Matthew 23

Mt 23:1-39.

DENUNCIATION OF THE

SCRIBES AND

PHARISEES--LAMENTATION OVER

JERUSALEM, AND

FAREWELL TO THE

TEMPLE.

Mr 12:38-40;

Lu 20:45-47).

For this long and terrible discourse we are indebted, with the exception

of a few verses in Mark and Luke, to Matthew alone. But as it is only an

extended repetition of denunciations uttered not long before at the

table of a Pharisee, and recorded by Luke

(Lu 11:37-54),

we may take both together in the exposition.

Denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees

(Mt 23:1-36).

The first twelve verses were addressed more immediately to the

disciples, the rest to the scribes and Pharisees.

1. Then spake Jesus to the multitude--to the multitudes, "and to his

disciples."

2. Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit--The Jewish teachers

stood to read, but sat to expound the Scriptures, as will be seen

Lu 4:16

with Lu 4:20.

in Moses' seat--that is, as interpreters of the law given by Moses.

3. All therefore--that is, all which, as sitting in that seat and

teaching out of that law.

they bid you observe, that observe and do--The word "therefore" is

thus, it will be seen, of great importance, as limiting those

injunctions which He would have them obey to what they fetched from the

law itself. In requiring implicit obedience to such injunctions, He

would have them to recognize the authority with which they taught over

and above the obligations of the law itself--an important principle

truly; but He who denounced the traditions of such teachers

(Mt 15:3)

cannot have meant here to throw His shield over these. It is remarked by

WEBSTER and

WILKINSON that the warning to beware of the scribes is

given by Mark and Luke

(Mr 12:38;

Lu 20:46)

without any qualification: the charge to respect and obey

them being reported by Matthew alone, indicating for whom this Gospel

was especially written, and the writer's desire to conciliate the

Jews.

4. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them

on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them--"touch

them not"

(Lu 11:46).

with one of their fingers--referring not so much to the

irksomeness of the legal rites, though they were irksome enough

(Ac 15:10),

as to the heartless rigor with which they were enforced, and by men of

shameless inconsistency.

5. But all their works they do for to be seen of men--Whatever good

they do, or zeal they show, has but one motive--human applause.

they make broad their phylacteries--strips of parchment with

Scripture-texts on them, worn on the forehead, arm, and side, in time

of prayer.

and enlarge the borders of their garments--fringes of their upper

garments

(Nu 15:37-40).

6. And love the uppermost rooms at feasts--The word "room" is now

obsolete in the sense here intended. It should be "the uppermost place,"

that is, the place of highest honor.

and the chief seats in the synagogues. See on

Lu 14:7, 8.

7. And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi,

Rabbi--It is the spirit rather than the letter of

this that must be pressed; though the violation of the letter,

springing from spiritual pride, has done incalculable evil in the

Church of Christ. The reiteration of the word "Rabbi" shows how it

tickled the ear and fed the spiritual pride of those ecclesiastics.

8. But be not ye called Rabbi; for one is your Master--your Guide,

your Teacher.

9. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your

Father, which is in heaven, &c.--To construe these injunctions into

a condemnation of every title by which Church rulers may be

distinguished from the flock which they rule, is virtually to condemn

that rule itself; and accordingly the same persons do both--but against

the whole strain of the New Testament and sound Christian judgment. But

when we have guarded ourselves against these extremes, let us see to it

that we retain the full spirit of this warning against that itch for

ecclesiastical superiority which has been the bane and the scandal of

Christ's ministers in every age. (On the use of the word "Christ" here,

see on

Mt 1:1).

11. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant--This

plainly means, "shall show that he is so by becoming your servant"; as

in

Mt 20:27,

compared with

Mr 10:44.

12. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased--See on

Lu 18:14.

What follows was addressed more immediately to the scribes and

Pharisees.

13. But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut

up the kingdom of heaven against men--Here they are charged with

shutting heaven against men: in

Lu 11:52

they are charged with what was worse, taking away the key--"the

key of knowledge"--which means, not the key to open knowledge, but

knowledge as the only key to open heaven. A right knowledge of God's

revealed word is eternal life, as our Lord says

(Joh 17:3; 5:39);

but this they took away from the people, substituting for it their

wretched traditions.

14. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour

widows' houses, &c.--Taking advantage of the helpless condition and

confiding character of "widows," they contrived to obtain possession of

their property, while by their "long prayers" they made them believe

they were raised far above "filthy lucre." So much "the greater

damnation" awaits them. What a lifelike description of the Romish

clergy, the true successors of those scribes!

15. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass

sea and land to make one proselyte--from heathenism. We have evidence

of this in JOSEPHUS.

and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than

yourselves--condemned, for the hypocrisy he would learn to practice,

both by the religion he left and that he embraced.

16. Woe unto you, ye blind guides--Striking expression this of the

ruinous effects of erroneous teaching. Our Lord, here and in some

following verses, condemns the subtle distinctions they made as to the

sanctity of oaths--distinctions invented only to promote their own

avaricious purposes.

which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing--He has

incurred no debt.

but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple--meaning not

the gold that adorned the temple itself, but the Corban, set

apart for sacred uses (see on

Mt 15:5).

he is a debtor!--that is, it is no longer his own, even though the

necessities of the parent might require it. We know who the successors

of these men are.

but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty--It

should have been rendered, "he is a debtor," as in

Mt 23:16.

19. Ye fools, and blind! for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar

that sanctifieth the gift?--(See

Ex 29:37).

20-22. Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, &c.--See on

Mt 5:33-37.

23. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe

of mint and anise--rather, "dill," as in Margin.

and cummin--In Luke

(Lu 11:42)

it is "and rue, and all manner of herbs." They grounded this practice

on

Le 27:30,

which they interpreted rigidly. Our Lord purposely names the most

trifling products of the earth as examples of what they punctiliously

exacted the tenth of.

and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy,

and faith--In Luke

(Lu 11:42)

it is "judgment, mercy, and the love of God"--the expression being

probably varied by our Lord Himself on the two different occasions. In

both His reference is to

Mic 6:6-8,

where the prophet makes all acceptable religion to consist of three

elements--"doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our

God"; which third element presupposes and comprehends both the "faith"

of Matthew and the "love" of Luke. See on

Mr 12:29;

Mr 12:32, 33.

The same tendency to merge greater duties in less besets even the

children of God; but it is the characteristic of hypocrites.

these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone--There

is no need for one set of duties to jostle out another; but it is to be

carefully noted that of the greater duties our Lord says, "Ye ought

to have done" them, while of the lesser He merely says, "Ye ought

not to leave them undone."

24. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat--The proper rendering--as

in the older English translations, and perhaps our own as it came from

the translators' hands--evidently is, "strain out." It was the custom,

says TRENCH, of the stricter Jews to strain

their wine, vinegar, and

other potables through linen or gauze, lest unawares they should drink

down some little unclean insect therein and thus transgress

(Le 11:20, 23, 41, 42)

--just as the Buddhists do now in Ceylon and Hindustan--and to this

custom of theirs our Lord here refers.

and swallow a camel--the largest animal the Jews knew, as the "gnat"

was the smallest; both were by the law unclean.

25. within they are full of extortion--In Luke

(Lu 11:39)

the same word is rendered "ravening," that is, "rapacity."

26. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup

and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also--In Luke

(Lu 11:40)

it is, "Ye fools, did not He that made that which is without make that

which is within also?"--"He to whom belongs the outer life, and of

right demands its subjection to Himself, is the inner man less His?" A

remarkable example this of our Lord's power of drawing the most

striking illustrations of great truths from the most familiar objects

and incidents in life. To these words, recorded by Luke, He adds the

following, involving a principle of immense value: "But rather give

alms of such things as ye have, and behold, all things are clean unto

you"

(Lu 11:41).

As the greed of these hypocrites was one of the most prominent features

of their character

(Lu 16:14),

our Lord bids them exemplify the opposite character, and then their

outside, ruled by this, would be beautiful in the eye of God,

and their meals would be eaten with clean hands, though much fouled

with the business of this everyday world. (See

Ec 9:7).

27. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like

whited sepulchres--or, whitewashed sepulchres. (Compare

Ac 23:3).

