The New Testament with Commentary Matthew 23

Jesus excoriates the scribes and Pharisees

1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples 2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees are seated upon Moses' chair; 3 so whatever they may tell you to observe, you should observe and do; but do not do according to their deeds, for they say and do not do. 4 For they package loads that are heavy and hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of the people; but they themselves do not want to move them with one of their fingers.

5 “Rather, they do all their works in order to be seen by people. They make their phylacteries broad and the tassels on their garments large;* 6 they love the place of honor at dinners and the first seats in the synagogues, 7 and the greetings in the marketplaces, namely to be called ‘Rabbi, Rabbi’ by the people.

We have only one Teacher and one Father

8 “But you (pl.), do not be called ‘Rabbi’; because your Teacher is one, the Christ,† and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth your ‘father’; because your Father is one, He who is in the heavens.‡ 10 Neither be called leaders/guides; because your Leader is one, the Christ.§ 11 On the contrary, the greatest among you must be your servant. 12 And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

A series of ‘Woes’

13 “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you devour the houses of the widows,* while making long prayers as a pretense. Therefore you will receive a greater condemnation.† 14 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!! Because you bar the entrance to the kingdom of the heavens in the face of the people; for you neither go in yourselves nor do you allow those who are trying to enter to go in.‡ 15 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!!! Because you travel all over, land and sea, to make one convert, and when he joins up you make him twice as much a son of Hell§ as yourselves.

16 “Woe to you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obligated.’ 17 Stupid and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it is obligated.’ 19 Stupid and blind!! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?* 20 Therefore he who swears by the altar swears by it and by all the things on it. 21 And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by Him who used to dwell in it.† 22 And he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.

23 “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you pay a tithe of mint and dill and cummin, but have neglected the weightier items of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These it was obligatory to do, while not neglecting those. 24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat but gulp down a camel!

25 “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!! Because you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of plunder and injustice.‡ 26 Blind Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup and the dish, so that their outside may also be clean.

27 “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!!! Because you resemble whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly but inside are full of dead bones and of all uncleanness. 28 Just so, you also outwardly appear to be righteous to the people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

29 “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!!!! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous; 30 yet you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Therefore you testify against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 So fill up the measure of your fathers' guilt!

Snakes!

33 “Snakes! Brood of vipers! How can you escape from the condemnation of Hell?§ 34 So take note: I will send you prophets and wise men and Biblical scholars;* some of them you will kill, even crucify; some of them you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from city to city 35 —so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel up to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah,† whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.‡ 36 Assuredly I say to you that all these things will come upon this generation.

Jesus laments over Jerusalem

37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, she who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children, just like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you did not want to. 38 Look, your house is left to you abandoned! 39 For I say to you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’!”§

*23:5 They were big on ostentation.

†23:8 Perhaps 4% of the Greek manuscripts omit “the Christ” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).

‡23:9 Since the second person here is plural, the Lord is evidently referring to calling someone your spiritual father; He is not saying not to acknowledge your physical father. “Your (pl.) Father is one”—obviously they did not all have the same physical father.

§23:10 This may be why we have no record in Scripture of a Christian calling someone his disciple; even in 1 Corinthians 3:4 Paul evidently avoids using the term. I take it that our Lord is forbidding any effort by one Christian to control the spiritual life of another. He had already told the Samaritan woman that the Father must be worshiped “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24). Therefore, that worship may not be forced or imposed, or controlled by someone else.

*23:13 How did that work? I suppose that if the widow was in debt, they would just foreclose and put her out on the street.

†23:13 They are already condemned, but are making it worse. Perhaps 2% of the Greek manuscripts, of inferior quality, omit this verse (as in NIV, [NASB], LB, [TEV], etc.). A very small minority, perhaps another 1%, reverse the order of verses 13 and 14 (as in KJV and NKJV).

‡23:14 Those guys were really perverse! If you don't want to go in yourself, that's your problem; but to try to keep others from going in is satanic, really and truly satanic.

§23:15 Where do you suppose a ‘son of hell’ is going to spend eternity?

*23:19 Wow, they really were stupid and blind! which raises the obvious question: How did they get that way? According to Ephesians 2:2, ‘sons of the disobedience’ suffer direct satanic influence.

†23:21 Some 10% of the Greek manuscripts have “dwell” in the present tense (as in most versions), rather than the past. I take it that Jesus was telling them that God had left their temple (see verse 38). Thus verse 22 is in contrast with verse 21, with reference to God's presence.

‡23:25 Instead of “injustice”, perhaps 5% of the Greek manuscripts have ‘self-indulgence’ (as in most versions).

§23:33 Would you say that Jesus is trying real hard not to hurt their poor little feelings? So are we supposed to avoid hurting people's feelings? When and why?

*23:34 Jesus makes this statement knowing that He will die within a few days. Obviously He also knows that He will rise from the dead and return to the Father's right hand—it is from that position that He will do the sending.

†23:35 The only ‘Zechariah son of Berechiah’ recorded in the OT was the author of the book of prophecy that bears his name. The temple was rebuilt during his time, so it would be possible for him to have been killed there, but his death is not recorded. The Lord may have known something we do not, or He may have been referring to someone else.

‡23:35 A terrible statement! But Jesus is addressing persons who will condemn the Messiah to death with total premeditated malice.

§23:39 See Psalm 118:26. Apparently He did not return to the temple anymore; He had declared judgment upon it: “your house is left to you abandoned”.