9 vv) at Luke 11:9-10, plus G154 αἰτέω (67 vv), G2212 ζητέω (114 vv), G2147 εὑρίσκω (167 vv), G1325 δίδωμι (378 vv), G5207 υἱός (344 vv). Synoptic parallel, not a citation of one Gospel by the other

κρούω: the nine doors of the New Testament verbal / quotation: confirmed

κρούω (G2925, “to rap”) is rare enough to be tracked across the whole New Testament: the Verifier finds it in nine verses, and in almost every one it pairs with ἀνοίγω (G455) at a literal door. Barnes already noticed the cluster and sent his readers to two of them: “The latter is taken from the act of knocking at a door for admittance. See Luke 13:25; Revelation 3:20.” The cluster does not speak with one voice, and that is the value of it. At Luke 13:25 the knocker is outside and the door has been shut by the householder; at Luke 12:36 it is the returning master who knocks and the servants who open; at Acts 12:13 and 12:16 Peter keeps knocking at a gate his own praying friends will not believe; at Revelation 3:20 it is Christ who stands and knocks. ⚙ Matthew 7:7 sits inside that field of shared vocabulary without settling which door is meant, since the Greek here supplies no object at all.

Luke 13:25 · Luke 12:36 · Revelation 3:20 · Acts 12:13 · Acts 12:16

basis: Verifier: Greek to Greek, shared rare lexeme G2925 κρούω (freq 9 vv) with G455 ἀνοίγω (75 vv) in each pair. A genuine lexical link across a small closed set of uses; none of these passages quotes another, and the sense of the knocking differs between them

δόμα: the four verses of a rare word for a gift verbal / quotation: confirmed

The noun Matthew puts in the mouths of evil fathers, δόματα (G1390, “a present”), occurs in only four verses of the New Testament, so the Verifier's links here carry real weight. At Ephesians 4:8 the same rare noun names what the ascended Christ gives to men, alongside δίδωμι (G1325) twice; at Philippians 4:17 Paul uses it of the gift he is careful to say he does not seek. ⚙ The observation is lexical and should be kept that way: Matthew is not quoted at Ephesians, and Paul is not commenting on the Sermon on the Mount. What the shared rarity does show is that the word chosen for a father's handed-over present is the same word the apostolic vocabulary reaches for when naming what Christ distributes, and that Matthew withholds it from God in the very clause where he could have repeated it, writing only ἀγαθά.

Ephesians 4:8 · Philippians 4:17

basis: Verifier: Greek to Greek, shared rare lexeme G1390 δόμα (freq 4 vv), at Ephesians 4:8 with G1325 δίδωμι (378 vv). A rare-word link only; no quotation is claimed in either direction

Bread handed over, and a piece of fish structural / thematic: confirmed

The verb of verses 9 and 10, ἐπιδίδωμι (G1929, “to give over by hand or surrender”), is rare: the Verifier finds it in nine verses. Two of those nine are the closing scenes of Luke's Gospel, and both involve the very foods Jesus names here. At Luke 24:30 the risen Christ takes bread (ἄρτος, G740) and hands it to the two at Emmaus; at Luke 24:42 they hand Him a piece of broiled fish (ἰχθύς, G2486). ⚙ The link is verbal in its parts and thematic in its force: the same rare hand-to-hand verb, the same two foods, with the roles of giver and receiver exchanged. No New Testament writer draws this connection, and I do not claim that Matthew or Luke intended it; I record it as a resonance the shared vocabulary makes visible, and tier it accordingly.

Luke 24:30 · Luke 24:42

basis: Verifier: Greek to Greek, shared rare lexeme G1929 ἐπιδίδωμι (freq 9 vv) with G2486 ἰχθύς (18 vv) at Luke 24:42 and G740 ἄρτος (89 vv) at Luke 24:30. Real verbal overlap inside a shared motif of food handed over; deliberately not tiered verbal because no quotation or allusion is claimed

The second table in a sentence structural / thematic: confirmed

Verse 12 ends by equating the rule with ὁ νόμος καὶ οἱ προφῆται, and the tradition uniformly limits the claim to one half of the Decalogue. Geneva calls the verse “An explanation of the meaning of the second table.” Poole is exact about the wording: “Christ doth not say, this is all the law and the prophets, but this is the law and the prophets,” and identifies it as “the sum of the second table, which requireth only justice and charity.” Pulpit points to Leviticus 19:18 as the Old Testament sentence being summed, and notes that Jesus brings out the same thought “with its necessary limitation to the second table” at Matthew 22:40. Pulpit also sees the verse returning the sermon to its announced subject at Matthew 5:17. ⚙ This is a cross-Testament link and therefore cannot rest on shared Strong's numbers: the Hebrew of Leviticus and the Greek of Matthew have no lexemes in common to compare, so no verbal claim is possible or made.

Leviticus 19:18 · Matthew 22:40 · Matthew 5:17

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so shared Strong's lexemes are unavailable by definition and no verbal tier is possible. The recorded basis is the explicit summary formula 'the Law and the Prophets' plus Pulpit's citation of Leviticus 19:18 and Matthew 22:40 as the passages this verse sums

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The good thing that is a Person ancient/widely-held

Matthew leaves the Father's gift unnamed: ἀγαθά, good things, with the rare noun δόματα withheld from the divine half of the sentence. Luke names it. Cambridge: for this Luke “has 'the Holy Spirit,' shewing that spiritual rather than temporal 'good things' are intended.” Ellicott reads it the same way and goes further, calling it “the one gift of the Holy Spirit, which, in its sevenfold diversity, includes them all.” Gill and Pulpit concur, Pulpit adding the strict sense of the Lukan phrase as an outpouring of the Spirit. ⚙ If that identification holds, the promise of verse 7 is not a mechanism for obtaining things from God but the ordinary means by which the Father gives His own Spirit, and the Giver is therefore never separable from the gift. Pulpit half-asks this question himself, wondering whether “gifts” is dropped in the second clause so that the grace cannot be imagined as “possessed apart from the Giver.” The reading is the consensus of the named commentators; the extra step of tying it to the dropped noun is mine.