The process of whitewashing the sepulchres, as LIGHTFOOT says, was performed on a certain day every

year, not for ceremonial cleansing, but, as the following words seem

rather to imply, to beautify them.

which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead

men's bones, and of all uncleanness--What a powerful way of conveying

the charge, that with all their fair show their hearts were full of

corruption! (Compare

Ps 5:9;

Ro 3:13).

But our Lord, stripping off the figure, next holds up their iniquity in

naked colors.

Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children

of them which killed the prophets--that is, "ye be witnesses that

ye have inherited, and voluntarily served yourselves heirs to, the

truth-hating, prophet-killing, spirit of your fathers." Out of

pretended respect and honor, they repaired and beautified the

sepulchres of the prophets, and with whining hypocrisy said, "If we had

been in their days, how differently should we have treated these

prophets?" While all the time they were witnesses to themselves that

they were the children of them that killed the prophets, convicting

themselves daily of as exact a resemblance in spirit and character to

the very classes over whose deeds they pretended to mourn, as child to

parent. In

Lu 11:44

our Lord gives another turn to this figure of a grave: "Ye are as

graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware

of them." As one might unconsciously walk over a grave concealed from

view, and thus contract ceremonial defilement, so the plausible

exterior of the Pharisees kept people from perceiving the pollution

they contracted from coming in contact with such corrupt

characters.

33. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the

damnation of hell?--In thus, at the end of His ministry, recalling

the words of the Baptist at the outset of his, our Lord would seem to

intimate that the only difference between their condemnation now and

then was, that now they were ripe for their doom, which they were not

then.

34. Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and

scribes--The I here is emphatic: "I am sending," that is,

"am about to send." In

Lu 11:49

the variation is remarkable: "Therefore also, said the wisdom of God, I

will send them," &c. What precisely is meant by "the wisdom of God"

here, is somewhat difficult to determine. To us it appears to be simply

an announcement of a purpose of the Divine Wisdom, in the high style of

ancient prophecy, to send a last set of messengers whom the people

would reject, and rejecting, would fill up the cup of their iniquity.

But, whereas in Luke it is "I, the Wisdom of God, will send them," in

Matthew it is "I, Jesus, am sending them"; language only befitting the

one sender of all the prophets, the Lord God of Israel now in the

flesh. They are evidently evangelical messengers, but called by the

familiar Jewish names of "prophets, wise men, and scribes," whose

counterparts were the inspired and gifted servants of the Lord Jesus;

for in Luke

(Lu 11:49)

it is "prophets and apostles."

unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the

temple and the altar--As there is no record of any fresh murder

answering to this description, probably the allusion is not to any

recent murder, but to

2Ch 24:20-22,

as the last recorded and most suitable case for illustration.

And as Zacharias' last words were, "The Lord require it," so

they are here warned that of that generation it should be

required.

36. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this

generation--As it was only in the last generation of them that "the

iniquity of the Amorites was full"

(Ge 15:16),

and then the abominations of ages were at once completely and awfully

avenged, so the iniquity of Israel was allowed to accumulate from age

to age till in that generation it came to the full, and the whole

collected vengeance of heaven broke at once over its devoted head. In

the first French Revolution the same awful principle was exemplified,

and Christendom has not done with it yet.

Lamentation over Jerusalem, and Farewell to the Temple

(Mt 23:37-39).

37. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest

them which are sent unto thee, &c.--How ineffably grand and melting

is this apostrophe! It is the very heart of God pouring itself forth

through human flesh and speech. It is this incarnation of the innermost

life and love of Deity, pleading with men, bleeding for them, and

ascending only to open His arms to them and win them back by the power

of this story of matchless love, that has conquered the world, that will

yet "draw all men unto Him," and beautify and ennoble Humanity itself!

"Jerusalem" here does not mean the mere city or its inhabitants; nor is

it to be viewed merely as the metropolis of the nation, but as the

center of their religious life--"the city of their solemnities,

whither the tribes went up, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord";

and at this moment it was full of them. It is the whole family of God,

then, which is here apostrophized by a name dear to every Jew, recalling

to him all that was distinctive and precious in his religion. The

intense feeling that sought vent in this utterance comes out first in

the redoubling of the opening word--"Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" but, next,

in the picture of it which He draws--"that killest the prophets, and

stonest them which are sent unto thee!"--not content with spurning God's

messages of mercy, that canst not suffer even the messengers to live!

