Jesus Condemns Scribes and Pharisees

Matthew 23:1-10; How scathingly Jesus condemns false teachers, apostate ministers, priestly administrators devoid of divine authority—all who teach anything except revealed truth. The scribes and rabbis of his day are but types and shadows of the blind guides of any age. Religious leaders must teach the truth or face for themselves the same excoriating and damning condemnation as that heaped by an indignant Lord upon the blind guides of his day.

Matthew 23:2. Sit in Moses' seat] Until the coming of John the Baptist, who was the last legal administrator of the old dispensation, these scribes and rabbis, legally and literally, had exercised, a portion at least, of the divine authority held by Moses. (Teachings, pp. 272-273, 318-319.) And they were now continuing to assume, though without divine right, their longstanding judicial and teaching prerogatives; as the Inspired Version records Jesus' statement: "They make themselves your judges." (V. 2.)

Matthew 23:2; Authority in the ministry was highly prized in Jewish-Israel, and the religious leaders of the day were continuing to follow the ritualistic pattern by which it is received. "The scribes (who were ordained with the laying on of hands) claimed to have received their authority through an unbroken succession from Moses." (Dummelow, p. 699.) Though the kingdom had in fact been taken from them, they at least had a better claim to divine authority than do those priests and ministers of modern Christendom who simply assume religious leadership because they feel a call so to do.

Matthew 23:4-5; 4-5. 'They impose, with heartless rigor, an intricate, irksome, onerous system of religion upon their disciples, one which they themselves do not follow. But through outward displays of piety; they seek the plaudits and applause of men.'

Matthew 23:5; 5. Phylacteries] To aid in keeping constantly before them certain of the Lord's laws, ancient Israel was commanded to bind them, as it were, upon their hands and to wear them as frontlets between their eyes. (Exodus 13:9, 16; Deuteronomy 6:8; 11:18.) It accordingly became the custom to write selected portions of the law on phylacteries which were then worn during prayers.

Matthew 23:5; "The phylacteries themselves were cubical boxes (size from 1/2 in. to 1 1/2 in.), made of the skin of a clean animal, and attached to a broad strip of material, by which they were bound to the body at prayer time. Two were worn. The head-phylactery was so fastened to the brow that the prayer box came between the eyes. This was the one which the Pharisees made broad, i.e. as large and conspicuous as possible. The arm-phylactery was tied round the left arm on the inside, so as to be near the heart, and during use was invisible, being covered by the sleeve. The head-phylactery was divided into four compartments, containing on little rolls these four portions of scripture: Exodus 13:1-10; Exodus 13:11-16; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Deuteronomy 11:13-21." (Dummelow, P. 699.)

Matthew 23:5; There is some reason to believe that the practice of wearing phylacteries prevailed among the Nephite portion of Israel. More than a century and a half ago, Mr. Boudinot published an account of the archeological unearthing of an ancient phylactery in the eastern United States. His account, as quoted approvingly by Elder Parley P. Pratt in the Voice of Warning, includes the following:

Matthew 23:5; "Joseph Merrick, Esq., a highly respected character in Pittsfield, Mass., gave the following account: That in 1815, he was leveling some ground under and near an old woodshed standing on a place of his, situated on Indian Hill. He ploughed and conveyed away old chips and earth to some depth. After the work was done, walking over the place, he discovered, near where the earth had been dug the deepest, a black strap, as it appeared about six inches in length, and one and a half in breadth, and about the thickness of a leather trace to a harness. .

Matthew 23:5; "In attempting to cut it, [he] found it as hard as a bone; he succeeded, however, in getting it open, and found it was formed of two pieces of thick rawhide, sewed and made watertight with the sinews of some animal, and gummed over, and in the fold was contained four folded pieces of parchment. They were of a dark yellow hue, and contained some kind of writing. The neighbors, coming in to see the strange discovery, tore one of the pieces to atoms, in the true Hun and Vandal style. The other three pieces Mr. Merrick saved, and sent them to Cambridge, where they were examined, and discovered to have been written with a pen, in Hebrew, plain and legible. The writings on the three remaining pieces of parchment were quotations from the Old Testament." (Parley P. Pratt, voice of Warning, p. 80.) The three preserved parchments contained three of the four passages normally contained in phylacteries, namely, Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Deuteronomy 11:13-21; and Exodus 13:11-16. Obviously the destroyed parchment must have contained Exodus 13:1-10.

Matthew 23:7-10; 7-10. Such titles of respect as Brother, Elder, Bishop, or Rabbi, are appropriate and proper when used discreetly and with respect for the office or status involved. What Jesus here condemns is not the use of titles as such, but the vainglory and presumptuous self-adulation which called forth their excessive and patronizing use. Indeed, it would appear from I. V. Matthew 22:6 that these religious leaders were so wrapped up in their own conceit that they ranked themselves along with Deity in importance. "The rabbis really did put themselves in the place of God, and almost on an equality with him. Their traditions were more binding than the Law, and were regarded as in a sense binding upon God." (Dummelow, p. 700.)

Matthew 23:12; 12. See Luke 14:11.

Matthew 23:15; 15. To make one proselyte] 'To baptize one proselyte' is the way the Ethiopic version reads, a rendition which is particularly appropriate as it confirms the fact that baptism was practised and accepted among the Jews prior to John and Jesus.

Matthew 23:16-22; 16-22. Jesus had already abolished the law of oaths. See Matthew 5:31-37. Here he is denouncing the wickedness of those who, out of the abundance of their evil hearts, had created a system of swearing by oaths which invited and encouraged dishonesty, the bearing of false witness, and premeditated lying. Their system offered ways of avoiding the most solemn sworn attestations. By using specially prescribed language in one oath, it could be annulled, while another which did not conform to their morally corrupt code remained binding.