Bible Commentaries
Matthew 23

Introduction

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

1 Christ admonisheth the people to follow the good doctrine, not the evil examples of the scribes and Pharisees.

5 His disciples must beware of their ambition.

13 He denounceth eight woes against their hypocrisy and blindness:

34 and prophesieth of the destruction of Jerusalem.

Verse 1

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

The multitude and his disciples. — Both these had been auditors of his disputes with the Sadducees and Pharisees and to them he now more immediately addresses himself.

Verses 2-3

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

The scribes and the Pharisees, &c. — That is, such of the Pharisees as were scribes, or professionally learned in the interpretation of the law. These are said to sit in Moses’ seat, because the doctors of the law delivered their discourses in that position; and as Moses was the great and first teacher of their law, he is figuratively represented as sitting to deliver his oracles, to which seat of his those who interpreted his law as doctors, and enforced it as judges, succeeded. Hence the scribes sat on seats in the sanhedrim and inferior councils. It is to this, their JUDICIAL office, that our Lord exclusively alludes; but when, like any other rabbins, they founded schools and taught disciples, to attend upon them or to observe their decisions was purely optional; and against various doctrines which they taught in this capacity, our Lord often strongly cautions his disciples, and often himself refutes their favourite tenets. As moral and religious teachers he held them in contempt, and taught his disciples so to regard them likewise; and that deservedly, for they were either always making void the moral law of God by their traditions; enforcing trivial rites, as though they were of the utmost importance; and toiling in intricate and endless disputes, “questions and strifes of words.”

In this capacity of religious teachers our Lord could not, therefore, exhort his disciples and the multitude to observe and do whatsoever they bade them observe and do. It was different with them as expounders of the law of Moses, in those branches only of which their synagogue courts and councils of different degrees of dignity up to the great sanhedrim took cognizance, which it was their office to make known to the people, and which were enforced by the courts under lighter or heavier penalties. Many of the superstitious and trifling ceremonies which they enjoined upon their “proselytes” in their other characters as doctors, rabbins, or teachers, under the general influence of their names as great and learned men, were designed to show them how to attain the highest degrees of merit and sanctity; but in their judicial capacity they were confined to the letter of the law, or its general directions, which, however, required explanation and accommodation to particular circumstances that might arise. In this there was little room for the play of their own superstitious fancies, because penalties were to be enforced upon disobedience, which must rest upon the letter of the law, not on private interpretation. Our Lord therefore respects this, their public office, because he was himself under the ceremonial and judicial law, and observed it; and as the time was not come for the abolition of the Mosaic institute, he enforced respect to their decisions upon his hearers, as still bound to the laws of Moses. Thus he prevented that offence which might have arisen from the idea that he was a subverter of the laws of his country. But while he enjoins respect to the scribes as magistrates and judges, he proceeds to caution the people against their bad personal example.

This shows how unfounded those interpretations of this passage are, which draw from our Lord’s words a sanction and even an obligation to attend upon the instructions of bad ministers, provided their example be not followed; a notion which is founded upon the mistaken idea, that the scribes were the authorized preachers or religious teachers of the Jews, and exercised that office in religious assemblies of the synagogues, Of this there is no evidence whatever. In the synagogues prayers were offered, the appointed portion of Scripture read, and the interpretation of the Hebrew given in the common dialect, as literally as possible; but any one might address the people in exhortation. Many of the scribes, indeed, beside the judicial office they held in the Jewish courts, were public teachers of religion; but they had no authority for this from the law; none from inspiration, like the prophets; none from any public appointment. They took this office on their own authority, and trusted to their talents and character with the people to obtain disciples. It was only when they were introduced into the courts that they were vested with any authority; and then not as religious teachers, but as interpreters of the ceremonial and judicial law, and assessors with other judges.

The whole foundation of the opinion, that men are bound by the words of Christ to attend a wicked ministry, is therefore baseless: on the contrary, he cautions his disciples from following the instructions of these very men in their assumed capacity of religious instructers, by declaring that “if the blind lead the blind, they shall both fall into the ditch.” It was only when they were in Moses’ seat, in the chair of judicial authority, stating and enforcing the laws of Moses, that they were to be obeyed. But as to their example, it was to be shunned; for even those precepts of righteousness and mercy which Moses introduced into his law, although they enforced them upon others, they did not practise themselves; nor, as it would appear from what follows, did they even always observe those onerous and expensive ceremonials enjoined in the law which they were so zealous to uphold, and so strenuous to bind upon others. They say and do not; they bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers; they will not take the least part of these burdens upon themselves. The words are not to be interpreted of those superstitious additions to the law which the scribes invented as constituting in their view a righteousness beyond the letter, for Christ would not have commanded his disciples “‘to observe and do them;” but the things truly commanded by the law of God, and particularly the ceremonial law, which is called, Acts 15:10, “a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear.” Thus he declares their hypocrisy: in the next verse he reproves their religious affectation.

