For Teaching

Matthew 23: What the Passage Says

95 claims across 39 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Matthew 23 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jesus speaks to the crowds and his disciples about the scribes and Pharisees: do everything they tell them, but do not copy how they live. He warns his followers against seeking titles and honor, then delivers a series of woes against the scribes and Pharisees, calling them hypocrites and blind guides over their oaths, their tithing, their outward cleanness, and their tombs for the prophets. He says the guilt for righteous blood shed on earth will come on this generation. The chapter closes with his lament over Jerusalem, the words that its house is left desolate, and the statement that they will not see him again until they say, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."

Claim by Claim

23:1
- Jesus then spoke to the crowds and to his disciples.
23:2
- Jesus said that the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.
23:3
- Jesus told them to observe and do everything the scribes and Pharisees tell them to observe.
- Jesus told them not to act according to the works of the scribes and Pharisees.
- Jesus said the scribes and Pharisees speak but do not act.
23:4
- The scribes and Pharisees bind heavy burdens that are hard to bear.
- They lay those burdens on men's shoulders.
- They themselves are unwilling to move those burdens with one of their fingers.
23:5
- They do all their works to be seen by men.
- They make their phylacteries broad.
- They enlarge the tassels on their garments.
23:6
- They love the places of honor at feasts.
- They love the chief seats in the synagogues.
23:7
- They love greetings in the marketplaces.
- They love to be called Rabbi by men.
23:8
- Jesus told them not to be called Rabbi.
- Jesus said they have one Teacher.
- The King James text identifies that one Master as Christ.
- Jesus said they are all brothers.
23:9
- Jesus told them to call no one on earth their father.
- Jesus said they have one Father, who is in heaven.
23:10
- Jesus told them not to be called instructors.
- Jesus said they have one Instructor, the Christ.
23:11
- The greatest among them will be their servant.
23:12
- Whoever exalts himself will be humbled.
- Whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
23:13
- Jesus pronounced woe on the scribes and Pharisees, calling them hypocrites.
- They shut the kingdom of heaven in front of men.
- They themselves do not enter the kingdom of heaven.
- They do not allow those who are entering to go in.
23:14
- Jesus pronounced woe on the scribes and Pharisees, calling them hypocrites.
- They devour widows' houses.
- They make long prayers as a pretense.
- They will receive the greater condemnation.
- This verse is absent from the Greek text supplied.
23:15
- Jesus pronounced woe on the scribes and Pharisees, calling them hypocrites.
- They travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte.
- When the proselyte is made, they make him twice as much a son of hell as they are.
23:16
- Jesus pronounced woe on them, calling them blind guides.
- They say that whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing.
- They say that whoever swears by the gold of the temple is bound by the oath.
23:17
- Jesus called them fools and blind.
- Jesus asked which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold holy.
23:18
- They say that whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing.
- They say that whoever swears by the gift on the altar is bound.
23:19
- Jesus called them fools and blind.
- Jesus asked which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift holy.
23:20
- Whoever swears by the altar swears by the altar and by everything on it.
23:21
- Whoever swears by the temple swears by the temple and by him who dwells in it.
23:22
- Whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it.
23:23
- Jesus pronounced woe on the scribes and Pharisees, calling them hypocrites.
- They tithe mint and dill and cumin.
- They have neglected the weightier matters of the law.
- The weightier matters of the law are justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
- Jesus said they ought to have done these weightier matters.
- Jesus said they ought not to have left the other things undone.
23:24
- Jesus called them blind guides.
- They strain out a gnat.
- They swallow a camel.
23:25
- Jesus pronounced woe on the scribes and Pharisees, calling them hypocrites.
- They clean the outside of the cup and the dish.
- Inside, the cup and dish are full of greed and self-indulgence.
23:26
- Jesus called the Pharisee blind.
- Jesus told him to clean the inside of the cup and dish first.
- Jesus said the purpose is that the outside of them may become clean also.
23:27
- Jesus pronounced woe on the scribes and Pharisees, calling them hypocrites.
- They are like whitewashed tombs.
- Whitewashed tombs appear beautiful on the outside.
- Inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
23:28
- They likewise appear righteous to men on the outside.
- Inside they are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
23:29
- Jesus pronounced woe on the scribes and Pharisees, calling them hypocrites.
- They build the tombs of the prophets.
- They decorate the monuments of the righteous.
23:30
- They say that if they had lived in the days of their fathers, they would not have shared with them in the blood of the prophets.
23:31
- By saying this they testify against themselves that they are the sons of those who murdered the prophets.
23:32
- Jesus told them to fill up the measure of their fathers.
23:33
- Jesus called them serpents and a brood of vipers.
- Jesus asked how they could escape the condemnation of hell.
23:34
- Jesus said that for this reason he sends them prophets, wise men, and scribes.
- Some of them they will kill and crucify.
- Some of them they will flog in their synagogues.
- They will persecute them from city to city.
23:35
- The result is that all the righteous blood shed on the earth will come upon them.
- That blood extends from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah.
- They murdered Zechariah between the temple and the altar.
23:36
- Jesus said truly that all these things will come upon this generation.
23:37
- Jesus addressed Jerusalem twice by name.
- Jerusalem kills the prophets.
- Jerusalem stones those sent to her.
- Jesus said he had often wanted to gather her children together.
- He compared this to a hen gathering her chicks under her wings.
- They were not willing.
23:38
- Their house is left to them desolate.
23:39
- Jesus said they will not see him from now on until they say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

