Bible Study series: Matthew 23:13-36. This is extremely strong language against the religious leaders in Jerusalem. But he was speaking the truth.
A warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together. I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click on this link:
In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Matthew 23:13-36
13 “Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you slam the door to the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces, because you do not enter it, nor do you allow those who enter to go in!
[14 Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you devour the houses of widows and for a pretext you offer long prayers. Because of this, you shall receive greater judgment!]
15 Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you travel around, across the sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him twice the child of Gehenna as you!
16 Woe to you blind guides who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing! But whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he owes!’ 17 Fools and blind men! Which is greater? The gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 18 And you say, ‘Whoever swears by the sacrificial altar, it is nothing! But whoever swears by the gift on it, he owes!’ 19 Blind men! For which is greater? The gift or the sacrificial altar which sanctifies the gift? 20 Therefore, the one who swears by the sacrificial altar swears by it and everything on it! 21 And the one who swears by the temple swears by it and the one who inhabits it! 22 And the one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and the one who sits on it!
23 Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you tithe mint, dill, cumin but have dismissed the weightier matters of the law, like justice, and mercy and faithfulness. You should do these things and not dismiss those things! 24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!
25 Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you wash the outside of the cup and dish, but inside it is full of violent greed and self-indulgence! 26 Blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup, so that it also becomes clean on its outside!
27 Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you are like whitewashed tombs which from the outside appear beautiful, but on the inside they of full of the bones of the dead and all sorts of uncleanness. 28 In this way also you appear righteous to people on the outside, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, 30 and you say, ‘If we were in the days of our ancestors, we would not share with them in the blood of the prophets.’ 31 The result is that you testify to yourselves that you are the sons of those who killed that prophets. 32 And you fill up the measure of your ancestors! 33 Snakes! Offspring of vipers! How would you flee from the judgment of Gehenna? 34 Because of this, look! I am sending to you prophets and the wise and teachers of the law; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues and pursue them from town to town, 35 in order that on you may come all the righteous blood spilled on the ground, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
36 I tell you the truth: All these things shall come upon this generation.” (Matt. 23:13-36)
Comments:
There are seven woes (eight if you count v. 14). Seven may indicate a complete and encompassing number. Jesus is taking down the whole religious system.
Habakkuk 2 has five woes, for example, in which he first declares the woe (“woe!”), second, the people’s wrongdoing and third the impending judgment. (The woes were pronounced against Babylon and Israel.) Jesus mostly fulfills those three part, and sometimes for the third element he simply calls them hypocrites who will be subject to Gehenna (v. 32).
Woes are not curses, but sorrowful words, indicating lost opportunities and disappointments.
Woe ≠ Curse. Jesus was not pronouncing curses on people.
Instead, Woe = Pity.
Or woe = divine judgment
Jesus was pronouncing pity on them who stand under divine judgment. However, some commentators say he was speaking in righteous anger at religious leaders. I say it could be both anger and pity. Anger, because they were leaders who were abusing the people with overbearing laws, and pity because they were about to come under divine judgment. But one thing is certain: the woes were not curses.
Turner is right:
In oracles of woe, the prophet’s attitude is anger tempered at times by grief and alarm at the horrible price Israel will pay for its sin. Prophets are angry because they are speaking for God against sin. But prophets are also stricken with grief because this anger is directed towards their own people. The palpable pathos of woe oracles is due to the prophet’s dual solidarities. The prophets must speak for God, but in announcing oracles of judgment, the prophets know that they are announcing the doom of their own people (p. 550).
Note v. 34, which says that because of this (all of the foregoing), Jesus is sending to them prophets, sages, and teachers of the law, but sadly he predicts that the religious leaders will reject and hound them too. At least, however, he sent them warnings, which is an act of mercy.
Also, many Jews, even priests, converted to the Messiah after Pentecost (Acts 2:41; 4:4; 6:7; 21:20), so this chapter is not about them or Jews generally. It’s the religious system that had been built up over centuries and had lost its way. Jesus is not denouncing the little people, but the religious Watchdogs who confused people about the kingdom of God. One scholar discovered that Jesus’s “woes” were standard for that day (France p. 854, n. 5); yes, these words are very polemical to our ears but not entirely to their ears in those days. However, let’s not sugarcoat them. The whole temple system and old Judaism is about to come crashing down. The early Christian kingdom community is making a sharp break with the old religion, and Jesus is leading the way, first. His long diatribe is part of the pulling down of the old regime.
However, Keener warns that Jesus includes members of his own community: “For Matthew, the judgments on Jesus’ opposition at his first coming prefigures judgment on the leaders at his second coming (23:12-23; 24:25-25:30). Jesus’ own professing servants could belong among the ‘hypocrites’ (24:51; cf. 6:2; 15:7; 22:18). Like Paul in Romans 1-2, and Amos in chapters 1-3, Matthew forces leaders in his own community to see themselves through the prism of a disobedient religious establishment that opposed their Lord, thereby summoning them to take warning” (p. 537).
