“Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”
Matthew 6:3
IdiomSettledJesus
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. (Matthew 6:3 BSB)
What it sounds like today
Today this idiom means disorganization, one department not talking to another.
The cultural key
An image of total secrecy and unselfconsciousness: the gift so quiet that even the giver's other hand, the closest possible witness, misses it. The right hand was the giving hand.
Recovered meaning
Give without keeping score, even in your own head. The opposite of the trumpet: generosity too instinctive to be an event at all.