23:1: Disciples were the students who followed Jesus everywhere and learned from him. The King James word "multitude" just means a big crowd.
23:2: Scribes were the professional experts in the law of Moses: they copied it, taught it, and ruled on how it applied in daily life. The Pharisees were a movement, mostly laymen rather than priests, known for exact and detailed keeping of the law, including a body of rulings handed down from earlier teachers alongside the written text. "Moses' seat" means the position of one who teaches Moses' law with authority; some synagogues had an actual stone chair set near the scroll chest from which the law was read.
23:4: The heavy loads are the detailed rules teachers built around the written law, working out exactly what counted as keeping each command. The complaint here is not that the rules existed but that these teachers piled them onto other people and did nothing to make them easier to carry.
23:5: "Phylacteries" are small leather boxes holding strips of parchment with passages of scripture, strapped to the forehead and the left arm for prayer, in obedience to the command to bind God's words "for a sign upon thine hand" (Deuteronomy 6:8). The "borders of their garments" are the tassels Israelites were told to attach to the corners of their clothing (Numbers 15:38) as a reminder of God's commands. Both were ordinary and expected; making them wider and longer made them easier to notice.
23:6: "Uppermost rooms" in 1611 English does not mean upstairs rooms. It means the top places at the table: guests reclined on couches ranked by closeness to the host, so everyone present could see who had been seated where. A synagogue was the local meeting house where scripture was read and prayers were said; the seats facing the congregation, beside the chest that held the scrolls, were the places of honor.
23:7: "Rabbi" means roughly "my master" or "my great one," the respectful way to address a recognized teacher of the law. Being greeted by that title in a public marketplace was a visible mark of standing.
23:8: The word the King James renders "Master" here means teacher. "Christ" is not a surname but a title: the Greek word for "anointed one," which is what the Hebrew word "Messiah" means.
23:9: "Father" was also a title of honor, used for revered teachers of earlier generations whose rulings were quoted by name.
23:10: A different Greek word from the one in verse 8. It means a guide or leader, the one whose direction you follow.
23:11: The word translated "servant" is the one used for an attendant who waits on others at table.
23:12: "Abased" in 1611 English simply means brought low or lowered in rank. It does not carry the modern sense of being publicly shamed.
23:13: "Woe unto you" is not a curse meant to bring harm. It is a cry of grief and warning, closer to "how terrible it is for you." "Kingdom of heaven" is Matthew's regular phrase for God's reign; "heaven" stands in for the word "God," which careful Jewish speech avoided saying outright. Also note that "suffer" in "neither suffer ye" means allow, not endure pain.
23:14: This verse is absent from the oldest surviving manuscripts of Matthew, and where it does appear it sometimes stands before verse 13 rather than after. Many modern translations leave it out or move it to a footnote, which is why the numbering in some Bibles skips from 13 to 15. On the content: a widow had no independent legal standing and depended on others to manage what her husband left her, so "devour widows' houses" means stripping such women of their property. "Pretence" means a show put on for appearances. "Damnation" in 1611 English means a judgment or sentence handed down, not specifically eternal punishment.
23:15: "Compass sea and land" means travel all over. A "proselyte" was a non Jew who converted fully to Judaism, taking on the whole law. "Child of hell" is a Semitic turn of phrase: to be called the son of something means to belong to it or to be headed for it. The word behind "hell" is Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom just outside Jerusalem, a ravine with a grim history that had become a standard image for final punishment.
23:16: Oaths in ordinary speech were sworn by naming something valuable as a guarantee, and teachers argued over which wordings created a legally binding obligation and which did not. "It is nothing" means the oath does not count and can be broken. "He is a debtor" means he is under obligation, legally held to do what he swore.
23:17: The altar and the temple were holy, which means set apart for God alone and not for ordinary use. The King James word "sanctifieth" means makes holy.
23:18: The altar is the large stone altar in the temple courtyard where sacrifices were burned. The "gift" is the animal or offering a worshiper has placed on it.
23:22: People avoided saying God's name out loud, so they swore by substitutes: heaven, the temple, the altar. The point being made is that a substitute still points at the thing it stands in for, so the escape route was never real.
23:23: The law required a tenth of the produce of the land to be set aside for God and for the priests. Mint, anise (the plant meant is dill) and cumin are kitchen herbs grown in tiny quantities in a household garden; whether such small crops even fell under the tithe law was debated, so weighing them out was a mark of extreme scrupulousness. "Judgment" in 1611 English here means justice. "Weightier" is a scales image: the matters that carry more weight.
23:24: Wine and other drinks were poured through a cloth to strain out insects, because insects counted as unclean food, and the camel was the largest unclean animal anyone would think of. "Strain at" is an old idiom, possibly a printer's slip, for "strain out." In Aramaic the words for gnat and camel sound alike, so the saying is also a pun.
23:25: "Extortion" here means what is seized by force or grasping; "excess" means lack of self restraint, indulgence without limit. There were detailed rules about washing cups and dishes to remove ritual uncleanness, including disputes over whether the inside or the outside of a vessel mattered.
23:27: Tombs around Jerusalem were coated with white lime each spring before Passover. The purpose was practical: touching a grave or a corpse made a person ritually unclean for seven days and so unable to share in the feast, and the whitewash made a tomb impossible to step on by accident. From a distance the fresh white also looked handsome, which is the point being made here.
23:29: "Garnish" in 1611 English means decorate or adorn. Ornamented tombs and monuments honoring prophets and other revered figures of the past were being built around Jerusalem in this period.
23:32: A measuring container filled to the brim is the picture. The phrase treats a family's or a generation's wrongdoing as a quantity that accumulates until the vessel is full.
23:33: "Generation of vipers" means brood or offspring of poisonous snakes. "Generation" here means the young a creature produces, not a span of years; contrast verse 36, where "this generation" does mean the people now living.
23:34: "Scourge" means flog with a whip; a synagogue court had authority to impose a set number of lashes on someone it judged. Crucifixion was a Roman method of public execution. Note that "scribes" is used here of the teachers Jesus himself sends, without the criticism attached to the word earlier in the chapter.
23:35: Abel, killed by his brother Cain in Genesis 4, is the first murder recorded in scripture. The killing of a Zechariah in the temple courtyard is told in 2 Chronicles 24, and in the Hebrew ordering of the books Chronicles comes last, so the two names together span the scriptures from the first page to the last. That Zechariah is called the son of Jehoiada in Chronicles; "son of Barachias" is the name of a different Zechariah, the prophet, and the discrepancy has never been satisfactorily explained.
23:36: "Verily I say unto you" is a formula meaning "truly, I tell you," used to mark what follows as weighty. "This generation" means the people alive at the time of speaking.
23:37: Stoning was the prescribed public execution: the community threw stones until the condemned person died. The image of a bird sheltering her young under her wings is a standard picture of protection in the Hebrew scriptures.
23:38: "Your house" is left unexplained in the Greek and can be heard either way: the temple, or the city and nation as a household. "Desolate" means abandoned and emptied of its occupant.
23:39: These words come from Psalm 118:26, part of the psalms sung by pilgrims arriving at the temple for the festivals. The crowd had shouted them at Jesus a few days earlier as he entered Jerusalem.

Where the Manuscripts Differ

Worth knowing before you stand up: a listener following a modern translation may not have this verse in front of them.

23:14: Most modern translations leave this verse out. It is in the Greek text the King James translators worked from, but not in the older manuscripts found since, so scholars generally take it as a copyist’s addition rather than part of the original.

Read Matthew 23