The seventeenth passage of the Sefer Yeshua is based on Mt 7:3-5 and Lk 6:41-42. The likely origin of the pericope is the Q-gospel.
17. 1There were some who were hypocrites, and judged others without examining their own actions first. 2And Yeshua said to them, ‘Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye, but don’t notice the plank in your own eye? 3Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me take out the splinter from your eye,” when you yourself do nothing to get rid of the plank in your own eye? 4You hypocrite! First get rid of the plank from your own eye, and then you’ll see clearly to take out the splinter from your brother’s eye!’
Overview
In modern English, ‘hypocrite’ means, ‘Someone who criticises others for the very things that they themselves are guilty of’, or, ‘someone who tells everyone to do one thing, and then does something else themselves’. While connected, this is not quite the angle Yeshua was intending in his own use of the word.
The Greek word used in the New Testament is hupokritēs, which means, ‘an actor who takes on an assumed character’, from a verb which meant, ‘to hide one’s true intentions, feelings or character’. As a metaphor, it meant, ‘a faker’, ‘a phoney’, ‘a fraud’. It was used to refer to someone who was pretending to be one thing, while all the while they were really someone completely different. I was unable to find the Jewish Aramaic equivalent, but the biblical Hebrew word was na‘ālām, which literally means, ‘a concealer’, that is, someone who hides their true inner self or intentions.
Understanding the word this way, makes another saying clearer:
“Woe to you, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything that is unclean!” (Mt 23:27)
In this saying, Yeshua was speaking to people who pretended to be morally righteous, looking squeaky clean and spiritually wholesome on the outside, but their inner soul, their heart, was morally dead and corrupt. You know this type of religious person as someone who presents a clean, righteous image to the world, but inside their souls are full of darkness and self-interest. They love to accuse others of faults and sins, but they never look at the deathly shadows and monstrous atrocities in themselves.
The Hebrew Bible also has a low image of hypocrites; the concept was not new to Yeshua. Ps 26:4 says, ‘I shall not sit down with deceivers, nor keep company with hypocrites.’ Sirach 1:29 says, ‘Do not be regarded as a hypocrite; keep watch over what you say.’ Sirach 32:15 says, ‘The one who seeks Torah will be filled with it, but the hypocrite will stumble over it.’
The good person is filled by the lofty principles of God’s good teachings, but a hypocrite, being filled with darkness, finds God’s teachings a stumbling block.
The splinter and the plank
The eye is often used as a metaphor for the mind, the heart and the soul (Mt 6:22, Prov 21:4). It is therefore appropriate that this saying should use the eye as what the splinter and the plank are stuck in. Whatever is stuck in the eye prevents a person from truly seeing – from truly becoming the best version of themselves. Once the offending item is removed, this restores our spiritual insight, so allowing us to become a merciful and forgiving person, thus enabling us to truly help others.
Yeshua may have been giving his own take on a saying which was in current use at the time, since similar sayings are found in the Talmud (eg Baba Bathra 15b, and Arachin 16b). Yeshua may have spoken these words recorded in the gospels, but the underlying saying he was alluding to was current in contemporary Jewish society.
Many English translations render the Greek karfos as ‘speck’ or ‘mote’, but this doesn’t really convey to us the full contrast that the saying intends. Karfos can mean a splinter, a speck of sawdust, a piece of chaff or straw. However, to make the parabolic comparison effective, the small thing has to be a tinier version of the big thing. The Greek dokos is ‘a cut piece of timber’, hence either ‘beam’ or ‘plank’ (not ‘log’, which is uncut timber). A very small part of a worked piece of timber would be a splinter, hence the contrast of ‘splinter’ and ‘plank’. I chose not to use ‘beam’, because it might be confused with the meaning of, ‘a beam of light in the eye’.
The splinter represents the minor fault, which is being criticised and judged in others, and the plank represents the greater sin, which is being ignored in oneself. The contrast fits Yeshua’s own style of employing wildly contrasting similes – using exaggerated hyperbole to bring home whatever he was teaching (eg Mt 6:2-4, 23:23-24, Mk 10:24-25). Such a device helps to cement these lessons within us.
Self-judgment first
God’s values, ideals and principles are the gold standards by which we are to measure ourselves. If we are willing to show humility towards God, and realise that we are not perfect, then we will be able to realistically see ourselves as we really are, and work hard to improve ourselves. Someone who is merciful towards others will ultimately be shown God’s mercy.
However, there is a certain type of personality which is unable to do this – one that is unwilling to grow and evolve, someone who only knows how to justify themselves by criticising others. They consider themselves to be perfect, and always in the right, never in the wrong. They love to confirm their own self-righteousness by unfairly criticising other people – doing so strengthens the biases and preconceptions that they have founded their lives upon.
Such a person makes out that the other person’s fault deeply offends their moral sensibilities, but all the while the magnitude of their own sin offends God.
They love to join with others who share their behaviour, and so these people are drawn to religious communities that allow them to nurture and spread their hateful prejudices. They eventually form a group of people which is an anathema to God – people filled with self-congratulation and disapproval of others.
