Bible Commentaries

CHAPTER 23.

THE GREAT ANTI-PHARISAIC DISCOURSE.

This is one of the great discourses peculiar to the first Gospel. That some such words were spoken by Jesus in Jerusalem in the Passion week may be inferred from Mark 12:38-40, Luke 20:45-47. The few sentences there reported look like a fragment, just enough to show that there must have been more—too meagre (gar zu dürftig., De W.) to have been all that Jesus said on such a large topic at such a solemn time. A weighty, deliberate, full, final statement, in the form of a dying testimony, was to be expected from One who had so often criticised the prevailing religious system in an occasional manner in His Galilean ministry—a summing up in the head-quarters of scribism of past prophetic censures uttered in the provinces. In such a final protest repetitions might be looked for (Nösgen). In any case, whether all the words here brought together were spoken at this time or not, the evangelist did well to collect them into one body, and he could not have introduced the collection at a more appropriate place.

Matthew 23:1-12. Introduction to the discourse.

Matthew 23:1. τοῖς ὄχλοις καὶ τ. μαθηταῖς: the discourse is about scribes and Pharisees, but the audience is conceived to consist of the disciples and the people. Meyer describes the situation thus: in the foreground Jesus and His disciples; a little further off the ὄχλος; in the background the Pharisees.

Matthew 23:2. ἐπὶ τ. Μ. καθέδρας, on the seat of Moses, short for, on the seat of a teacher whose function it was to interpret the Mosaic Law. The Jews spoke of the teacher’s seat as we speak of a professor’s chair.—ἐκάθισαν, in effect, a gnomic aorist = solent sedere (Fritzsche), not a case of the aorist used as a perfect = have taken and now occupy, etc. (Erasmus). Burton (Syntax) sees in this and other aorists in N. T. a tendency towards use of aorist for perfect not yet realised: “rhetorical figure on the way to become grammatical idiom, but not yet become such,” § 55.—οἱ φαρ. Wendt (L. J., i., 186) thinks this an addition by the evangelist, the statement strictly applying only to the scribes.

Matthew 23:3. εἴπωσιν, say, in the sense of enjoining; no need therefore of τηρεῖν as in T. R.—ποιήσατε καὶ τηρεῖτε: The natural order if the previous τηρεῖν be omitted. The diverse tenses are significant, the former pointing to detailed performance, the latter to habitual observance. Christ here recognises the legitimacy of the scribal function of interpretation in a broad way, which may appear too unqualified and incompatible with His teaching at other times (Matthew 15:1-20) (so Holtz., H. C.). Allowance must be made for Christ’s habit of unqualified statement, especially here when He is going to attack in an uncompromising manner the conduct of the Jewish doctors. He means: as teachers they have their place, but beware of following their example.

Matthew 23:4 illustrates the previous statement.—δεσμεύουσι, tc., they bind together, like sheaves, heavy backloads of rules. Think, e.g., of the innumerable rules for Sabbath observance similar to that prohibiting rubbing ears of corn as work—threshing.—δυσβάστακτα may be a spurious reading imported from Luke 11:46, but it states a fact, and was doubtless used by Jesus on some occasion. It shows by the way that He had no thought of unqualified approval of the teaching of the scribes.—ἐπὶ τ. ὤμους, on the shoulders, that they may feel the full weight, demanding punctual compliance.—αὐτοὶ δὲ τ. δακτύλῳ, etc., they are not willing to move or touch them with a finger; proverbial (Elsner) for “will not take the smallest trouble to keep their own rules”. A strong statement pointing to the subtle ways of evading strict rules invented by the scribes. “The picture is of the merciless camel or ass driver who makes up burdens not only heavy, but unwieldy and so difficult to carry, and then placing them on the animal’s shoulders, stands by indifferent, raising no finger to lighten or even adjust the burden” (Carr, C. G. T.).

Matthew 23:5-7. The foregoing statement is of course to be taken cum grano. Teachers who absolutely disregarded their own laws would soon forfeit all respect. In point of fact they made a great show of zeal in doing. Jesus therefore goes on to tax them with acting from low motives.

Matthew 23:5. πάντα δὲ, etc., in so far as they comply with their rules they act with a view to be seen of men. This is a repetition of an old charge (Matthew 6).—πλατύνουσι γὰρ, etc.: illustrative instances drawn from the phylacteries and the tassels attached to the upper garment, the former being broadened, the latter lengthened to attract notice. The phylacteries (φυλακτήρια) were an admirable symbol at once of Pharisaic ostentation and Pharisaic make-believe. They were little boxes attached to the forehead and the left arm near the heart, containing pieces of parchment with certain texts written on them (Exodus 13:1-16; Deuteronomy 6:4-10; Deuteronomy 11:13-22) containing figurative injunctions to keep in memory God’s laws and dealings, afterwards mechanically interpreted, whence these visible symbols of obedience on forehead and arm. The size of the phylacteries indexed the measure of zeal, and the wearing of large ones was apt to take the place of obedience. It was with the Pharisees as with Carlyle’s advertising hatter, who sent a cart through the street with a huge hat in it instead of making good hats. For details on phylacteries and fringes consult works on Jewish antiquities. Lund, Jüdiscken Heiligthümer (1701), has a chapter (p. 796) on the dress of the Pharisees with pictorial illustrations. It has been discussed whether the name φυλ. points to the keeping of the law or to the use of these things as amulets to ward off harm. The former was doubtless originally in view, but the superstitious abuse would soon creep in. The word is the equivalent in Hellenistic Greek for the Chaldee תפלין, prayers.

Matthew 23:6. πρωτοκλισίαν: with religious ostentation goes social vanity, love of the first place at feasts, and first seats (πρωτοκαθεδρίας) in synagogues; an insatiable hunger for prominence.

Matthew 23:7. τοὺς ἀσπασμοὺς, the (usual) salutations, in themselves innocent courtesies, but coveted because offered in public places, and as demonstrations of respect.—ῥαββί, literally, my great one, like the French monsieur; in Christ’s time a new title of honour for the Jewish doctors (vide Lightfoot, Ewald. Gesch. Christi, p. 305; Schürer, ii., p. 315, who says the title came into use after the time of Christ).