Verse 5

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Phylacteries. — The Jews were commanded to bind the words of the law as a sign on their hands, and as frontlets between their eyes Deuteronomy 6:8. These were strong figurative expressions, denoting the constant regard to be paid to the commands of God, which were never to be absent from the thoughts, and to be constantly referred to in order to regulate the conduct. But the Pharisees chose to interpret them literally, and to wear cases of parchment, into which they put written sentences of the law, and bound them upon the forehead and wrists. They are called in Greek phylacteries, from φυλαττω , to guard or keep, because they were used to preserve the law in memory, in order to its observance. The Hebrew term is תפלין , tephillin, or prayers, because these sentences were repeated at their devotions. The Pharisees wore these phylacteries, either broader than others, so that more might be written upon them, or they enlarged the case, so as to contain a greater number of sentences, so that they might appear to have a greater reverence for the law than others. The sentences written on the phylacteries are supposed to have been Deuteronomy 6:1-9; Exodus 13:2-11, the eight last verses of the same chapter, and Deuteronomy 11:13-22.

Enlarge the borders of their garments. — The command to the Israelites to wear borders or fringes, κρασπεδα , on their garments, with a blue or purple band on the fringe, Numbers 15:38, could only be taken literally. It was probably designed to distinguish the Jews from other nations; and that, by looking upon it, and remembering that they were a peculiar people, they might be admonished to observe their laws. Our Lord conformed to the custom of his country in this respect; for what is translated “the hem of his garment,” ought to have been rendered the fringe. It is said that the Jews still wear a small square piece, sewed on the inside of their clothes, with four purple tufts, in compliance with this precept. The Pharisees enlarged these fringes from the same motive as they enlarged their phylacteries, that they might seem exuberantly regardful of the Divine commands.

Verse 6

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Uppermost rooms. — That is, the most honourable seats. The custom of reclining at meals on couches had been long introduced into Judea. These couches generally contained three persons each. The most honourable place was the middle part of the middle couch, and the second was at the top. In still more ancient times, however, this distinction of honourable places was observed. “And Samuel took Saul and his servant and brought them into the parlour, and made them sit in the chiefest place among them that were bidden,” 1 Samuel 9:22.

The chief seats in the synagogues. — Seniority was the general rule of sitting in the synagogue; but respect being often shown to men learned in the law though younger in years, the scribes claimed that boldly and intrusively out of pure self-complacency, which had been sometimes rendered them through courtesy. In the synagogues the elders sat before the ark, or chest, in which the holy books were deposited, and the people in rows fronting them, so that “the faces of all the people,” says Maimonides, “were toward the elders and the ark.” It was this elevated position among the elders which the scribes and Pharisees affected in the synagogues, and even the chief seats there.

Verse 7

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Greetings in the markets. — Ασπασμους εν ταις αγοραος , salutations in the public places. These salutations, short and simple among all in ancient times, had become disgustingly long and ceremonious, and especially when a person of superior rank was addressed. They were commenced at a distance, accompanied with various humble gestures, and continued till the parties met. These forms the scribes and Pharisees exacted of their disciples and the common people.

Rabbi, rabbi. — This word, which imports greatness or eminence, was doubled for the sake of the greater emphasis. Anciently it was only given to persons of superior civil rank, as magistrates and princes; nor was it assumed by any of the prophets or wise men among the Jews, till about the birth of Christ, when the pride of the Jewish doctors began to show itself more extravagantly. Our Lord was saluted by this title, Matthew 26:25; from which some have conjectured very vainly that he had taken that degree in the Jewish schools, which is entirely contradicted by the question of the Jews when Christ was teaching in the temple, “Whence hath this man letters,” or learning, “having never learned?” plainly meaning in the Jewish schools. And the argument of Vitringa, that unless he had so passed the schools he could not have preached in the temple and synagogues, is built upon a mistake; for any Jew might thus teach publicly, and even in the synagogue, by permission of the ruler.

If, therefore, our Lord suffered himself to be called rabbi, we may conclude that, as a matter of courtesy to a superior, this title was not forbidden, any more than he condemns courteous salutations, because he reproves those elaborate and humiliating forms of greetings which the scribes and Pharisees affected. With these assuming men, the title rabbi is to be understood as a recognition of their office and authority as religious teachers; and it is for this reason that it is reproved by our Lord, and their example is forbidden to be imitated by his disciples. That it was assumed under this view appears from what follows, when our Lord equally forbids them to call any man father and master, καθηγητης , guide; which, with rabbi, were the titles the Jewish doctors assumed; for the Talmud pretends “that King Jehoshaphat used to salute the wise men with the titles, Father, father; Rabbi, rabbi; Master, master,” which, however false as an historical fact, shows what the titles they affected were. Now our Lord, instead of conceding them to be authorized teachers of religion, by prohibiting his disciples from giving them these titles under this character, not as matter of civil respect, wholly disallows their authority to exercise this office, tacitly pronounces it an assumption, and warns his disciples from imitating them. This will confirm what was said in a preceding note as to the import of their “sitting in Moses’ seat.”