YHVH’s Holiness dwells within the hearts of individuals who recognise the special nature of God’s sacredness. God resides in the souls of those who are willing to prepare a place of peace as an abode for God’s Message. God lives in the hearts of those who are willing to use their reverence of God to help others change for the better. Someone who has loved God enough to change themselves, is the best person qualified to help other people to change.
Just as we are to forgive others, so that God may forgive us (Mt 6:14-15), so too we should not judge others, so that we do not become subject to God’s judgment ourselves.
Religious hypocrisy in the community and in general
Yeshua’s teaching is not forbidding judgment in courts of law, or fair criticism of others when done in a correct and just manner. It is specifically addressing the problem of those who criticise and condemn others without examining themselves first. It is the same idea behind the saying, ‘People who live in glass houses should not throw stones’.
This parable mentions pointing out the splinter in one’s brother’s eye. It may be that the original setting was to highlight how certain Followers might have been unjustly criticising their fellow Followers, be they male or female, without first examining their own faults. Problems that end up being obstacles between individuals, need to be discussed privately (see Mt 18:15), not aired in public to the humiliation of one’s fellow Followers of the Way. It may be that the original setting was to help deal with such problems, in order to achieve healthier relationships within the community of Followers.
Nevertheless, it could just as equally be using ‘brother’ to mean, ‘fellow human being’, so the principle applies to any religious person, regardless of whether they are members of one’s own community or not. Parables such as these should not stop someone who loves God from pointing out the serious faults of a wicked person – someone who is committing serious wrongdoing, such as a public figure, or someone who is in a position to hurt a lot of people with their destructive views and behaviours.
What this teaching is getting at, is the type of censorious, weaponised criticism used by certain kinds of religious people to deliberately hurt people who are otherwise trying their best, or to control people who are not as assertive or demonstrative as themselves. Such a person shows no mercy towards others, and so cannot call themselves followers of a merciful God, who loves us with such intensity that God is drawn to be merciful.
This teaching is directed at those who set themselves up as moral judges in place of God, while ignoring the fact that they possess faults which God will undoubtedly judge. We all know the type of religious person I am trying to describe, and you have probably met someone like this – the type of person who gives religion a bad name. Such a person keeps people down by judging and criticising them, while a good person – someone who has genuinely been shown God’s forgiveness themselves – is more likely to encourage others to leave behind harmful traits and behaviours, and instead inspire us to become the kind of people that others want to gravitate towards and associate with. That is the difference between the judgmental religious person, and the religious person who loves their neighbour as themselves.
Hypocrites who criticise others in order to hide their own crimes
With hypocrisy as the idea of, ‘deliberately concealing one’s true intentions by criticising others of the very same thing’, we can even take it into the realm of world politics. Political extremists often criticise Jews for the very crimes they themselves are committing, in order to distract the world from looking at their wrongdoings too closely. Most people easily fall for this, because their dislike of Jews far exceeds their ability to look at the real danger that extremists pose to their own society.
Currently, Hamas is accusing Israel of genocide, and the world believes them. The world does not recognise that what Hamas is planning to do – wipe Israel off the face of the earth – is genocide. Hamas accuses Israel of murdering the innocent, but what did they do themselves on the 7th of October 2023? Lebanon accuses Israel of apartheid, but they themselves practise apartheid against Palestinians – they do not allow them jobs, or to buy land, become citizens, or do anything that a regular Lebanese person would be allowed to do.
Putin accuses Ukraine of Nazism, but he himself, along with the regime he has set up, is guilty of Nazism. He accuses Ukraine of persecuting minorities, but Putin himself is seeking to russify the ethnic minorities of the Russian Federation, and sends a greater proportion of their men to die on the Ukrainian frontlines than he does ethnic Russians.
Fascists and other extreme right-wingers accuse the Jewish people of trying to take over the world; this is mostly to hide the fact that that is exactly what they themselves want to do.
If you encounter extremists who hate Jews, then listen closely to what they criticise Jews for; it is very revealing. In something that we might describe as ‘Freudian slips’, they are actually criticising the crimes that they themselves are either committing behind the scenes, or intend to commit in the near future against the rest of the world.
Summary
Ultimately, why should we not be hypocrites? Sirach 7:30 says, ‘Adonai will eventually reveal your secrets, and cast you down in the midst of the congregation, because you did not approach Adonai with due reverence, and your heart was full of deceit.’
Someone who knows human nature will realise that someone who goes overboard to criticise someone for some fault, means that such a person is likely guilty of the very fault they are criticising. Someone who has humility before God, will realise that they have no right to pass judgment over others; God alone has that right (see James 4:12). We have no right to be disparaging or self-righteously disapproving of others, because people in the know will realise that we are judging sins we ourselves are guilty of. Or we secretly admire the brazen immorality of the person we are judging.
If someone sees themselves in the sins of others, an undeveloped person will pass judgment, but a mature person will be understanding, and try to help such a person become a better human being. Unjust criticism and religious moralising comes from the mouth of someone who is spiritually immature, but encouragement and guidance comes from the mouth of a wise adult.