When He adds, "How often would I have gathered thee!" He refers surely

to something beyond the six or seven times that He visited and taught in

Jerusalem while on earth. No doubt it points to "the prophets," whom

they "killed," to "them that were sent unto her," whom they "stoned."

But whom would He have gathered so often? "Thee," truth-hating,

mercy-spurning, prophet-killing Jerusalem--how often would I have

gathered thee! Compare with this that affecting clause in the great

ministerial commission, "that repentance and remission of sins should be

preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem!"

(Lu 24:47).

What encouragement to the heartbroken at their own long-continued and

obstinate rebellion! But we have not yet got at the whole heart of this

outburst. I would have gathered thee, He says, "even as a hen gathereth

her chickens under her wings." Was ever imagery so homely invested with

such grace and such sublimity as this, at our Lord's touch? And yet how

exquisite the figure itself--of protection, rest, warmth, and all

manner of conscious well-being in those poor, defenseless, dependent

little creatures, as they creep under and feel themselves overshadowed

beyond hearing of her peculiar call, they are overtaken by a storm or

attacked by an enemy, what can they do but in the one case droop and

die, and in the other submit to be torn in pieces? But if they can

reach in time their place of safety, under the mother's wing, in vain

will any enemy try to drag them thence. For rising into strength,

kindling into fury, and forgetting herself entirely in her young, she

will let the last drop of her blood be shed out and perish in defense

of her precious charge, rather than yield them to an enemy's talons.

How significant all this of what Jesus is and does for men! Under His

great Mediatorial wing would He have "gathered" Israel. For the figure,

see

De 32:10-12;

Ru 2:12;

Ps 17:8; 36:7; 61:4; 63:7; 91:4;

Isa 31:5;

Mal 4:2.

The ancient rabbins had a beautiful expression for proselytes from the

heathen--that they had "come under the wings of the Shekinah." For this

last word, see on

Mt 23:38.

But what was the result of all this tender and mighty love? The answer

is, "And ye would not." O mysterious word! mysterious the resistance of

such patient Love--mysterious the liberty of self-undoing! The awful

dignity of the will, as here expressed, might make the ears to

tingle.

38. Behold, your house--the temple, beyond all doubt; but

their house now, not the Lord's. See on

Mt 22:7.

is left unto you desolate--deserted, that is, of its Divine Inhabitant.

But who is that? Hear the next words:

39. For I say unto you--and these were His last words to

the impenitent nation, see on

Mr 13:1,

opening remarks.

Ye shall not see me henceforth--What? Does Jesus mean that He was

Himself the Lord of the temple, and that it became "deserted" when

HE

finally left it? It is even so. Now is thy fate sealed, O Jerusalem, for

the glory is departed from thee! That glory, once visible in the holy of

holies, over the mercy seat, when on the day of atonement the blood of

typical expiation was sprinkled on it and in front of it--called by the

Jews the Shekinah, or the Dwelling, as being the visible

pavilion of Jehovah--that glory, which Isaiah

(Isa 6:1-13)

saw in vision, the beloved disciple says was the glory of Christ

(Joh 12:41).

Though it was never visible in the second temple, Haggai foretold that

"the glory of that latter house should be greater than of the

former"

(Hag 2:9)

because "the Lord whom they sought was suddenly to come to His temple"

(Mal 3:1),

not in a mere bright cloud, but enshrined in living humanity! Yet brief

as well as "sudden" was the manifestation to be: for the words He was

now uttering were to be HIS VERY LAST

within its precincts.

till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the

Lord--that is, till those "Hosannas to the Son of David" with which

the multitude had welcomed Him into the city--instead of "sore

displeasing the chief priests and scribes"

(Mt 21:15)

--should break forth from the whole nation, as their glad acclaim to

their once pierced, but now acknowledged, Messiah. That such a time

will come is clear from

Zec 12:10;

Ro 11:26;

2Co 3:15, 16,

&c. In what sense they shall then "see Him" may be gathered from

Zec 2:10-13;

Eze 37:23-28; 39:28, 29,

&c.