Be not ye called rabbi, &c. — Though the disciples were to be constituted public teachers, this was only as servants conveying the words of their Master only to the people, without any mixture of their own. The Jewish teachers assumed an authority to set up tradition above the law, to pervert its meaning, and to make additions to it, on the sole authority of their own pretended wisdom. But the disciples were only to speak the words of another; and all titles, therefore, complimentary to their own wisdom, and which indicated any authority arising from their personal qualifications, were specially forbidden to them. This explains the reasons of the prohibition which follows: One is your Master, there is but one teacher, even Christ; and all ye are brethren, placed on equality in this respect, that ye are but the channels of communicating the wisdom ye receive from above to others: and call no man your FATHER upon earth; for one is your Father, a term here used also in the sense of instructer, which is in heaven: neither be ye called guides; for one is your guide, even Christ.

One is your Master. — The received text reads καθηγητης ; but the Vatican, and many other MSS., have διδασκαλος , teacher, which is probably the true reading, as otherwise there would be a repetition in verse 10.

Even Christ. — Ο Χριστος is omitted by Griesbach, and is wanting in several of the versions, and a few MSS.; but the evidence in its favour greatly preponderates. As Campbell, however, observes, ‘“it makes no difference in the sense, because if not read, the context manifestly supplies it.”

Verse 9

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Call no man father, &c. — That is, in the sense in which the scribes and Pharisees use the term, which also was with them a reverential designation, of themselves as eminent and authoritative INSTRUCTERS. Thus the Jews say, “The wise men are the fathers of us all;” and we read in their writings, not only Rabbi Saul; and Rabbi Jose, but Abba Saul, Abba Gorion, &c.

Verse 10

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Neither be ye called masters. — Καθηγηται , guides, in the sense of affording direction by instruction. All these titles were nearly of the same import, were assumed for the same reason, and the pretence built upon by them is therefore beaten down by our Lord by their being equally prohibited. As our Lord knew that human nature was in all fallen and corrupt, but proud and ambitious, he adds, But he that is greatest among you, let him be your servant; thereby striking at the root of that vanity which gave rise among the Jewish teachers to this assumption of vain titles, and teaching that, in his religion, true greatness lies only in self-abasement, and honour in service.

And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, &c. — This is the standing rule of the Divine administration. It was illustrated in the humiliation of the proud scribes and doctors of Judea, and in the glory put upon the humble teachers sent forth by our Lord. It often appears conspicuously in God’s dispensations to individuals and to nations; and an attentive observer will see it perhaps more uniformly illustrated by facts than any ether principle of God’s moral government in the present life. Even this was often noticed by the heathen, as appears from various passages both in Greek and Latin authors. “Do you see,” says one, “how the loftiest... houses and the highest trees are struck by the thunder? For God loves to cut short whatever rises superior.” “God suffers no one to have lofty thoughts but himself.”

Verse 13

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

But wo unto you, scribes and Pharisees, &c. — Our Lord here assumes his office as Judge of men, and authoritatively pronounces a succession of woes upon this wretched class of hypocrites and deceivers.

Shut the kingdom of heaven. — The kingdom of heaven is here the spiritual kingdom of Messiah, the Gospel dispensation. It had been opened by the joint preaching of John the Baptist and our Lord; and the people were on the point of entering in, but were hindered by the envious and malignant attempts of these false teachers to excite their prejudices and pervert their minds. Their example, their doctrine, especially their false interpretation of the prophecies, and their authority, were all employed to keep men from embracing that heavenly doctrine which they themselves rejected and despised.

Verse 14

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Ye devour widows’ houses. — Οικιας , houses, is here used by metonymy for property. They made a prey of weak superstitious women who, being widows, had no protectors, and had property at their own disposal. And this they did under pretence of the greatest sanctity, making long and frequent prayers, and that so publicly, both in the synagogues and public places, as to be seen and praised of men. We learn the length of their prayers from Maimonides, who says, that “the ancient holy men used to stay an hour before prayer, and an hour after prayer, and spent an hour in prayer. Those who would be accounted the holiest, used to do this three times a day, thus occupying nine hours a day,” — a hard service when the heart was not right with God. “For one to be long in his prayer,” says the Talmud, “is an excellence.” Yet, says our Lord, for these long prayers — because they were made for a pretext, in order to carry on covetous and rapacious designs more effectually, — ye shall receive greater, more extreme damnation. Let it be remarked that neither is length nor shortness of prayer censured or approved. What Christ condemns is simply the hypocrisy, the pretence, or disguise, intended by them. Prayers may be long or short, according to the occasion and circumstances.

