Matthew 23
23
Religious Hypocrites Denounced
1Then#Mk 12:38–39; Lk 20:45–46 Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples:#Mt 10:42; 28:19; Lk 14:26; Jn 8:31; 13:35; 15:8; Ac 6:1 2“The scribes and the Pharisees are seated in the chair of Moses.#Ezr 7:6,25; Neh 8:4 3Therefore do whatever they tell you, and observe it. But don’t do what they do, because they don’t practice what they teach.#Mt 5:20; 15:3–9; Rm 2:17–23 4They tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry#23:4 Other mss omit that are hard to carry and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves aren’t willing to lift a finger to move them.#Lk 11:46; Ac 15:10; Gl 6:13 5They do everything#23:5 Lit do all their works to be seen by others: They enlarge their phylacteries#Ex 13:9; Dt 6:8; 11:18; Mt 6:1,5,16 and lengthen their tassels.#23:5 Other mss add on their robes#Mt 9:20; 14:36; Mk 6:56; Lk 8:44 6They love the place of honor at banquets, the front seats in the synagogues,#Lk 11:43; 14:7; 20:46 7greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by people.
8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ because you have one Teacher, # 23:8 Other mss add the Christ and you are all brothers and sisters.#Mk 9:5; 10:51; Jn 1:38,49; 11:8; Jms 3:1 9Do not call anyone on earth your father, because you have one Father, who is in heaven.#Mal 1:6; Mt 6:9; 7:11 10You are not to be called instructors either, because you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 11The greatest among you will be your servant.#Mt 20:26–27; Mk 9:35; 3Jn 9 12Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.#Pr 29:23; Ezk 21:26; Lk 14:11; 18:14; Jms 4:6,10; 1Pt 5:5–6
13 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you don’t go in, and you don’t allow those entering to go in. # 23:13 Some mss include v. 14: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You devour widows’ houses and make long prayers just for show. This is why you will receive a harsher punishment. #
Mt 23:15,23,25; Lk 11:52
15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to make one convert, #
Ac 2:11; 6:5; 13:43 and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a child of hell as you are!
16 “Woe to you, blind guides, #
Mt 15:14; 23:24; Ac 1:16; Rm 2:19 who say, ‘Whoever takes an oath by the temple, it means nothing. But whoever takes an oath#Lv 19:12; Nm 30:2; Dt 23:21; Mt 5:33; 14:7; 26:63,72 by the gold of the temple is bound by his oath.’#23:16 Lit is obligated, also in v. 18 17Blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold? 18Also, ‘Whoever takes an oath by the altar, it means nothing; but whoever takes an oath by the gift that is on it is bound by his oath.’ 19Blind people!#23:19 Other mss read Fools and blind For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?#Ex 29:37; 30:29 20Therefore, the one who takes an oath by the altar takes an oath by it and by everything on it. 21The one who takes an oath by the temple takes an oath by it and by him who dwells#1Kg 8:13; 2Ch 6:2; Ps 26:8; 132:14 in it. 22And the one who takes an oath by heaven takes an oath by God’s throne#Ex 17:16; Ps 11:4; Mt 5:34; Heb 8:1 and by him who sits on it.#Ps 47:8; Mt 19:28; Rv 4:2
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay a tenth of # 23:23 Or You tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law — justice,#1Sm 15:22; Ps 33:5; Jr 5:1; Mc 6:8; Zch 7:9; Lk 11:42 mercy, and faithfulness.#23:23 Or faith These things should have been done without neglecting the others. 24Blind guides!#Mt 15:14; 23:16 You strain out a gnat, but gulp down a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed # 23:25 Or full of violence and self-indulgence.#Mk 7:4; Lk 11:39 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup,#23:26 Other mss add and dish so that the outside of it#23:26 Other mss read of them may also become clean.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, #
Lk 11:44; Ac 23:3 which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity. 28In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, 30and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we wouldn’t have taken part with them in shedding the prophets’ blood.’ 31So you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32Fill up, then, the measure of your ancestors’ sins!#Gn 15:16; Ac 7:51; 1Th 2:15–16
33 “Snakes! Brood of vipers! How can you escape being condemned to hell? # 23:33 Lit escape from the judgment of gehenna #
Mt 3:7; 5:22; 12:34 34This is why I am sending you prophets,#Ac 13:1; 1Co 12:28 sages, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues#2Ch 36:15–16; Mt 10:17; Ac 22:19 and pursue from town to town. 35So all the righteous blood shed on the earth will be charged to you,#23:35 Lit will come on you from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah,#2Ch 24:21; Zch 1:1 son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.#Gn 4:8; Heb 11:4; 1Jn 3:12; Rv 18:24 36Truly I tell you, all these things will come on this generation.#Mt 10:23; 16:28; 24:34
Jesus’s Lamenting over Jerusalem
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, #
Lk 13:34–35
who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks#23:37 Or as a mother bird gathers her young under her wings, but you were not willing!#Dt 32:11–12; Ru 2:12; Mt 5:12 38See, your house is left to you desolate.#1Kg 9:7; Is 64:11; Jr 12:7; 22:5 39For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’!” #23:39Ps 118:26#Ps 118:26; Mt 21:9
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Matthew 23: CSB
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
Matthew 23
23
1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds, and to his disciples,
2 saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees have sat down in the chair of Moses.
