Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Parallel translations
- WEB By their fruits you will know them. Do you gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?
- BSB By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
- NKJV You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
- NASB You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?
- NLT You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
You can recognize false prophets by their fruits, just as plants are known by what they produce. Character and conduct ultimately expose what a person truly is.
Overview
Jesus provides the test for detecting false prophets: their 'fruits'—their teaching, conduct, and character—reveal their true nature. Just as thorns yield no grapes and thistles no figs, a corrupt source cannot produce genuine godliness. Discernment looks past appearances to the actual results of a person's life and ministry.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Luke 6:43–45For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
- Matt 12:33Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.
- Jas 3:12Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
- Matt 7:20Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
- 2 Pet 2:10–18But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
- Jude 1:10–19But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 7:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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