Verse 15

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Ye compass sea and land, &c. — This is a proverbial expression, used to denote the most strenuous exertions to accomplish an object. Proselytes are generally reckoned of two kinds; the first proselytes of the covenant, or of righteousness, who were converts made from the Gentiles to Judaism, submitted to circumcision, and in every respect conformed to the law. — The rule of Moses, with respect to these, was, that they should be “as those born in the land;” that is, be reckoned as Jews. — But many strangers and aliens dwelt among the Jews, on condition of their not practising idolatry, nor worshipping any other God beside Jehovah; and refraining from labour on the Jewish Sabbath; and were permitted to pay their worship to God in the outer court of the temple, or court of the Gentiles, but separated from the other courts by a “wall of partition.” These the later rabbins have called proselytes of the gate, obliged to observe the seven precepts of Noah, (which, however, are nowhere to be found but in their writings,) but not to conform to the law generally. The learned in Jewish antiquities are now, however, generally agreed that this distinction of proselytes of the gate had no existence, and that those only could with propriety be styled proselytes who fully embraced the Jewish religion.

That great zeal was shown after the captivity of Babylon, by the Jews, both in Palestine and in all the Greek and Roman cities where they were established, to bring the Gentiles from the worship of idols to serve the true God, appears from various circumstances and the statements of many writers; and that they succeeded to a great extent, is shown from the Acts of the Apostles, where we see that many of these Gentile proselytes were among the first to receive the Gospel in several principal cities. This zeal appears also to have been, in many, a very pious one, and to have given rise to efforts which God was pleased to crown with success, so that the light of the Old Testament Scriptures and of religion was largely diffused through the civilized world, and signally served to prepare the way for the dissemination of Christianity. The worst men among the Jews appear to have been the scribes and Pharisees of Judea, and especially those of Jerusalem; and their zeal in making proselytes could only be mischievous.

They had a wide field of labour among the multitudes of Gentiles who resided among them; but their conversion to Judaism, when effected by them, was but the exchange of one superstition for another; and the teachers being vicious, the converts were rendered like them. Still however, it is doubtful whether the word proselytes here is not used merely for those disciples whom these doctors, by every effort, endeavoured to collect from among their own people, being anxious to exhibit a long train of followers, devoted to their opinions, and employed in proclaiming the fame of their wisdom. The Hebrew word for proselyte, indeed, denotes one who comes from abroad; and the Greek, one who comes, generally meaning from a foreign people; but the term proselyte might be used in an adapted sense for the followers of the different rabbins, who had left their families or other teachers, to attend upon their favourite master.

Twofold more the child of hell, &c. — Being filled with uncharitable zeal, the character of corrupt proselytes, and trained up by a wicked sophistry, which palliated vice, and substituted ceremony for piety, to practise evil with less remorse, and with greater subtlety, than in their former condition, whether Gentiles or Jews. A child of hell, υιον γεεννης , is one like Satan in his disposition, and doomed to the same punishment.

Verse 16

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Blind guides. — Guides that lead astray; referring not so much to their ignorance, as to their wilful and perverting casuistry, and especially in the sacred matter of oaths; thus ensnaring the consciences of men, and, by confounding the distinctions of right and wrong, making even conscience an ally of vice, which is the most hopeless state into which men can fall. Of this our Lord gives instances. They taught that whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; meaning that the oath has no force, and may be violated with impunity; but whosoever shall swear by the GOLD of the temple, not the golden ornaments, but the gold of the treasury, and the valuable golden vessels, which, as votive-offerings, were deposited within it, he is a debtor; he is bound, and commits the sin of perjury if he performs not his oath. The reason of this distinction was, that they might inculcate the idea that peculiar sanctity attached to these gifts to the temple, and so heighten the supposed meritoriousness of presenting them. The peculiar sanctity of gifts for sacred uses, and the binding nature of the oaths made by them, was held also by the Greeks and Romans. By the latter, they were called donaria; by the former αναθηματα , from their being placed in conspicuous situations so as to be admired, and to induce others to make their gifts splendid and worthy of observation. Thus all the mere religions of ceremony bear the same degenerate characters. These corrupt teachers made similar distinctions between swearing by the altar and that which was offered upon it; and swearing by heaven, and by God himself; but our Lord dissipates all these sophistical distinctions, by at once declaring that every oath, every appeal to any object whatever for the truth of what is affirmed, is in fact an appeal to the God of all creatures, the witness and judge of men, and the sure avenger of deceit and perjury. See the note on Matthew 5:33.

Verse 23

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

For ye pay tithe of mint, &c. — By the law, a tenth of all FRUITS was set apart for the priests; but by this it was not understood that insignificant herbs were included, as not properly coming under that denomination, and being of little value. The Pharisees, however, in their affectation of being more scrupulous in the observance of the law than others, or seeking to increase the merit of their righteousness by a work of supererogation, gave the tithe of mint, anise, (rather dill, ανηθον ) and cummin. These are mentioned as specimens; for St. Luke adds, “all manner of herbs.” That the law did not require them to pay tithe of herbs appears from the Talmud, where it is said, “The tithing of corn is from the law, the tithing of herbs from the rabbins.”

