Matthew 23 Study Notes
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23:1-2 Chair of Moses may figuratively identify the scribes and Pharisees as representatives of Moses as they taught the OT. Several centuries after Jesus, seats reserved for teachers in synagogues were regularly called “Moses’s seat.”
23:3 Jesus did not intend to impose all the teachings of the Pharisees on his disciples. After all, he criticized many of their beliefs. His command meant “Obey the Pharisees’ teachings whenever they accurately interpret the Scriptures.”
23:4 The Pharisees sought to “build a fence around the law,” i.e., establish rules so strict that people would not even come close to breaking God’s law (Ac 15:10).
23:5-7 Phylacteries were small boxes containing tiny scrolls of Ex 13:2-16 and Dt 6:4-9; 11:13-21. They were worn by faithful Jewish men on one arm and on the forehead (Dt 6:8; 11:18). Tassels made of blue or white threads were worn at the four corners of the outer garment (Nm 15:38-39; Dt 22:12). The Pharisees enlarged the phylacteries and lengthened the tassels in a bid to appear more pious.
23:8-12 Jesus prohibited the use of honorific titles for spiritual leaders that might encourage a sense of superiority in them or detract from the reverence that is properly due the Father and Messiah.
23:13-15 Woe was a term used by OT prophets to express condemnation (Is 5:8-23; Hab 2:6-9). Pharisees prevented people from entering the kingdom of heaven by discouraging them from following Jesus.
23:16-22 First-century laws declared some oaths to be valid and others invalid. The system was corrupt insomuch as it allowed loopholes that justified lies and manipulated naïve or credulous people. See note at 5:33-37.
23:23-24 In accordance with Lv 27:30; Nm 18:21-32; and Dt 14:22, the scribes and Pharisees meticulously tithed a tenth of everything, including their tiny garden herbs. Jesus did not discourage this since these things should have been done. However, he rebuked the Jewish leaders for obsessing with ritual matters while overlooking the true essence of religion as described in Mc 6:8. Like those who strain a gnat out of their drink but leave a camel floating in it, they were obsessed with tiny matters but overlooked important ones.
23:25-26 Some first-century rabbis debated whether cleansing the outside or inside of vessels was more important. Jesus cited this to illustrate their obsession with ritual purity and their neglect of inner spiritual purity.
23:27-28 First-century Jews whitewashed the tombs in Jerusalem to alert people to their location so they would not unintentionally draw too near and thus defile themselves. The whitewash also beautified the tombs. Despite this outer beauty, Jewish purity laws regarded the inside of tombs as defiled. Jesus said this resembled individuals whose outer piety (the whitewash) masks an inner corruption (spiritual defilement).
23:29-32 By persecuting God’s representatives (John the Baptist, Jesus, the disciples), the scribes and Pharisees continued the rebellion of their ancestors and probed the limits of God’s patience.
23:33 On snakes and brood of vipers, see note at 3:7-9.
23:34 This echoes Lk 11:49 but identifies Jesus as “the wisdom of God.”
hupokritēs
| Greek pronunciation | [hoo pah krih TAYSS] |
| CSB translation | hypocrite |
| Uses in Matthew | 13 (Mk, 1; Lk, 3) |
| Uses in the NT | 17 |
| Focus passage | Matthew 23:13-36 |
HupokritÄ“s (hypocrite) is derived from the verb hupokrinomai meaning to interpret or play the part. Hupokrinomai was often used to describe what actors accomplished on stage, and hupokritÄ“s referred to an actor, as one who interprets the words of a poet and plays a part. Though not originally a negative term, hupokritÄ“s metaphorically assumed a negative sense in Jewish and Christian literature, referring to one who pretends or who misinterprets truth and subsequently plays a part contrary to reality (e.g., the Jewish leaders of Jesus’s day misinterpreted the relationship between written law and interpretive tradition and subsequently played the part of properly interpreting the law when they were actually not properly interpreting it). Jesus uses hupokritÄ“s seventeen times to denounce the Jewish leaders’ fraudulent claim to spirituality. Perhaps his most scorching declamation comes in Mt 23:13-36.
23:35-36 Jesus, in an apparent allusion to the coming destruction of the temple in AD 70, warned that his generation would suffer God’s wrath for its abuse of the righteous. Abel’s murder is recorded in Gn 4, while Zechariah’s is recorded in 2 Ch 24:20-21. Second Chronicles was the final book of the OT in the typical order of the Hebrew Bible, so the martyrdoms of Abel and Zechariah were recorded in the first and last books of the Hebrew OT. Thus Jesus apparently meant to cite the whole span of martyrdom in the OT. Some interpreters argue that he confused the Zechariah of 2 Chronicles (identified as the son of Jehoiada) with the prophet Zechariah (described as the son of Berechiah in Zch 1:1). However, the Hebrew phrase son of was used to identify sons, grandsons, and even remote descendants. Consequently, Jesus probably identified the Zechariah of 2 Chronicles by an earlier or later ancestor. It is not unreasonable to suggest that both Zechariahs had ancestors named Berechiah.
23:37 In Ps 17:8; 91:4; and Is 31:5, the image of a hen sheltering her chicks portrayed the Lord’s protection of Israel. By rejecting Jesus, Jerusalem rejected God’s protection. The image implies Jesus’s identity as the Lord.
23:38-39 The word desolate means “abandoned.” It denotes God’s abandonment of his house, the temple. This occurred when Jesus departed from the temple with the words you will not see me again . . . ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ echoes Ps 118:26 and was the jubilant greeting that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem in Mt 21:9. Before the week was out, many of these same voices would be calling for Jesus’s death.