Matthew 6:2

Matthew 6:2 is the second verse of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament and is part of the Sermon on the Mount. This verse continues the discussion of how even good deeds can be done for the wrong reasons.

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

The World English Bible translates the passage as:

For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 6:2

There were three main displays of piety in Jesus' era: alms giving, prayer, and fasting. All three are discussed in Matthew 6, with this verse beginning the discussion of alms giving, though some translations have Matthew 6:1 also reference alms rather than general righteousness. The term translated as "merciful deeds" in the WEB refers explicitly to alms giving. Alms giving was a religious act, one commanded in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 15:11 and other places. In this era all were expected to contribute alms, and services for the needy were funded through them.

In this verse Jesus condemns the hypocrites who give to charity for their own glory rather than for pious reasons. In Classical Greek a hypocrite was simply an actor who pretended to be another person on stage. By the time the Septuagint was written, the word had gained the negative connotations that it has today, and it in the Gospel of Matthew the word is clearly a pejorative one.

For many centuries the blowing of trumpets during alms giving was taken literally, with Cyril of Alexandria being perhaps the first to interpret the verse this way. Modern scholars mostly disagree.

There is no evidence that the Pharisees, and others seen as hypocrites, actually blew upon trumpets to publicize their giving, and Fowler feels it is unlikely they would have been so brazen. Lewis thinks the reference might be to the autumn public fasts, which would have been accompanied by the blowing of horns. Lachs considers this improbable as there is no direct connection to the period of fasting and alms giving. Schweizer speculates that when the list of donors were read off in the Temple that especially large ones may have been accompanied by horns.Hendriksen thinks it unlikely that this would have been allowed. Lachs agrees that such acts were improbable. There is no historic evidence for such displays, and rabbinic writings from this period were just as critical of boastful giving. There was also no understanding of trumpeting as boasting in the contemporary literature, an expression that has developed in English perhaps as a result of this verse.

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