The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 397

must be taken as eipreeeive or the fastidious- wherover it goes. "Keep thy heart with ness whioh had to make a strong effort to all diligence; for out of it are the issues of e-veroome its dietnate at thia little insect. life" (Prov. iv. 23). The wino, before drinking, wo.s carefully Vers. 27, 28.-Snenth woe-against an. etro.ined through linen (see Amoe vi. 6, other form of the same hypocrisy (Luke " drained wine," Septuagint) to avoid xi. i4). Whited (1«1<ovuz,a,vo,,) 1epnlchres. the acoidento.l violation of Lev. xi. 20, Once e. year, ahout the fifteenth of ths 28, etc.; xvii. 10-14, by swallowing an month Adar, the Jews DBed to whitewash unclean insect. The practice, which was the tombs and the places where corpses were i,n some sense a religious act, is found buried, partly out of respect for the dead, o.mong the Buddhists in Hindostan e.nd but chiefly in order to make them conspicu- Oeylon, either to avoid pollution or to ob- ous, e.nd thus to obviate the risk of persona viate the danger of to.king life, which their incautiously contra.cling ceremonial defile- oode forbids. A (the) camel The gnat and ment by touching or walking over them the oamel, which were alike unclean, eland (Numb. xix. 16). To snch sepulchres our at the eitremitiee of the scale of compara- Lord compares these Pharisees, because their tive size. Our Lord uses e. proverbial ex- outwardly fair show concealed rottenness pression to denote the inconsistency which within (comp. Acts uiii. 3). Indeed, it would a.void the smallest ceremonial defile- might be sa.id that their seeming excep- ment, but would to.ke no account of the tional purity was a warning of intemal cor- gravest more.I pollution. rnption, a sign-post to point to hidden Ver. 25.-The aizth woe-age.inst merely defilement. Obtrusive religionsnese, em• external purification (Mark vii. 4; Luke xi phatic scrupulosity, are marks of pride and 89). Ye make olee.n the outside of the cup self-righteoosneBB, utterly a.lien from real a.nd of the platter. Thus the Lord typi- devotion and holiness. cally denotes the Pharisees' external cere- Vere. 29-32.-Eighth woe-against hypo- mon:ialiem, their legal purity. They looked, critical honour paid to departed worthies so to speak, to the cleanliness of the outside efthe cup that contained their drink, e.nd the (Luke xi. 47). platter the.I held their foorl. Such olee.nsing Ver. 29.-Ye build the tombs of the pro- would, of course, have no effect on the drink or phets, and garnish the sepulchres of the meat itself. They are full of ( -y,µouaw l~, are righteous j or, adorn the monuments of the fuJJ. fr=) extortion and uoese (li.1<paalus). just. In the last woe Christ had spoken of For thia last word the mo.nuscripts offer sepulchres ; he speaks of them here age.in, many ve.riatiollB, arising, probably, from its giving e.11 unexpected view of the seeming 1111commo11ess. It seems, however, to be honours paid to departed saints. The genuine. But we find it altered into "un- sumptuous mausoleums and tombs found righteousness," "impurity," Vulge.te, im- e.g. round Jerusalem. and bee.ring the names rnunditia, "intemperance," "covetousness," of celebrated men (such as Zachariah, Ab- "wickedness." The vee~els e.re conceived salom, Jehoshaphat), sn.fficiently attest the e.s filled with contents aoquired by violence practice of the J ewe in this matter. Bot e.nd used without self-control. the Pharisees' motives in acting thus were Ver. 26. -Thou blind Pharisee. The not pure; they were not influenced by address is in the singular number, to give respect for the prophets or repentance for vividness e.nd personal effect, e.nd the epi- national sine, bot by pride, hypocrisy, e.nd thet accentuates the absurdity censored. self-sufficiency. The present was a great Cleanse :Ii.rat that which is within. They age fur building; witness Herod's magni- must learn to reverse their practice. If ficont nndertakinge; and probably many you wanted to have your food pure, you gorgeous tombs in honour of anoient worthie11 would clean the inside of your vessel more were now erected or renovated. ,carefully than the outside. The external Ver. 80.-And se.y. They boasted that purity should proceed from and be a token they were better than their fathere; they gf the internal. So in the cl\se of the moral dieavowed their orimee, e.nd endeavoured, by agent, the ceremonial purity is e. mockery honouring the prophets' graves, to deliver and hypocrisy unless it be accompo.nied by them,elves from the guilt of those who holinees of the bee.rt. That the outside of persecuted them. Fair show, with no them may be ('Y•Jf1/.,.as, may become) olee.n reality I They professed to venerate the &lao, However fair to see, the man is not deud, but would not receive the living; pure unless hie soul is olean; he cannot be they reverenced Abraham e.nd Moses, but called pure while the higher po.rt of his were about to murder the Christ to whom being is soiled and foul with sin. And pe.triarcl.i and prophet bore witneBB. Com- inwo.rd ae.intliness oe.nnot be hidden; it mentators quClte the oh.I adage, herein ex• &!lines forth in the countenance; it is known emplified, " Sit licet divus, dummodo non by •peech and o.otion ; it sheds sunshine vivus." The only praclical way of deliver- UA'rTHEW-IL 2D  •02 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST, MATTHEW, [cu. xxm. l--39,