Weightier matters of the law, &c. — These are said by St. Matthew to be judgment, mercy, and faith; by St. Luke, more briefly, “judgment and the love of God.” Both are of the same import: JUDGMENT is justice, giving to all their due; MERCY is that pity for the distressed which leads to the administration of bountiful relief; and FAITH must be understood of a devout confidence in God. — Many eminent commentators indeed take faith here in the sense of fidelity; so Calvin, “Mihi non est ambiguum quin veritatem erga homines designet;” but this is manifestly comprehended in justice. Now both mercy, and faith in God, are included in the “love of God;” and they necessarily suppose it as the only source from which, when genuine, they can flow. St. Luke therefore sums up both in that high and practical affection. By that are we rendered tender and compassionate to others: and he that loves God supremely must confide in him absolutely. Of these hallowed affections, which constitute the very substance and reality of religion, the heart of a Pharisee was wholly destitute, and the very rigidness of his attention to trifling matters in religion only served to turn his thoughts, from its great and vital principles.

Our Lord, in speaking of these as “the weightier matters of the law,” probably adverted to their distinguishing the legal precepts into “weighty” and “light.” With them the true order was reversed, and moral duties and vital religious affections were postponed to trivial observances. The true order was restored by our great Teacher for the instruction of his disciples in all ages. — “These WEIGHTIER matters” ought ye to have done; and not to have left the other undone. This last clause, however, is not to be interpreted into a sanction, by our Lord, of this superstitious and self-righteous payment of a tithe on herbs. It is a concession on their own principles; for to pay tenths of these things was a trifling matter in itself, and might be innocently observed or not, according to the principle which actuated each individual; but allowing them that they ought to do this, “judgment, mercy, and faith,” were the duties bound upon their consciences, and which could not be neglected without the highest guilt and danger. Our Lord, in this passage, appears to allude to Micah 6:6-8, where the superior acceptableness to God of moral habits and acts to sacrifices and offerings themselves, however costly, is forcibly expressed.

Verse 24

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Which strain at a gnat. — To strain, does not here signify a difficult attempt to swallow, but to strain off or out; the meaning of the verb used, διυλιζειν , being to filter or percolate. Accordingly, in the older English translations, it is rendered by “strain out.” The Septuagint, in Amos 6:6, uses διυλισμηλον οινον , from which it appears that it was the practice of the Jews to filter their wine; which was done, not only to free it from the insects, which in warm climates infest every open vessel in which any thing to their taste is exposed, but also because the Jews reckoned flies in the number of unclean animals, as being accounted a “creeping thing,” Leviticus 11:41. “One that eats a flea or a gnat,” says the Talmud, “is an apostate;” and many other passages show the ridiculous importance which they attached to this construction of the Levitical law against “creeping things.” The κωνωψ , which is said to be bred in the lees of wine, is probably the same as the wine gnat of the Talmudists. Our Lord’s meaning is explained by the connection of this with the preceding verse. Their consciences made a scruple of trifling faults against rules laid down by fallible men; such as paying tithe of herbs, which at best was but a very doubtful duty; while they lived in the ready commission of flagrant violations of the greatest and most weighty precepts of the law of God. Thus they assiduously strained out the gnat and swallowed the camel, or elephant; for the Jews had both proverbs. For this reason, also, our Lord calls them blind guides, as they surely must in all ages be deemed who, in conducting others, so stumble in a plain path, and yet walk fearlessly over a precipice; in other words, who fill men’s consciences with scruples as to things indifferent, and sear them as with a hot iron, rendering them wholly insensible to great transgressions.

Verse 25

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter. — The allusion here is not to the purification of vessels and cups used at meals, in which indeed they were somewhat superstitiously exact; but our Lord speaks metaphorically, and compares them to those who should cleanse the outside only of a vessel, while its interior, the most important part to be kept in a state of cleanliness, was left filthy. Thus the Pharisees were scrupulously careful of external and ceremonial purity, practising all the prescribed ablutions with due attention, and maintaining in all things a fair show of piety; but within they were full, a strong expression, of extortion and excess. The word here tendered excess is ακρασια , intemperance. — Griesbach reads αδικιας , injustice; which, however, but repeats the same thought by another word. The general word ακρασια comprehends excess of every kind, whether of the passions or the bodily appetites; to both which many of the scribes and Pharisees, notwithstanding their “form of godliness,” were secretly addicted. In some MSS. we have uncleanness, in others covetousness, and in others wickedness.