3 Therefore, all things whatsoever that they shall say to you, observe and do. Yet truly, do not choose to act according to their works. For they say, but they do not do.
4 For they bind up heavy and unbearable burdens, and they impose them on men's shoulders. But they are not willing to move them with even a finger of their own.
5 Truly, they do all their works so that they may be seen by men. For they enlarge their phylacteries and glorify their hems.
6 And they love the first places at feasts, and the first chairs in the synagogues,
7 and greetings in the marketplace, and to be called Master by men.
8 But you must not be called Master. For One is your Master, and you are all brothers.
9 And do not choose to call anyone on earth your father. For One is your Father, who is in heaven.
10 Neither should you be called teachers. For One is your Teacher, the Christ.
11 Whoever is greater among you shall be your minister.
12 But whoever has exalted himself, shall be humbled. And whoever has humbled himself, shall be exalted.
13 So then: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you close the kingdom of heaven before men. For you yourselves do not enter, and those who are entering, you would not permit to enter.
14 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you consume the houses of widows, praying long prayers. Because of this, you shall receive the greater judgment.
15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and by land, in order to make one convert. And when he has been converted, you make him twice the son of Hell that you are yourselves.
16 Woe to you, blind guides, who say: 'Whoever will have sworn by the temple, it is nothing. But whoever will have sworn by the gold of the temple is obligated.'
17 You are foolish and blind! For which is greater: the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?
18 And you say: 'Whoever will have sworn by the altar, it is nothing. But whoever will have sworn by the gift that is on the altar is obligated.'
19 How blind you are! For which is greater: the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
20 Therefore, whoever swears by the altar, swears by it, and by all that is on it.
21 And whoever will have sworn by the temple, swears by it, and by him who dwells in it.
22 And whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits upon it.
23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you collect tithes on mint and dill and cumin, but you have abandoned the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, while not omitting the others.
24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat, while swallowing a camel!
25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you clean what is outside the cup and the dish, but on the inside you are full of avarice and impurity.
26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the dish, and then what is outside becomes clean.
27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed sepulchers, which outwardly appear brilliant to men, yet truly, inside, they are filled with the bones of the dead and with all filth.
28 So also, you certainly appear to men outwardly to be just. But inwardly you are filled with hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, who build the sepulchers of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the just.
30 And then you say, 'If we had been there in the days of our fathers, we would not have joined with them in the blood of the prophets.'
31 And so you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are the sons of those who killed the prophets.
32 Complete, then, the measure of your fathers.
33 You serpents, you brood of vipers! How will you escape from the judgment of Hell?
34 For this reason, behold, I send to you prophets and wisemen, and scribes. And some of these you will put to death and crucify; and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,
35 so that upon you may fall all the blood of the just, which has been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the temple and the altar.
36 Amen I say to you, all these things shall fall upon this generation.
37 Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone those who have been sent to you. How often I have wanted to gather your children together, in the way that a hen gathers her young under her wings. But you were not willing!
38 Behold, your house shall be abandoned to you, having been deserted.
39 For I say to you, you shall not see me again, until you say: 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' "
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