Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you (Matt. 7:6).
After telling us not to be judgmental or critical of others, the Lord balances out his comments by noting some are “swine” and “dogs.” Recognizing this, we do need to make evaluations and modify our behavior accordingly. The following article offers a very helpful suggestion as to the class of behavior which the Lord has in mind.
This is clearly figurative language which needs interpreting It isn’t often that all the interpreters are in agreement, but in this instance it seems that they are I have looked at eight books where this verse is expounded, four by Christadelphian and four by non-Christadelphian authors and all give essentially the same explanation, thus.
“That which is holy” and “pearls” both obviously represent the gospel of the kingdom Christ’s words command us not to waste this precious message by pushing it upon evil people, who would only treat it with contempt and would probably go on to persecute us as well All eight expositors were quite categorical about it They didn’t think it necessary to say, “This is what it seems to me to mean” They evidently thought the meaning so obvious that they could safely state it as if it were a fact, without mentioning any possible alternative.
They have the dictionary on their side According to the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, the expression has now become proverbial, and means “to offer a good thing to one who is incapable of appreciating “
Slender evidence
It is worth asking what the biblical evidence is on which this strongly-held opinion is based In fact, it is remarkably slender, being based upon only one passage This is Matthew 13 45-46, which says “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it”
This piece of evidence is not really so powerful as the expositors generally assume It is pearls, in the plural, that must not be cast before swine in Matthew 7 But m the parable of Matthew 13, matters of this life are likened to a handful of pearls There the handful of pearls represents all the worldly distractions which some people have to give up before the solitary pearl of great price can be gained.
Even if we ignore this distinction between singular and plural, it is a mistake to think that if “pearl” means one thing in Matthew 13, it has to mean the same thing in Matthew 7 The symbolic language of the Bible doesn’t work that way There are numerous instances of one Bible word being used symbolically m two opposite ways in different passages To quote just one example in Luke 6 48 the word “rock” represents something good, and m Luke 8 6 it represents something bad (In both cases, it is the same Greek word, petra).
So we can safely say there is no definite evidence that the usual view of “pearls before swine” is right That does not mean it is wrong, however, but merely that it could conceivably be wrong To settle the matter, we need to look at the biblical arguments that can be raised against the generally-accepted view..
Arguments against the usual view
There is so much powerful evidence opposing the normal view it is astonishing it ever became so widely adopted Consider the following points.
- In Mark 16 16, Jesus made no exceptions He did not say, “Preach the gospel to every creature except dogs and swine” Even though this portion of Mark is missing from the oldest extant manuscripts, it is m harmony with all the parallel passages Matthew 28 19 and 20 has “teach all nations,” Luke 24 27 has “preached to all nations,” and in Colossians 1 23, Paul rejoiced that the gospel “was preached to every creature which is under heaven” Evidently indiscriminate preaching was the order of the day.
- Even a casual reading of Acts shows the apostles did indeed preach to all and sundry, heedless of the consequences They never said anything remotely like, “If we preach to this lot we shall only stir up trouble for ourselves, so let’s not cast pearls before swine” Take Paul’s behavior m the temple court (Acts 21), for instance The Jews tried to lynch him (v 31) and would have done so if the Romans had not rescued him (vs 32-36) Despite this, Paul asked the Roman commander for permission to preach to the crowds, even though this only made them more murderous than ever
- Jesus pointed out that it is also God’s own custom to offer salvation to His murderous enemies In the parable of Matthew 21 33-43, God is like a landowner who sends his servants to collect rent from some tenants But they “beat one and killed another and stoned another” God did not write them off as dangerous animals, He sent more servants, who received similar treatment, and eventually let them kill His Son It was God’s own example that the apostles followed when they preached to opponents who might turn and rend them
- In any case, “casting (i.e throwing) pearls before swine” would be an extremely inappropriate metaphor for preaching Are we expected to throw the gospel on the ground at people’s feet, as if we were feeding animals? Or to hand it to them politely, with love m our hearts?
- Just a few sentences earlier the Lord had said, “Judge not that ye be not judged” (Matt 7 1) This cannot possibly mean that we must never make any sort of judgment concerning a fellow human being, because there are numerous scriptures indicating there are times when we must do just that (For example, I Corinthians 5 12,13, 6 2-4) Presumably Jesus meant, “Don’t attempt to make the sort of judgment that only God and myself can make, such as trying to guess people’s secret thoughts, hidden motives and characters” Obviously, we cannot assess any stranger as not worth preaching to without disobeying that command of the Lord
- Precisely because we dare not judge people, the popular idea of Matthew 7 6 has turned this into a completely unusable portion of scripture So far as I am aware, nobody ever argues in committee, “Let’s not preach in Bloggstown, they’re a lot of dogs and swine there”
- One commentator tries to sidestep the difficulty by saying that what Jesus really meant was, “first try out your gospel message with a few samples and if your listeners react badly, then don’t continue preaching to them” But that is certainly not what our Lord said, and it is almost certain that it is not what he meant, either, another commentator, Tasker, m his IVP Commentary on Matthew, says the Greek of Matthew 7 6 is emphatic, and can be taken to mean, “Never think of giving or casting “
In view of all this, we can conclude the usual view of “pearls before swine” is probably wrong Let’s see if a better interpretation of Christ’s words can be found
An alternative view
Our quest for a more reasonable alternative starts with the modern expression to throw somebody to the wolves According to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable it means “to sacrifice someone, usually to divert criticism or opposition” He says it originated m the days when “a traveler in a sleigh, pursued by a pack of wolves, might throw food or other objects in the hope of gaining his escape”
Such a situation is not far from the one that appears to be hinted at in Matthew 7 6 According to Gower’s Manners and Customs of Bible Times, “dogs, wolf-like and savage, roamed [the streets of Jewish cities] ” Evidently an unwary Israelite was more likely to be pursued by a pack of half-wild dogs than by wolves.