Luke 11:13 · Ephesians 4:8

The door that is opened from the other side ancient/widely-held

Twice the Greek says ἀνοιγήσεται, future passive, with no object and no agent: it shall be opened to you. Henry names the obstacle the knocking presupposes: “Sin has shut and barred the door against us; by prayer we knock.” Gill names what lies behind the door and who opened it: to the one who keeps knocking, “he shall have entrance into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus.” ⚙ The grammar supports the theology at one point that is easy to miss. In verse 8 the participles for asking and seeking are nominative, subjects of their own verbs; the participle for knocking is dative, κρούοντι, the person to whom it is opened. Scripture gives the knocker no verb of opening anywhere in this unit. The hand on the latch is always the other one, and the tradition from Henry to Gill identifies the opening with the torn veil and the blood of Christ rather than with the persistence of the knocker.

Revelation 3:20 · Luke 13:25

The Son who asked for bread novel

⚙ This reading is novel and offered for testing, not as the mind of the Church. The illustration of verses 9 to 11 rests on a son (υἱός) asking his father for bread, and on the certainty that no father hands over a stone. The Gospel that records the illustration also records the one Son who asked His Father for the cup to pass and did not receive what He specified. Matthew's own wording in the temptation scene had already set stones against bread in the wilderness, where the Son refused to turn one into the other, and He is given the wilderness instead. If Poole is right that God sometimes answers “our general desires, which were for some good, by denying our specific request,” then the deepest case of that denial is the Son in Gethsemane, and the good thing the Father gave in place of the removed cup was the salvation of the ones now told to ask. ⚙ Two honest limits: no commentator in this brief draws this line, and the Verifier records no lexical link between this unit and Gethsemane. I record it as a figural reading dependent on Matthew's own juxtaposition of stones and bread, not on shared vocabulary.

Matthew 4:3 · Matthew 26:39

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 for Matthew 7:7-12. All six verses carry full interlinear data; the parse categories used above (present imperative, future passive, perfect, articular participle, dative of measure) are taken verbatim from that parse and not inferred.

Two places where the English of the BSB is a supplement rather than a translation, and where this unit's readings depend on knowing it: “[the door] will be opened” in verses 7 and 8 supplies an object that ἀνοιγήσεται does not have in Greek, and “is [the essence of] the Law and the Prophets” in verse 12 supplies a noun that ἐστιν does not have. Both are marked as supplied in the interlinear itself. Three words are printed in the alignment as “. . .” because the English absorbs them with no separate equivalent: ἄνθρωπος in verse 9 and the interrogative μὴ in verses 9 and 10.

The per-word index list in the brief follows the Berean interlinear's English alignment rather than the running Greek word order; the literal renderings above follow the Greek clause order where it is unambiguous (notably μὴ λίθον ἐπιδώσει αὐτῷ in verse 9 and the οὕτως καὶ ὑμεῖς ποιεῖτε αὐτοῖς clause in verse 12), so the word order printed above will not always match the index sequence.

Sources: Ellicott (1878), Benson (1810s), Henry (1706), Barnes (1834), JFB (1871), Poole (1685), Gill (1746-63), Geneva (1599), Cambridge (1880s), Pulpit (1880s). Four of these are not continuous exposition here and are quoted with that in mind: Poole's entries at verses 7, 9 and 10 are cross-references to his notes on verses 8 and 11; Henry's note is a single block covering 7:7-11, so the same text stands under five verses; Geneva's entries at verses 8 through 11 reprint the verse with no gloss; Benson's entry at verse 7 covers 7:7-11 and is truncated in the brief by roughly 158 characters, so the tail of his argument is not represented above.

What is uncertain, honestly stated. (1) The connection of verse 7 to what precedes is disputed in the sources themselves: Ellicott says “some links are missing,” Cambridge calls the connection “again difficult,” and Pulpit lists and rejects two proposals (Weiss, Alford) before preferring a third. (2) The inferential οὖν of verse 12 was thought redundant by most interpreters known to Poole. (3) The content of ἀγαθά in verse 11 is supplied from Luke 11:13 by Ellicott, Cambridge, Gill and Pulpit; Matthew himself does not specify it, and no reading above should be taken as claiming he does. (4) Whether Matthew's or Luke's setting is original is a judgment Pulpit offers as probability, not fact, and it is reported here as his.

Thread tiers: the three verbal tiers above are Greek to Greek only, and each rests on a Verifier-computed rare lexeme (G2925 κρούω in 9 verses, G1390 δόμα in 4 verses) or on the acknowledged synoptic parallel. No quotation is claimed anywhere in this unit. The Leviticus 19:18 link is cross-Testament and therefore cannot be checked by shared Strong's numbers at all; it is tiered structural for that reason, and its basis is the summary formula plus Pulpit's citation. The third Christ entry is marked novel because nothing in this brief supports it.

✦ = 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)