Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Dogs and Pigs
Matthew 7.6 (KJV):
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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.Leon Morris ad loc.:
μὴ δῶτε τὸ ἅγιον τοῖς κυσίν, μηδὲ βάλητε τοὺς μαργαρίτας ὑμῶν ἔμπροσθεν τῶν χοίρων, μή ποτε καταπατήσουσιν αὐτοὺς ἐν τοῖς ποσὶν αὐτῶν καὶ στραφέντες ῥήξωσιν ὑμᾶς.
[W]e should understand the construction as chiastic: the pigs do the trampling and the dogs the tearing to pieces (for the combination of dogs and pigs see also 2 Pet. 2:22).Augustine, Sermons 60A.4 (Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina, vol. XLI A, p. 257; tr. Edmund Hill):
Dogs are the cynics and twisters and fault-finders, always barking; pigs are those fouled with the mire of carnal pleasures.
Canes sunt calumniosi latrantes; porci autem sunt contaminati caeno voluptatum carnalium.