13-14:
People who want to enter the kingdom have the door slammed in their faces by the teachers of the law and Pharisees. Implied: these religious leaders don’t even know what it is; and what little they know is wrongheaded. Their righteousness was external and inconsistent, yet they wore the clothes of religion and did externally righteous deeds.
So how did the legal experts and Pharisees slam the door shut? By withholding deeper teaching about knowing God. The various classes of religious leaders had held the Torah in their sole possession that only they were privileged to interpret it authoritatively. It is similar to the Medieval Church. Only they could interpret Scripture. And when an innovator like John the Baptist or Jesus himself comes along, then the Watchdogs of Orthodoxy and Purity oppose them.
If v. 14 is genuine—it does not appear in the best manuscripts—then the religious leaders had really lost their way. It is awful to take away the houses of widows and make long prayers to hide behind. As a side note, Luke 20:47 says the teachers of the law devoured widows’ houses and used long prayers as a pretext.
We already discussed the teachers of the law and the Pharisees in v. 2. Now let’s look at the term hypocrites. Originally it comes from the Greek play actor on the stage. They wore masks and played roles. There were stock characters, such as the buffoon, the bombastic soldier, or the old miser. The Septuagint (pronounced sep-TOO-ah-gent and abbreviated LXX for the “seventy” scholars who worked on it) is a third to second century translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. It uses the term hypocrite to mean the godless. However, in Matthew’s Gospel (it is used only once in Mark 7:6 and three times in Luke 6:42; 12:56; 13:15, so it is not a major theme), it is more nuanced. Hypocrites appeared one way, but in reality they were different. They appeared outwardly religious, but inwardly they were full of dead men’s bones (Matt. 23:27). They wore religious masks. They actually did many things that the law required, but they failed to understand God’s view of righteousness. They were more self-deceived than deceivers, though here in Matt. 23, Jesus denounced the Pharisees and teachers of the law for teaching one thing but living another. Here in Matt. 23, one scholar adds the dimension that the Pharisees failed in their leadership, because they missed the mark on the other aspects of God’s character, as Jesus is about to point out (France, p. 869, n. 24). They were religious show-offs who act out their righteousness to impress others but are out of touch with God’s mercy and love. As noted, Eccl. 7:16 says not to be overly righteous, but that is what they were and displayed it publicly.
“kingdom of heaven”: Matthew substitutes “heaven” (literally heavens or plural) nearly every time (except for 12:28; 19:24; 21:31, 43, where he uses kingdom of God). The kingdom of heaven is both the kingdom of the Father and the kingdom of the Messiah (Carson). And, since I like streamlined interpretations, the fourth one also appeals to me.
5 The Kingdom of God: Already Here, But Not Yet Fully
Bible Basics about the Kingdom of God
Questions and Answers about Kingdom of God
Basic Definition of Kingdom of God
1 Introducing the Kingdom of God (begin a ten-part series)
15:
This verse talks about the missionary efforts of these leaders. Give them credit. I wonder whether Paul’s father learned about the Pharisees, because Paul said he was a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee (Acts 23:6), yet he was from Tarsus (Acts 22:3). Did a Pharisee land there years ago and persuade some Jews of Tarsus to join his cause? Or maybe Paul’s father lived in Jerusalem for a while and joined the cause. Yet let’s not dwell here in speculation.
But the religious leaders were so self-deceived that they could not see that they were making disciples “from hell.” Paul was actually so self-deceived that he persecuted the church. His religious and misguided zeal deceived him and blinded him from God.
“child of Gehenna” was a Semitic way of saying “destined for gehinnom” (Keener, p. 549).
“Gehenna”: it is related to the Valley of Hinnom, which over the centuries was a garbage heap where things rotted and burned, even bodies. Evil acts were done there, like sacrificing children. It was outside Jerusalem. At this dump wicked kings of Israel / Judea worshipped Baal-Molech, including offering children in fiery sacrifices—they put children to the flames (2 Kings 16:3; 23:10; 2 Chron. 28:3; 33:6; Is. 66:24; Jer. 7:31-32; 19:4-6; 32:34-35). Over the centuries, the name got tweaked into “Gehenna,” and in Jesus’s day it was an image or metaphor for punishment and a hellish place. So it is apt to say that Gehenna is the place where people go who have done wicked deeds nd are not saved, after final judgment.
See my post about the Bible basics on hell:
A youtube teacher says that the teachers of the law and Pharisees were bringing hell on earth–currently. And Jesus was kicking out hell on earth. I like the idea. But hell is also a destiny.
