You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
Parallel translations
- WEB By their fruits you will know them. Do you gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?
- KJV Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
- BSB By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered 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 there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit; nor again a rotten tree that produces good fruit.
- Matt 12:33“Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit.
- Jas 3:12Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water.
- Matt 7:20Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
- 2 Pet 2:10–18but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries;
- Jude 1:10–19But these speak evil of whatever things they don’t know. They are destroyed in these things that they understand naturally, like the creatures without reason.
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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