Matthew 23

Portions of Luke xi., xiii. (on which see notes) resemble some parts of this chapter; which, however, evidently contains one regular discourse in its right connexion.

2 sit in Moses’ seat. Their office is to expound and apply judicially the law of Moses; therefore “all things” which they enjoin out of that law you are to observe. But you are neither to imitate their example, nor to receive their unscriptural traditions.

5 phylacteries. Phylacteries took their name from a Greek word signifying to keep safely. They were strips of parchment containing sentences extracted from the law, particularly Exod. xiii. 9, 16; Deut. vi. 4-9; xi. 13-21, on which see notes. The Jews bound these, in leather cases, on the forehead, or on the left wrist; and it seems that the Pharisees made them larger and more conspicuous than others. They did the same with the “borders,” “tassels,” or “fringes” of their garments; on which see Numb. xv. 37-41, and note.

6 uppermost rooms. Rather, “the highest places.” The place of honour at the table was the middle place in the couch at the top; and in the synagogue, it was the seat nearest the “ark” or depository of the law.

7 greetings (“the salutations,” R.V.) in the markets (places of public concourse). The Jewish teachers liked to be publicly and loudly hailed by their followers with cries of “Rabbi! Rabbi!” meaning, “My master.” Our Lord here condemns not only vanity, but also all that assumption of superior authority in religious matters which the terms “Teacher,” “Father,” “Master” were held to imply; as being derogatory to the claims of their heavenly Father and of their Lord and Saviour, and inconsistent with the fraternal relations of Christians as brethren (10).

8. Master. Or, “Leader.” The words, “even (the) Christ,” seem to have been added to this verse from ver. 10 by some transcriber.

11 he that is greatest. See xx. 26, 27, and note.

13 neither suffer ye them that are entering. Not only had they by their traditions obscured and perverted their own Scriptures, and so deluded the people; but, when the ministry of John the Baptist and of our Lord had so powerfully affected many of the people that they seemed to be ready to enter “the kingdom of heaven,” these false teachers did their utmost to excite their prejudices (see xii. 23, 24; John ix. 24); and with too much success.

15 ye compass sea and land, etc. You make the most strenuous efforts to gain a proselyte. The word “proselyte,” as it is used in Scripture, refers to Gentiles who had submitted to the whole Mosaic law.

16 he is a debtor. The same word is rendered in ver. 18, “he is guilty”; but in both cases it means “he is bound” by his oath.

17 sanctifieth. That is, gives it all its sacredness.

23 hypocrites. “Actors.”

anise and cummin. “Mint, anise” (rather, “dill”), and “cummin” (which, like dill, somewhat resembles fennel), are small herbs; to which, with extreme scrupulousness, the Pharisees extended the law of tithes (Lev. xxvii. 30), neglecting the “weightier,” or more important, requirements: see Micah vi. 8, and note.

24 strain at. Rather, “strain out,” as the word is printed in some early editions of the English Bible. The gnat and the camel are put for the smallest and the largest animals, both alike unclean (Lev. xi. 4, 20-23, 41, 42). The Jews strained their wine carefully, lest they should be polluted by swallowing an insect; and they whitewashed their graves annually (on the 15th of Adar), lest they should become unclean by treading on them unawares. Our Lord’s meaning seems to be, In vain do you cleanse your cup and strain your wine; you leave in it worse impurities, and the liquor itself is bad: your lives are full of extortion and excess. In vain do you whitewash your graves; they are still abodes of pestilent corruption: your hearts “are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” You carefully shun ceremonial uncleanness, and yet disobey the weightiest of God’s commandments.

31 ye be (are) witnesses, etc. In what you say you admit that you are their descendants; in what you do you resemble them. Doing this, while you acknowledge their crime in persecuting God’s faithful messengers, you must be finally abandoned to fill to the brim their cup of sin and punishment (32), and you must take it and drain it all (35, 36).

33 generation (“offspring,” R.V.) of vipers. See note on iii. 7. In pronouncing their character and doom, the Judge reminds them of the very words by which the preacher of repentance had sought to convince them of sin.

34. Wherefore. Since you imitate your fathers: see note on Exod. iv. 21.

35 righteous Abel. Abel is the first righteous man whose murder is recorded in the Bible (Gen. iv. 8), and Zechariah the son of Jehoiada is the last (2 Chron. xxiv. 20-22), according to the Jewish arrangement of the Old Testament. As all the circumstances of the death of the latter agree with the particulars here mentioned, it is likely that he is the person intended.

36 upon this generation. Within about forty years from this time Jerusalem was destroyed and the nation dispersed, with dreadful sufferings and slaughter.

37 how often, etc.! The words seem most naturally to refer to previous visits of our Lord to the capital. But such visits, prior to this last, are unrecorded in the first three Gospels. St. John, however, relates them (ii. 13; v. 1; vii. 14, etc.); thus supplying the explanation of our Lord’s appeal.

38 your house. Your dwelling-place: see Psa. lxix. 25. But some think that the Temple is meant.

39. Blessed [is] He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Acknowledging me to be the Messiah, as my disciples and the children of Jerusalem have already done (see xxi. 9). This, then, is Israel’s “song of conversion. With these words the public discourses of Christ to the Jews concludes: with these words their repentance will begin” (Bengel).

great events, is, notwithstanding some few inaccuracies, an unexceptionable witness to the accomplishment of our Lord’s words. He mentions impostors, who “deceived many”; and “wars, and rumours of wars” in Palestine (Ant. xx. 8, §§ 6, 7, 10; Wars, ii. 12, §§ 1, 2, 3; 13, § 4, etc.); “famine,” which is usually the precursor of “pestilence” (Ant. iii. 15, § 3; op. also Acts xi. 28); and “earthquake” (Wars, iv. 4, § 5).