Matthew 23:16 - People's Commentary (NT)

Matthew 23:16

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.

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ^aFor you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.

28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

29 ^a“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and¹ adorn the monuments of the righteous,

30 and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’

31 “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that ^ayou are sons of those who murdered the prophets.

32 ^aFill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt.

33 Serpents, ^abrood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?

Commentaries:

People's Commentary (NT)

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Matthew 23:16-17

Matthew 23:16 [Ye] blind guides. Blind, because they closed their eyes, yet professing to be leaders. Swear by the temple. A common oath among the Jews. Swear by the gold of the temple. In their foolish distinctions they regarded this as a binding oath. If the gold had any sacredness, it was because the temple, God's house, made it so.

**Other People's Commentary (NT) entries containing Matthew 23:16:**

Matthew 23:16-17
Luke 11:39-52

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