Matthew 6:1

Matthew 6:1 is the first verse of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament and is part of the Sermon on the Mount. This verse begins the discussion of how even good deeds can be done for the wrong reasons.

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

The World English Bible translates the passage as:

For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 6:1

There is some debate over the term translated as "charitable giving" in the World English Bible. In the ancient manuscripts there are two different versions of this verse. One has Greek: την δικαιοσυνην, tēn dikaisunēn,iustitiam in the Vulgate. This term may be translated as charitable giving, but it can also be much more broadly translated as referring to "righteousness" or to any act of piety. By this translation this verse can be read as a condemnation of all overt religiosity. Other manuscripts have Greek: τὴν ἐλεημοσύνην, tēn eleemosunēn, which explicitly refers to alms giving. This restricts what this verse is condemning to the more specific practice of overt generosity. According to the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary, "The external authority for both readings is pretty nearly equal; but internal evidence is decidedly in favor of "righteousness". This commentary suggests that ελεημοσυνην may have been introduced here through a copyist's mistake, as the same word is also under in Matthew 6:2. Jack Lewis also argues that dikaisune was the original wording as eleemosune appears in Matthew 6:2, and that that verse would be redundant if the two words are the same. Filson also notes that it is likely that the word eleemosune was inserted into this verse as a copying error.

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