We cannot be sure what is meant by “that which is holy” in this context It seems rather unlikely to have been meat, since flesh that had been sanctified on the altar had to be either consumed by fire or eaten by the priests within the temple precincts, where dogs are unlikely to have been allowed in (Ex 29 31-34, Lev 8 31) According to Edersheim’s famous treatise on the operation of the temple in Christ’s day, such meat as was intended to be taken home for food by the priests was classified by the rabbis as much less holy and, one suspects regarded by the general public as butcher’s meat rather than “that which is holy” And in any case, throwing a joint meat to some savage dogs would almost certainly delight them and successfully divert their attention from the person under threat.
It seems more likely, therefore, “that which is holy” meant any sacred objects that passers-by might happen to have with them, such as phylacteries and other small portions of scripture, or prayer-hats, etc If so, then the mental picture created by the first and last phrases in Matthew 7:6 is something like this Somebody is walking along the street when, unexpectedly, a pack of savage dogs threatens him or her Desperate to escape, the traveler hurls at the dogs the only available object, which happens to be something holy The dogs pounce on it, rolling it in the mud, while the traveler runs away But his relief is short-lived The dogs quickly discover that the holy thing is of no interest to them and abandon it to pursue the refugee, whom they catch and begin to tear in pieces.
The other half of the parallelism, involving pearls and swine, is not really very different Our present day fat and flabby pigs are said to be derived by cross-breeding between the European wild boar and a smaller, gentler kind of pig from China But the swine of Roman times was probably just a half-domesticated version of the savage wild boar, which still kills and injures unwary hunters in the wilder parts of Europe So a biblical herd of swine could be nearly as much of a menace as a pack of vicious dogs.
This time our mental picture has to be that of an ordinary man or woman in the countryside carrying – or wearing – some pearls He or she has the misfortune to antagonize an aggressive herd of pigs In sheer desperation the terrified traveler throws the precious pearls at the pigs, hoping to frighten or distract them, but it is to no avail, since they merely trample over them on their way to rend the unfortunate person.
While this may be the drawing of exaggerated word-pictures, such hyperbole is often used by the Lord There is obvious exaggeration m the picture of a carpenter with a beam sticking out of his eye, or of camels being swallowed or passing through the eye of a needle, yet, like the picture of someone frantically throwing pearls at savage pigs in a vain attempt to escape their ripping tusks, they wonderfully stir the imagination.
Thus it is reasonable to conclude that the parable-language of Matthew 7:6 conveys the following exhortation “Never attempt to resolve some difficulty or danger by sacrificing things that ought never to be sacrificed – precious things, holy things That will only gain you a temporary advantage Afterwards, your problems are liable to come back and overwhelm you”
Some practical examples
There are some good biblical examples of men who made this sad mistake II Kings 18 13-17 tells how the king of Assyria marched his enormous army into Judah Hezekiah told him that he would pay any amount of tribute, if only the Assyrians would go away and leave Judah in peace Sennacherib agreed, and asked for a ton of gold and ten tons of silver (figures from NIV margin)
There was only one way Hezekiah could raise such a huge ransom He stripped both the national treasury (KJV “the treasures of the king’s house”) and the temple treasuries In the language of Matthew 7, he gave the Lord’s holy and precious things to the dogs and swine of Assyria.
The outcome was precisely what the words of Jesus lead us to expect The Assyrians took the enormous bribe and then reneged on the agreement, by continuing with their invasion plan In other words, they “trampled” on Hezekiah’s treasures and then turned again to “rend” him.
Finally, a couple of examples from our world Brother X keeps the accounts in a small company One day, the boss tells him, “The firm is in danger of going bust, and if it does, we shall all be out of a Job But you’re m a position to save the day If you would cook the books in the way I’ll explain, we can escape paying thousands of dollars in tax, and that will keep us afloat”
Sadly, Brother X is persuaded to sacrifice that precious, holy thing called integrity He does what the boss suggests, but it is all to no avail A few months later the firm fails, despite his misguided actions The spiritual swine and dogs, having trampled his honesty and destroyed it, now turn on him with their bared teeth.
For a second example, let’s consider Sister Y Her boyfriend plays the shabbiest card in the male deck “I can’t marry you m my present circumstances, but as soon as these improve I’ll many you if only I can move m with you now” Under this pressure, she decides to sacrifice that precious, holy thing called virginity to the swine and dogs called opportunism But her sacrifice does not serve her well After a while, her boy friend tires of her and disappears The swine and dogs have the last laugh, as they generally do.
Life abounds in temptations like those that affected Brother X and Sister Y When one of us is enticed in such a fashion, we shall be all the stronger if we can only remember the probable meaning of Matthew 7 6, and say, “I must not cast pearls before swine That nearly always ends in disaster”
In that way, this enigmatic saying of our Lord will no longer be unusable, but will become one of the more useful verses in the disciple’s armory.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One