Whited sepulchres. — The public burying places of the Jews were without the cities. The more opulent hewed them out of rocks in their own grounds, and ornamented them. Graves are distinguished by Jewish writers into deep sepulchres, to which answers Luke 11:44, “graves that appear not;” and marked or painted sepulchres. These, beside their architectural or other ornaments, were marked with resemblances of bones in chalk, annually renewed on the fifteenth of the month of Adar, that priests, Nazarites, and travellers might avoid the pollution of touching them. Many of these tombs, especially those erected in honour of prophets and kings, were grand and beautiful. A stronger metaphor than this, or one more just, cannot be conceived. As an adorned tomb is but a garniture of death and corruption, which at once marks them and makes them noticeable; so the external sanctity of the Pharisees was in disgusting contrast with their inward turpitude, and, when once exposed by our Lord, became, in the eyes of his followers, a visible sign of that hypocrisy and iniquity which they were thus taught to avoid, lest they should be morally contaminated, as the Jews were ceremonially polluted by graves, and whatever appertained to the dead. The mark of spiritual death was upon these false teachers, who were to be avoided as a pollution.

Verse 29

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish, beautify the sepulchres of the righteous. — To honour illustrious men by building them splendid tombs has been the practice of all civilized nations, and prevailed among the Jews. Extraordinary honours were paid to the tombs of Mordecai and Esther; Herod repaired the tomb of David with great splendour; and the Pharisees, among popular acts, both erected sepulchral monuments to the different prophets who had appeared in their nation, and added new ornaments to those still standing. It was the eulogy of a rabbi by one of his disciples, that he had adorned the sepulchres of Adam and of Abraham. And such was their sacredness, that the rule was, “All sepulchres might be removed but those of a king and a prophet.” St. Jerome speaks of the tombs of several of the prophets as in existence in his day. We are not to understand that our Lord condemns any thing in this practice but its hypocrisy, as far as the Pharisees were implicated. By these acts they professed their veneration for those ancient prophets, and yet wholly disregarded their words: they said, in doing this, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets; and yet they persecuted John the Baptist, the acknowledged prophet of their own day, and were even at that moment plotting and confederating to take away the life of Christ. “Wherefore,” says our Lord, “ye are witnesses against yourselves, that ye are the SONS of them that killed the prophets;” the force of which observation arises from the term children or sons, υιοι , signifying not only DESCENDANTS, but IMITATORS, or persons of the same dispositions. It is as though he had said, “The spirit in which ye do these hypocritical honours to the prophets of old confesses not only that ye are descended lineally from haters and murderers of good men: so that the disgrace of being of a sanguinary and persecuting ancestry attaches to you; but that you inherit also their hatred of the truth and their malevolent temper.”

Verse 32

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Fill ye up then, &c. — There is no reason for considering this imperative as used for a future indicative, ye will fill up, &c., which renders the passage tame and spiritless. The words express hopeless abandonment: the case of this class of men had become desperate; they had set themselves to resist all conviction; and now, after repeated warnings and calls, they are utterly renounced by Christ, and surrendered to the power of their sins.

The force of this expression is therefore most natural, and indicates strong emotion: “Go, since ye are yourselves wilfully bent upon it, and since ye reject all counsel, and contemn every effort to bring you to a better mind fill up the measure of your fathers: ye have rejected me, and I now solemnly and judicially reject you.” Our Lord, in these words, intimates the punishment of the Jewish nation of which the scribes and Pharisees were the ecclesiastical leaders, and whose corrupting doctrines the people generally approved. There is a measure of sins which when filled up never fails to bring down upon nations the special visitations of judgment. To fill up this measure is seldom the work of one age. Successive generations adopt the principles, and imitate the practices of their ancestors, adding “sin to sin, and iniquity to iniquity,” until either by the natural consequence of such public vices as tend to subvert the strength and security of society or by the special visitations of Divine vengeance, now no longer corrective, but in the strictest sense penal, they receive the full reward of their sins.

The punishment of individuals may he deferred to another life; but nations, who are treated under the Divine administration as political persons, have no existence but in time, and in this life therefore are rewarded according to their works; subject, however, to this consideration, that they, as well as individuals, are under a mediatorial government, receive greater blessings than they could claim of right, are treated with “much long suffering,” and can turn away God’s anger by repentance and prayer. But when that point is once reached, beyond which it is inconsistent with the character of a wise and righteous government, though founded in mercy, to extend impunity, the measure is full, and the terribleness of the judgments of God proves to all the world, that none ever hardened his heart against God and prospered. This measure was filled up by the Jews, in rejecting the offers of mercy made them by the publication of the Gospel throughout the land by the apostles and disciples of our Lord, after the day of pentecost. Many indeed were gathered into the Christian Church; but the majority, still influenced by the increased malignity and persecuting spirit of their chief men and ecclesiastical leaders, not only rejected Christianity with contempt, but were enraged to fierce opposition and blasphemies, because of the calling of the Gentiles.

