proper place, while they neglected those moral obligations, which were of far higher moment, 'judgment and the love of God ' (v.*^) ; for putting themselves forward into the first seats in the face of the congregation, and their fondness for having reverence done to them in public (v. ■'3) ; and for being a secret .source of defilement to others who were not aware of the evil tendency of their principles (v.*^, cf. 12i). The second of these charges occurs, but without a Woe in Mt 23^- ^ ; while the other two are repeated in a more severe form in Mt 23^3- 27.
The lawyers are then condemned for amplifying the written Law with their intolerably burdensome enactments, which they contrive to evade them- selves, while so rigorous in exacting obedience to them from others (Lk 1 1*) ; for their zeal in the erec- tion and adornment of the tombs of the prophets, which, in bitter irony, is pronounced to be a sign of their continuing the work of the murderers of the prophets (vv.«- *^ • Wendt, i. 281 ; Ecce Homo 1, 267) ; and for taking away 'the key of knowledge' (see Keys) by their traditional interpretations, which rendered the people incapable of recognizing the living truth (v.-'2) "jhe first of these charges is found in Mt 23* without a Woe ; the others are repeated in Mt 2313- 29ff..
This later denunciation (Mt 23i3- (")* 15. le. 23. 25,
27- 29 . cf. Is 58- "• 18. 20-22^ Hab 28- 9- 12. 15. 19) ig gtiH
more impressive on account of its epic strain ('octies vae ; Mt 53"ii octies beati,' Bengel). It shows how intense is the heat of our Lord's wrath when it is kindled (Ps 2i2), as no other continuous passage in the Gospels does. In it, our Lord pro- nounces woe against the scribes and Pharisees for their ' hypocrisy ' or their dishonesty and love of stage -.effect in religion, which was to Him the most hateful impiety ; also for shutting the doors of the Kingdom of God which He had opened by His preaching, and so preventing people from entering (v.i3, cf. Rev 3*) ; for plundering (prob. wealthy and devout) widows (Plummer cites examples from the Talmud), and deceiving simple-minded people (Theophylact) by the long prayers they make (v.") ; for carrying on a most laborious propaganda for the purpose of gaining proselytes (cf. Jos. Ant, XX. ii. 4), and tlien mak- ing them more full of spiritual pride than them- selves (v.i', cf. the Judaistic proselytizers who so relentlessly dogged St. Paul's footsteps, Hastings' DB iv. 136'') ; for pretending to guide others in the doing of God's will when they shoAved that they Avere so Avanting in moral perception them- selves (cf. Mt 151* II Lk 63^) ; as, for example, Avhen they subverted truth and justice by the sophistical distinctions they made in regard to the binding nature of difierent kinds of oaths (vv.i'*-22, cf. Mk 78"i3). He then condemned them for omitting ' the weightier matters of the laAv, judgment, mercy, and fidelity,' A\iiile they Avere so exact in tithing their smaller garden herbs, thus ' straining out a gnat and sAvalloAving a camel ' (vv.23. 24^ . ^nd for so carefully observing, ' in preparing their food, the ceremonial rules for preserving their Levitical purity,' Avhile they Avere not careful ' to avoid the moral defilement caused by the unlaAvful acquisi- tion of that food, and by using it to minister to intemperance' (vv.25. 26^ Wendt, i. 327). He com- pared the fair shoAv of goodness they made with tlie artificial Avhiteness imparted to sepulchres by Avashing them Avith lime in spring (vv.-^- ^s, cf. Holtzmann, Meyer, in lor. ; Encyc. Bibl. iv. 5138). The final Woe was pronounced Avith a stinging reference to the honours they Avere paying to the
* V.i-i is probably an interpolation from Mk ^1^'^. It < omission or transposition in the MSS may, however, be due to the fact that se\eral sentences in succession begin with the same words (Scrivener, Introd.* i. 9).
834
WOE
WOMAN
prophets whom their fathers killed (w.^^-si) ; and, the cup of His indignation brimming over at the thought of His own impending death at their hands, He said, ' Fill ye up then the measure of (the sins of) your fathers' (v.^^)^
'Tremendous' (Mozley) as this language is, we are not to think that it was meant to apply to all the Pharisees indiscriminately. Nicodemus was a Pharisee (Jn 3^), and there were, doubtless, many others (of. Ac 5^) with respect to whom the charge of hypocrisy was inadmissible. Paul, as a Pharisee, was no hypocrite (Ph 3^-^) ; his Pharisaic upbring- ing was an important part of his providential training for his Christian Apostleship, and 'from Pharisaism in so far as it meant zeal for the highest objects of Jewish faith he never departed, and never could depart' (Ac 26^-^'^; Hort, Juda- istic Christianity/, 108 tF.). In this very chapter, our Lord admits their authority as that of those who ' sit in Moses' seat,' and even gives His sanc- tion to some of their minor observances (Mt 23^ ^ ; cf. Hort, 31-32). A well-known passage in the Talmud, distinguishing the various classes of Phari- sees from each other, says that the real and only Pharisee is ' he who does the will of his Father in heaven because he loves Him' (Levy, NHWB 4. 143).