Matthew 7:12
New International Version
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

New Living Translation
“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.

English Standard Version
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Berean Standard Bible
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 Literal Bible
All things therefore, as many as you might desire that men should do to you, so also you do to them, for this is the law and the prophets.

King James Bible
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

New King James Version
Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

New American Standard Bible
“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

NASB 1995
“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

NASB 1977
“Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Legacy Standard Bible
“Therefore, in all things, whatever you want people to do for you, so do for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Amplified Bible
“So then, in everything treat others the same way you want them to treat you, for this is [the essence of] the Law and the [writings of the] Prophets.

Christian Standard Bible
Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them—this is the Law and the Prophets.

American Standard Version
All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Everything whatsoever you desire that people should do for you, do likewise for them, for this is the Law and The Prophets.

Contemporary English Version
Treat others as you want them to treat you. This is what the Law and the Prophets are all about.

Douay-Rheims Bible
All things therefore whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them. For this is the law and the prophets.

English Revised Version
All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
"Always do for other people everything you want them to do for you. That is [the meaning of] Moses' Teachings and the Prophets.

Good News Translation
"Do for others what you want them to do for you: this is the meaning of the Law of Moses and of the teachings of the prophets.

International Standard Version
Therefore, whatever you want people to do for you, do the same for them, because this summarizes the Law and the Prophets."

Literal Standard Version
All things, therefore, whatever you may will that men may be doing to you, so also do to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Majority Standard Bible
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.

New American Bible
“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.

NET Bible
In everything, treat others as you would want them to treat you, for this fulfills the law and the prophets.

New Revised Standard Version
“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

New Heart English Bible
Therefore whatever you desire for people to do to you, so also you should do to them; for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Webster's Bible Translation
Therefore all things whatever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Weymouth New Testament
Everything, therefore, be it what it may, that you would have men do to you, do you also the same to them; for in this the Law and the Prophets are summed up.

World English Bible
Therefore, whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets.

Young's Literal Translation
'All things, therefore, whatever ye may will that men may be doing to you, so also do to them, for this is the law and the prophets.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Ask, Seek, Knock
11So 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! 12In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets. 13Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.…

Cross References
Matthew 5:17
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

Matthew 22:40
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Luke 6:31
Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Romans 13:8
Be indebted to no one, except to one another in love. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

Romans 13:10
Love does no wrong to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Galatians 5:14
The entire law is fulfilled in a single decree: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

James 2:8
If you really fulfill the royal law stated in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well.


Treasury of Scripture

Therefore all things whatever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

all.

Luke 6:31
And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.

for.

Matthew 22:39,40
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself…

Leviticus 19:18
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

Isaiah 1:17,18
Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow…

Jump to Previous
Desire Law Others Prophets Summed Sums Treat Want Way Whatever Whatsoever Wish
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Desire Law Others Prophets Summed Sums Treat Want Way Whatever Whatsoever Wish
Matthew 7
1. Do Not Judge
7. Ask, Seek, Knock
13. Enter through the Narrow Gate
15. A Tree and Its Fruit
24. The Wise and the Foolish Builders
28. Jesus ends his sermon, and the people are astonished.














(12) Therefore . . . whatsoever.--The sequence of thought requires, perhaps, some explanation. God gives His good things in answer to our wishes, if only what we wish for is really for our good. It is man's highest blessedness to be like God, to "be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect," and therefore in this respect too he must strive to resemble Him. The ground thus taken gives a new character to that which otherwise had already become almost one of the "common-places" of Jewish and heathen ethics. Perhaps the most interesting illustration of the former is the well-known story of the Gentile inquirer who went to Shammai, the great scribe, and asked to be taught the law, in a few brief words, while he stood on one foot. The Rabbi turned away in anger. The questioner then went to Hillel, and made the same demand; and the sage turned and said, "Whatsoever thou wouldest that men should not do to thee, that do not thou to them. All our law is summed up in that." And so the Gentile became a proselyte. A like negative rule is quoted by Gibbon (Decl. and Fall, c. liv., note 2) from Isocrates, not without a sneer, as if it anticipated the teaching of the Christ. The nearest approach to our Lord's rule is, however, found in the saying ascribed to Aristotle, who, when asked how we should act towards our friends, replied, "As we would they should act to us" (Diog. Laert., v. 1, ? 21). All these, however, though we may welcome them as instances of the testimonium animae naturaliter Christianae (as Tertullian calls it), are yet wanting in the completeness of our Lord's precept, and still more do they fall below it in regard of the ground on which the precept rests, and the power given to perform it. Yet even here, too, there is, of necessity, an implied limitation. We cannot comply with all men's desires, nor ought we to wish that they should comply with ours, for those desires may be foolish and frivolous, or may involve the indulgence of lust or passion. The rule is only safe when our own will has been first purified, so that we wish only from others that which is really good. Reciprocity in evil or in folly is obviously altogether alien from the mind of Christ.