Verse 33

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Ye serpents, &c. — The character of the hypocrites he reproves is here marked by our Lord in the express terms of his servant John the Baptist. See note on Matthew 3:7. These words were uttered not in anger, but in the spirit of calm piercing judgment, by him who knew the hearts of men, and as it has often been justly observed, afford no precedent to justify us in using harsh terms in reproving the most notorious sinners. John the Baptist acted and spoke under special inspiration; our Lord spoke as a sovereign and a judge. We are to deal faithfully with men in showing them their true character, and endeavouring to open their eyes to their spiritual dangers; but we are to remember that we, who address them, are their fellow sinners. To us it belongs to instruct, persuade, and reason; but it does not belong to us to pronounce the sentence.

How shall ye escape the damnation of hell? — How shall ye escape capital conviction? the phrase αποφυγειν κρισιν being used for escaping condemnation in a court of judicature. Here, too, the punishment is stated: it is that of γεεννα , the fire of hell, which figuratively denotes the terribleness of that visitation which overwhelmed their city and nation in unheard of calamities, and literally the punishment to which they individually rendered themselves obnoxious in a future life. See note on Matthew 5:22. — The phrase, “the judgment of damnation of hell,” often occurs in the Talmud for future torment, and the everlasting wrath of God.

Verse 34

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Wherefore, behold I send unto you prophets, &c. — The words δια τουτο can scarcely be understood in any other way than as marking the connection of the discourse. The prophets, &c., were not sent to heighten the condemnation of the Pharisees; but their persecution is introduced as a farther illustration of the character of these bad men, and as justifying the severity of the sentence which Christ denounces against them. At the same time it ought to be remembered that it was no impeachment of the justice of God, when he had ends of mercy to accomplish as to others to send his ministers among the Jews, although he foresaw that the result would be to excite the wicked scribes and Pharisees to more malignant opposition, and that it would hasten the filling up of their iniquities. These were not the reasons of their being sent, but the contrary; yet, in Scripture idiom, the UNDESIGNED EFFECT is sometimes expressed, as though it had been the FINAL CAUSE. — See the note on Matthew 10:34. Prophets, wise men, and SCRIBES were the three classes of public teachers among the Jews, and held by them in the highest reverence; and these venerated names he now transfers to the humble fishermen of Galilee, who, by his teaching and inspiration, were to be raised above the greatest of the PROPHETS, the wisest of their WISE MEN, and the most learned of their SCRIBES; who were to displace all those lofty pretenders to a wisdom by which the world knew not God, and to become the infallible guides of men, in the affairs of religion, in all ages, and the only authorized teachers of his Church. Yet these Divinely qualified men were rejected, though “filled with the Holy Ghost,” and though they wrought “signs and wonders among the people” to attest their mission from God. Stephen they stoned; James was cut off by the sword; Peter and other apostles were scourged. Our Lord adds, Some ye shall crucify, referring probably both to his own death, and the like punishment inflicted upon some of his disciples in Judea, and before the destruction of Jerusalem, not recorded.

Verse 35

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

That upon you may come all the righteous blood, &c. — The blood of Abel is specially mentioned, because it is said to cry from the ground to God. For the same reason, the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barachias is mentioned; by whom is probably meant the Zechariah mentioned in 2 Chronicles 24:20-22; for though he is there called the son of Jehoiada, the Jews, as it has been well remarked, had frequently two names, and especially when the name Jehovah entered into the composition of one of them; thus Jehoiakim is called Eliakim, 2 Kings 22:34. This Zechariah is the only one of that name of whom mention is made in Scripture, as having fallen a victim to his fidelity in declaring the truth. He, when “he died, said, The Lord LOOK upon it, and require it;” so that both cases mentioned, that of Abel and that of Zacharias, are those of men persecuted to death for righteousness’ sake, and whose deaths were expressly connected with the awful circumstance, a cry to heaven for RIGHTEOUS RETRIBUTION. The conjectures of commentators as to the other persons of this name are without foundation, that especially which would refer it prophetically to a Jew called Zacharias who was slain by the Jewish zealots in the temple a little before the destruction of Jerusalem; an irrelevant fact, which has been singled out under the false assumption that our Lord’s words in this verse mean that the Jews of that generation were to be held guilty of the blood of all righteous men, from Abel downward to the last righteous blood shed by the Jews before their city was destroyed. This is not only a monstrous supposition, but plainly contrary to that principle of the Divine government which is so expressly laid down in the words, “visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation, of them that hate me.”

