Bible Strands
Matthew 6:16
When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses his disciples and the surrounding crowd in the Sermon on the Mount, moving from forgiveness (v. 15) to the third piety-act, fasting, which v. 17 immediately qualifies.
The words — ὑποκριταὶ (hupokritai) is the Greek stage term for a masked actor; the prohibition μὴ γίνεσθε ("do not become") targets a sustained posture, not a single gesture.
The thread — Isaiah 58:3 records the same complaint from Israel's mouth: fasting performed for divine audience yet unseen by God. Matthew 9:14 and Nehemiah 1:4 bracket the range between performative frequency and private grief.
Why it lands — The verse removes the social payoff from a religious act and forces the reader to ask whether the act was ever aimed at anything other than being seen.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 58:3 “Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we humbled ourselves, and You have not noticed?” “Behold, on the day of your fast, you do as you please, and you oppress all your workers.
- Matthew 9:14 Then John’s disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast so often, but Your disciples do not fast?”
- Nehemiah 1:4 When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
- Daniel 9:3 So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
- Psalms 69:10 I wept and fasted, but it brought me reproach.
- Luke 18:12 I fast twice a week and pay tithes of all that I acquire.’
- Esther 4:16 “Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maidens will fast as you do. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish!”
- Psalms 35:13 Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting, but my prayers returned unanswered.
- Mark 2:18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were often fasting. So people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t Your disciples fast like John’s disciples and those of the Pharisees?”
- Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church, praying and fasting as they entrusted them to the Lord, in whom they had believed.