{"id":475,"date":"2014-11-21T12:00:54","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T12:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=475"},"modified":"2014-11-04T00:02:06","modified_gmt":"2014-11-04T00:02:06","slug":"matthew-77-12-ask-seek-knock-literary-influences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-77-12-ask-seek-knock-literary-influences.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 7:7-12; Ask, Seek, Knock (Literary Influences)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Found where it in Matthew 7:12, the \u201cGolden Rule\u201d seems an awkward contextual placement. In modern Bibles, it\u2019s lumped in with Matthew 7:7-11, appearing as the final sentence in this section of Jesus\u2019 Sermon on the Mount. This is particularly perplexing because verse 12 in the NIV begins with the word, \u201cSo\u2026\u201d (or in more common translations, \u201cTherefore\u2026\u201d) indicating that this Golden Rule is understood to be the natural outcome of what Christ has just said before it. The problem is that verses 7-11 are all about God\u2019s promise of provision in answer to prayer\u2014not about social behavior.<\/p>\n<p>So why the abrupt change of subject? Why go directly from \u201cgood gifts\u201d from your heavenly Father to, \u201cdo unto others\u2026\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>The confusion, it seems, stems from our modern need for paragraph and subheading breaks. Recall, the gospel of Matthew as originally written in ancient times was not divided into chapters, subchapters, and verses. When this section of Scripture was formatted for more modern eyes, Christ\u2019s Golden Rule was placed in direct context with Matthew 7:7-11 when it likely should have stood on its own as an, albeit short, independent section. (Interestingly, this is how scholars working on the King James Version arranged it.) In that kind of placement, it would have been more obvious what that \u201cTherefore\u201d was there for.<\/p>\n<p>Bible scholar, Craig Evans explains: \u201cMatthew\u2019s <em>therefore<\/em> may well sum up the whole of the Sermon on the Mount, especially harking back to the thesis statement in Matthew 5:17-20. In Matt 5:17, Jesus declares that he has come \u2018to fulfill\u2019 the Law and the Prophets. What follows (in Matt 5:21-7:12) shows how he understands this fulfillment to take place, ending with the Golden Rule, which sums up the whole of the Law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Understood in the context of the entire Sermon on the Mount, then, this Golden Rule now makes much more sense here. It was apparently used by Jesus to summarize his whole sermon to this point, and to lead into his concluding illustrations which appear in Matthew 7:13-27.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[MAT, 169]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Found where it in Matthew 7:12, the \u201cGolden Rule\u201d seems an awkward contextual placement. In modern Bibles, it\u2019s lumped in with Matthew 7:7-11, appearing as the final sentence in this section of Jesus\u2019 Sermon on the Mount. This is particularly perplexing because verse 12 in the NIV begins with the word, \u201cSo\u2026\u201d (or in more&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,2],"tags":[199,16,111],"class_list":["post-475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literaryinfluences","category-matthew","tag-golden-rule","tag-jesus","tag-sermon-on-the-mount"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew 7:7-12; Ask, Seek, Knock (Literary Influences) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-77-12-ask-seek-knock-literary-influences.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 7:7-12; Ask, Seek, Knock (Literary Influences) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Found where it in Matthew 7:12, the \u201cGolden Rule\u201d seems an awkward contextual placement. In modern Bibles, it\u2019s lumped in with Matthew 7:7-11, appearing as the final sentence in this section of Jesus\u2019 Sermon on the Mount. This is particularly perplexing because verse 12 in the NIV begins with the word, \u201cSo\u2026\u201d (or in more&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-77-12-ask-seek-knock-literary-influences.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-21T12:00:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-11-04T00:02:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew 7:7-12; Ask, Seek, Knock (Literary Influences) - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-77-12-ask-seek-knock-literary-influences.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew 7:7-12; Ask, Seek, Knock (Literary Influences) - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"Found where it in Matthew 7:12, the \u201cGolden Rule\u201d seems an awkward contextual placement. In modern Bibles, it\u2019s lumped in with Matthew 7:7-11, appearing as the final sentence in this section of Jesus\u2019 Sermon on the Mount. This is particularly perplexing because verse 12 in the NIV begins with the word, \u201cSo\u2026\u201d (or in more&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-77-12-ask-seek-knock-literary-influences.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-11-21T12:00:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-11-04T00:02:06+00:00","author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-77-12-ask-seek-knock-literary-influences.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-77-12-ask-seek-knock-literary-influences.html","name":"Matthew 7:7-12; Ask, Seek, Knock (Literary Influences) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-11-21T12:00:54+00:00","dateModified":"2014-11-04T00:02:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-77-12-ask-seek-knock-literary-influences.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-77-12-ask-seek-knock-literary-influences.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-77-12-ask-seek-knock-literary-influences.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 7:7-12; Ask, Seek, Knock (Literary Influences)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. Learn more at nappaland.com\/mikenappa.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.biblestudynerds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/author\/mnappa"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":479,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions\/479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}