Besides, that the Jews should be held particularly responsible for the blood of Abel, when they stood in no nearer relation to him than the persecutors of good men of any other nation, cannot be conceived; and that they should be chargeable with even the murder of those prophets whom their fathers put to death, when our Lord himself declares that they disavowed the deeds of their ancestors in this respect, although they would act as to him and his disciples in a similar manner, is as little reconcilable with the known equity of the Divine proceedings. The interpretations founded upon this view of the meaning of our Lord’s words create, therefore, a difficulty which does not exist. Their meaning is, that the VENGEANCE of all the righteous blood shed upon earth, from Abel to Zacharias, should come upon that generation; that is, a punishment equal to the accumulated woes brought upon men for the crime of rejecting the truth, and persecuting its righteous preachers in all these ages, should be heaped upon the devoted heads of the Jews. And this was an act of manifest justice, since they put one infinitely greater than all the prophets to death, even the Messiah himself; and in opposition to stronger evidences of a Divine mission than any former prophets had given, wreaked their persecuting hate both upon him and his disciples. The punishments brought upon the Jews bear a remarkable correspondence to those inflicted both upon the murderer of Abel, and upon those of Zacharias.

The Jews have borne, ever since the subversion of their nation by the Romans, the curse of Cain; a “mark” has been set upon them; and “fugitives” and “vagabonds” have they been in the earth. And as in consequence of the murder of Zechariah, at the command of Joash, “the host of Syria came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people,” so it was, only in a severer degree, in the Roman invasion. And with respect to other prophets, “because they mocked his messengers, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy; therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or him that stooped for age; he gave them all into his hand: and all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, — all these he brought to Babylon; and they burned the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all the palaces thereof with fire,” &c.,

2 Chronicles 36:16-19. This too was realized with aggravated severity, and this terrible type of vengeance was accomplished in an accumulation of similar woes when the prophetic words of our Lord in the text were fully accomplished. These especially were the calamities which Christ had in view when he adds, Verily I say unto you, that all these things shall come upon this generation. — But these terrible denunciations proceed from no resentment, no indignant feeling at the wrongs he himself had endured; they are wrung from this lover of his country, this lover of the souls of his own people, by the stern necessity of reluctant justice; and they are uttered amid the heavings of compassion and sorrow.

Verse 37

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, &c. — Every part of this apostrophe is charged with feeling and beauty. The repetition of the word Jerusalem, denoting how intensely the mind was fixed upon an object of interest; the comparison of his own intense desire to save the people of his own nation from these impending calamities, with the restless anxiety of the parent bird to shelter her brood, from birds of prey, under her wings; the frequency of his calls and warnings: and the despairing conclusion — and ye would not! are all deeply touching. Nor is this expression of our blessed Saviour’s compassion to be confined to the Jews. It is an exhibition of his character instructive to all ages. It was this tender concern for human salvation which brought him from heaven, and carried him through his painful course of humiliation, shame, and sorrow; and now every annunciation of his Gospel is a call to us to the shelter of his wings from impending danger. He WOULD gather us together there, and be our eternal refuge from the vengeance which we have so justly provoked; and if we are not saved, this is not only against his intention, but his anxious attempts and most sincere endeavours to bring us, by the use of a variety of means, to a better mind. I WOULD AND YE WOULD NOT, are words which at once declare the fulness of his grace, and place the sole and aggravated fault of the final destruction of men upon themselves alone.

Verse 38

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Behold, your house, &c. — House, οικος , is here used for the city of Jerusalem, the words being manifestly taken from Jeremiah 22:5, “But if ye will. not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation,” οτι εις ερημσιν εσται ο οικος ουτος ; which is another indication that the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and the deportation of the people from the land, were a type of the still severer punishment inflicted by Roman severity. The word οικος is used not only in this enlarged sense, but for country. So also the Latins use domus.

Verse 39

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Ye shall not see me henceforth., &c. — The word απ’ αρτι is, in Matthew 26:64, rendered hereafter; and, in the sense of henceforth, it cannot certainly be taken here, because they saw him many times after this, After a while best expresses the meaning. — Ye shall not after a while see me, until ye shall say, &c.

Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. — These words imply the acknowledgment of our Lord by the Jews as the Messiah. In these terms the multitudes that attended his entry into Jerusalem saluted him, and joined them with their “Hosanna to the Son of David.” They cannot therefore relate to his coming in his vengeance to destroy Jerusalem, for then the Jews did not more acknowledge him in his judgments than before; nor can they be so properly referred to his coming to judge the world, as to that acknowledgment of him as the Christ by the Jews as a people, which shall long precede that event. His COMING, therefore, is here to be taken in a spiritual sense; and the words contain a remarkable instance of a threatening and a promise, and that each of the most emphatic import, being couched under the same terms. A long and dark interval was to take place in which they should not SEE him, have no perception of the truth of his mission, and be separated from his peculiar mercies, — a long night in which they should wander in ignorance and unbelief, denationalized, unchurched, and deserted by God; but still ultimately they shall SEE him in all the demonstrations of his divinity and redeeming offices, shall acknowledge him as the true Christ, and take up that very acclamation of the multitudes in the streets of Jerusalem, at which their fathers were maddened into rage, and cry with them, Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord.