An exhaustive list of the similarities between Rabbinic Literature and the Synoptic Gospels would fill a book of its own, but the sampling presented in the six articles of this series should provide some idea of the rabbinic quality of Jesus’ teaching. From these and many other examples, it seems clear that Jesus, like the other sages of his day, not only helped to preserve the sayings that had been transmitted to him by his teachers, but also contributed to the tradition he had inherited by making innovations of his own.
Jesus said, “With the measure you measure, it will be measured to you” (Mt. 7:2; Lk. 6:38), a saying that was used by rabbinic sages to teach the moral principle that the way we treat others will be the way God treats us. The fuller context of Jesus’ saying is:
Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you judge you will be judged, and with the measure [literally, measuring vessel] you [use to] measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?
In other words, the standard of justice we use will be the same standard used by God in meting out reward and punishment to us.
The context in which the almost identical rabbinic version of this saying appears provides further insight into the saying’s meaning:
With the measure that a man uses to measure, they measure to him.... Samson went after [the desire of] his eyes, therefore the
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