CHAPTER 23

(A.D. 33)

THE SINS OF THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES

¹Then spoke Jesus to the multitude, and to His Disciples (this is not the Jesus of the modern Church or fashionable pulpit),

²Saying, The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat (the Scribes proclaimed to be interpreters of the Law of Moses for the people):

³All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do (concerned a correct interpretation of the Scriptures, and not their glosses); but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not (they do not practice what they preach; remember, Jesus is saying this, in the Temple, before the Pharisees and the people).

⁴For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on mens shoulders (concerns the glosses and additions that had been made to the law by these hypocrites); but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers (they do not themselves do what they demand of others).

⁵But all their works they do for to be seen of men (self-righteousness): they make broad their phylacteries (a small box worn on the arm or forehead, and containing Scriptures), and enlarge the borders of their garments (tassels composed of white and blue threads, intended to remind the wearers of the Commandments of the Lord; they made these overly large to draw attention to themselves),

⁶And love the uppermost rooms at feasts (the most honored place at the table), and the chief seats in the synagogues (seats of honor),

⁷And greetings in the markets (flowery salutations), and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi (teacher, a favorite title claimed by the Pharisees).

⁸But you are not to be called Rabbi (it concerned the greedy ambition which loved the empty title, and took any means to obtain it): for One is your Master (Teacher, Leader, Guide), even Christ (the Lord Jesus Christ); and all you are brethren (no one Believer is higher than another, and neither can have from Christ any authority over other Believers [I Pet. 5:1-8]).

⁹And call no man your father upon the earth (eminent teachers to whom the people were taught to look to rather than God): for one is your Father, which is in Heaven (all true Bible teachers must cause men to look to God, and not to themselves as the source of power and truth).

¹⁰Neither be ye called masters (means that Preachers are not to be called spiritual leaders): for one is your Master, even Christ (actually means that God and Christ are the only Ones Who have any right to these titles).

¹¹But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant (the definition of Christian greatness, i.e., the servant principle).

¹²And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased (pride and vanity); and he who shall humble himself shall be exalted (is the universal Law of Gods dealings with men).

WOES UPON THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES

¹³But woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (The first of eight woes, and said to their faces. There could be no greater insult to them than being called hypocrites!)for you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men (is the first scheme of Satan, and is carried out through religion): for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them who are entering to go in (they refuse to accept Christ, and stood in the door to bar access to any and all who would attempt to come in).

¹⁴Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you devour widows houses, and for a pretence make long prayer (projects a false piety which deceives people, and the most helpless at that): therefore you shall receive the greater damnation (this tells us that religious wickedness is the greatest wickedness of all).

¹⁵Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you compass sea and land to make one proselyte (working zealously to draw people to themselves, instead of the Lord), and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves (religious people are the hardest of all to bring to the Lord).

¹⁶Woe unto you, you blind guides (these religious leaders were spiritually blind, but yet they were serving as spiritual guides for the people, which guaranteed the peoples spiritual destruction; is it any different presently?), which say, Whosoever shall swear by the Temple, it is nothing (an oath that need not be kept); but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the Temple, he is a debtor! (If one does such, he is bound to hold to his oath.)

¹⁷You fools and blind (proclaims Christ adding to the epithets of hypocrites and blind, the word fools!): for whether is greater, the gold, or the Temple that sanctifieth the gold? (The answer of Christ was not meant to place a seal of approval on swearing oaths, but instead, the foolishness of such a position. The gold didnt sanctify the Temple but rather, the opposite!)

¹⁸And, Whosoever shall swear by the Altar, it is nothing (an oath that doesnt need to be kept); but whosoever sweareth by the gift (Sacrifice)that is upon it, he is guilty (if one swears an oath by the Sacrifice on the Altar, hes bound to keep such an oath, or so they said).

¹⁹You fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift (Sacrifice), or the Altar that sanctifieth the gift? (The religious leaders of Israel had a wrong conception of the entirety of the Plan of God.)

²⁰Whoso therefore shall swear by the Altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon (all were equally important).

²¹And whoso shall swear by the Temple, sweareth by it, and by Him Who dwells therein (their sin was the sin of making God a part of their evil; it is the same presently with many modern Preachers).

²²And he who shall swear by Heaven swears by the Throne of God, and by Him Who sits thereon (Christ says here that to swear by Heaven includes God and His Throne whether realized or not).

²³Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin (small plants used for seasoning), and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law, Judgment, Mercy, and Faith (they were meticulous about these insignificant things, but gave little or no heed at all, to those things which really mattered): these ought you to have done (pertaining to Scriptural Judgment, Mercy, and Faith), and not to leave the other undone (make sure, as well, that you pay tithe on all that you have; all of the Word of God is to be obeyed, not just part).

²⁴You blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel (this is self-righteousness taken to an ultra extreme).

²⁵Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter (outward show), but within they are full of extortion and excess (the heart).

²⁶You blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter (the heart), that the outside of them may be clean also (has to do with moral purity which comes from within, and if such is the case, the outside will be clean as well).

²⁷Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward (once a year, the Jews white washed the tombs in order to make them conspicuous that men may not contract ceremonial defilement by touching or walking over them [Num. 19:16]), but are within full of dead mens bones, and of all uncleanness (this symbolized the Pharisees).

²⁸Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

²⁹Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (Presents the eighth and final woe!), because you build the tombs of the Prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous (speaks of the honors paid to departed Saints, while at the same time, planning to murder living Saints, even Christ!),

³⁰And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets (all the time they were plotting to murder Christ).

³¹Wherefore you be witnesses unto yourselves (be honest with yourself), that you are the children of them which killed the Prophets (you have the same murderous hearts as those you condemn).

³²Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers (their wickedness was about to bring judgment, which it did!).

³³You serpents, you generation of vipers (He likens them to that old serpent, their father, the Devil [Jn. 8:44; Rev. 12:9; 20:2]), how can you escape the damnation of Hell? (Eternal destiny of these religious leaders would be Hell. What an indictment!)

³⁴Wherefore, behold, I send unto you Prophets, and wise men, and Scribes (pertains to those of the Early Church): and some of them you shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall you scourge in your Synagogues, and persecute them from city to city (the Book of Acts records all of this, exactly as stated by Christ):

³⁵That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth (speaks of the cup of iniquity being filled; Judgment was about to come, which it did!), from the blood of righteous Abel (Gen., Chpt. 4) unto the blood of Zechariah, son of Barachias, whom you killed between the Temple and the Altar (more than likely, Zechariah the Prophet [Zech. 1:1]).

³⁶Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation (and it did! about thirty-seven years later, in 70 A.D., Jerusalem was totally destroyed by Titus, the Roman General).

JESUS WEEPS OVER JERUSALEM

³⁷O Jerusalem, Jerusalem (presents Jesus standing in the Temple when He gave this sorrowing account), you who kill the Prophets, and stone them which are sent unto you (presents the terrible animosity tendered toward these Messengers of God), how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not! (Proclaims every effort made by the Lord, and made often, to bring Israel back to her senses.)

³⁸Behold, your house (the Temple or Jerusalem, are no longer Gods habitation) is left unto you desolate (without God, which means they were at the mercy of Satan).

³⁹For I say unto you, you shall not see Me henceforth, till you shall say, Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord (the Second Coming).