Verse 12. - Ver. 12a, parallel passage: Luke 6:31; Luke 12b, Matthew only. All things therefore. Therefore. Summing up the lesson of vers. 1-11 (cf. ver. 7, note). In consequence of all that I have said about censoriousness and the means of overcoming it, let the very opposite feeling rule your conduct towards others. Let all (emphatic) your dealings with men be conducted in the same spirit in which you would desire them to deal with you. Even so. Not "these things" do ye to them; for our Lord carefully avoids any expression that might lead to a legal enumeration of different details, but "thus" (οὕτως), referring to the character of your own wishes. (For this "golden rule," cf. Tobit 4:15 (negative form); cf. also patristic references in Resch, 'Agrapha,' pp. 95, 135.) On the occasional similarity of pre-Christian writings to the teaching of our Lord, Augustine (vide Trench, 'Serm.,' in loc.) well says it is "the glory of the written and spoken law, that it is the transcript of that which was from the first, and not merely as old as this man or that, but as the Creation itself, a reproduction of that obscured and forgotten law written at the beginning by the finger of God on the hearts of all men. When, therefore, heathen sages or poets proclaimed any part of this, they had not thereby anticipated Christ; they had only deciphered some fragment of that law, which he gave from the first, and which, when men, exiles and fugitives from themselves and from the knowledge of their own hearts, had lost the power of reading, he came in the flesh to read to them anew, and to bring out the well-nigh obliterated characters afresh." (Compare also Bishop Lightfoot's essay on "St. Paul and Seneca," in his 'Philippians.') For this is the law and the prophets. For this. This principle of action and mode of life is, in fact, the sum of all Bible teaching (cf. Leviticus 19:18). Observe:

(1) Our Lord brings out the same thought, but with its necessary limitation to the second table, in Matthew 22:40 (cf. Romans 13:10).

(2) Our Lord thus returns to the main subject of his sermon, the relation in which he and his must stand to the Law (Matthew 5:17).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
In everything,
Πάντα (Panta)
Adjective - Accusative Neuter Plural
Strong's 3956: All, the whole, every kind of. Including all the forms of declension; apparently a primary word; all, any, every, the whole.

then,
οὖν (oun)
Conjunction
Strong's 3767: Therefore, then. Apparently a primary word; certainly, or accordingly.

do
ποιεῖτε (poieite)
Verb - Present Imperative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4160: (a) I make, manufacture, construct, (b) I do, act, cause. Apparently a prolonged form of an obsolete primary; to make or do.

to others
αὐτοῖς (autois)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Dative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.

as
οὕτως (houtōs)
Adverb
Strong's 3779: Thus, so, in this manner. Or (referring to what precedes or follows).

you would have
θέλητε (thelēte)
Verb - Present Subjunctive Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 2309: To will, wish, desire, be willing, intend, design.

them do
ποιῶσιν (poiōsin)
Verb - Present Subjunctive Active - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 4160: (a) I make, manufacture, construct, (b) I do, act, cause. Apparently a prolonged form of an obsolete primary; to make or do.

to you.
ὑμῖν (hymin)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Dative 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

For
γάρ (gar)
Conjunction
Strong's 1063: For. A primary particle; properly, assigning a reason.

this
οὗτος (houtos)
Demonstrative Pronoun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3778: This; he, she, it.

is [the essence of]
ἐστιν (estin)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

the
(ho)
Article - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

Law
νόμος (nomos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3551: From a primary nemo; law, genitive case, specially, (including the volume); also of the Gospel), or figuratively.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

the
οἱ (hoi)
Article - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

prophets.
προφῆται (prophētai)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 4396: From a compound of pro and phemi; a foreteller; by analogy, an inspired speaker; by extension, a poet.


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