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Matthew 23:15
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13 “But awoe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.  
14 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! aFor you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.  
15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of1 hell as yourselves.  
16 “Woe to you, ablind guides, who say, b‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’  
17 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold aor 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, he is obliged to perform it.’
19 Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift aor the altar that sanctifies the gift?  
20 Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it.  
21 He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by aHim who dwells in it.  
22 And he who swears by heaven, swears by athe throne of God and by Him who sits on it.  
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! aFor you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and bhave neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.  
24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! aFor you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and1 self-indulgence.  
26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
<< Matthew 23:14   Matthew 23:16 >>


Matthew 23:15

Ye compass sea and land - You take every means, spare no pains, to gain proselytes.

Proselyte - One that comes over from a foreign nation, religion, or sect to us - a convert. Among the Jews there were two kinds of proselytes:

1."Proselytes of righteousness," or those who wholly and fully embraced the Jewish religion, who were baptized, who were circumcised, and who conformed to all the rites of the Mosaic institutions.

2."Proselytes of the gate," or those who approved of the Jewish religion, renounced the pagan superstitions, and conformed to some of the rites of the Jews, but were not circumcised or baptized.

Twofold more the child of hell - That is, twice as bad. To be a child of hell was a Hebrew phrase, signifying to be deserving of hell, to be awfully wicked. Compare the notes at Matthew 1:1. The Jewish writers themselves say that the proselytes were "scabs of Israel," and "hindered the coming of the Messiah" by their great wickedness. The Pharisees gained them either to swell their own numbers, or to make gain by extorting their money under various pretences; and when they had accomplished that, they took no pains to instruct them or to restrain them. They had renounced their superstition which had before somewhat restrained them, but the Pharisees had given them no religion in its place to restrain them, and they were consequently left to the full indulgence of their vices.




Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Matthew 23:15:

Isaiah 30:33
Matthew 23:39
Acts 2:10
Acts 6:5
Acts 13:43
Romans 2:19
Romans 10:2
1 Thessalonians 2:16
1 Peter 1:1

 

<< Matthew 23:14   Matthew 23:16 >>

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