16-22:
Jesus actually and more fully taught not to swear oaths:
34 But I tell you not to swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God; 35 neither by the earth because it is the footstool for his feet; neither by Jerusalem because it is the city of the great King; 36 neither should you swear by your head because you are not able to make one hair white or black. 37 But let your word be “yes, yes, no, no.” Anything beyond them is from the evil one. (Matt. 5:34-37)
I wrote at my comments on 5:34-37, first that it is all right not to swear oaths.
22 But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. 23 You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth. (Deut. 23:22-23, ESV)
At the end of this pericope (pronounced puh-RIH-koh-pea) or unit or section of Scripture, Jesus endorses Deut. 23:22. Don’t make an oath or swear at all.
The Rabbis developed a hierarchy of solemnity and binding for oaths. Swearing by Jerusalem was not binding, but swearing toward Jerusalem was (Carson). The hierarchy got very complicated, needlessly so.
The list of objects in the oath go downward in importance. First-century Jews swore oaths to make people believe their word. Jesus, on the other hand, sweeps all of this aside and tells people that there must be a match between the kingdom citizen’s word and his integrity.
“I swear by the gold in temple that I will repay you in one month, sir!” Or “I swear by heaven that if God brings me safely home, I will sacrifice these animals and bring this food stuff to the temple!” In the kingdom of God that Jesus is ushering in, no one needs to make a deal with God. Just trust him to bring you home safely and pray during your trip. And thank him when he does.
On the other hand, God swears oaths (Gen. 9:9-11; Luke 1:68, 73; Ps. 16:10 and Acts 2:27-31). He does this to make people believe and increase their faith in his promise, not because he is dishonest (of course not!).
The Torah allowed oaths, but as we saw in Deut. 23:22, it was better not to swear. Jesus agrees with 23:22.
Also, kingdom citizens don’t have to swear to make their words believable to another kingdom citizen; instead, they keep their word out of the integrity that the kingdom had already worked within them.
Finally, note how Jesus drove the point home by saying that if they swear, they should be consistent. However, it would be better not to swear at all.
In v. 21, God was believed to dwell in the temple with his shekinah glory.
Keener says of v. 19 that this verse is really talking about inconsistently evaluating standards of holiness dishonors God. So this is hypocrisy.
23-24:
In these verses we have another example of the requirement of matching up and being consistent in true righteousness and not external, fake righteousness. The Pharisees fuss over giving plants as their tithe, but they skip over or avoid the weightier matters of the law, like justice, and mercy and faith or faithfulness (either translation works). The religious duty of tithing on the one side and the weightier matters on the other must match up.
At this point, pastors use this verse (and Luke 11:42) to impose tithing on the New Covenant people of God. However, Jesus was merely illustrating the general principle of inner and outer consistency. Plus, Jesus spoke before the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70. Of course he would mention to the teachers of the law and the Pharisees the theocratic national tax of ten percent to support the (soon-to-be obsolete) temple. He made other such pronouncements to his fellow Jews, like paying the temple tax (Matt. 17:24-27). However, he was about to predict the temple’s destruction (Matt. 24:2 and Luke 21:20-24). Therefore the ten-percent national tithe-tax would never be brought forward to the new covenant church. For many Renewalists today, this is difficult to believe, since they have been taught (not to say browbeaten) for decades to pay this old national tax imposed on theocratic Israel. And no, the fact that patriarchs tithed before the law is not decisive, either. They were still supporting old rituals and religious systems. And no, Heb. 7 does not help, either.
Please see my long post on why the tithe teaching is wrongheaded, and why the New Covenant authors had a better plan, a God-inspired plan:
Why Tithing Does Not Apply to New Covenant Believers
Does Hebrews 7:1-10 Teach Church Policy of Tithing?
Turner says that the Aramaic word for gnat is qalmā’, and the word for camel is gamlā’, so there’s a word play going on (comment on 23:23-24). I don’t know Aramaic, so I will take his word for it.
Osborne: Gnats and other unclean insects got into the sweet wine (Lev. 11:23, 41), so the temple authorities would strain them out with a cloth. Avoiding unclean minutiae, they had no problem swallowing a camel, the largest animal in Israel (comment on 23:24).
25-26:
Here Jesus makes the obvious point that it is silly to wash the outside of the cup and the underside of the dish, but not wash the inside or the food side. Wash the whole thing, and then your life will be consistent and nonhypocritical.
Jesus states an obvious truth. The maker made the inside and outside of the cup and dish. Similarly, our Heavenly Maker made both our body (external appearance) and our soul (inner being). May the two match up!
“violent greed”: the grammarians Culy, Parsons, and Stigall, who wrote the Baylor Greek Handbook on Luke’s Gospel, suggest this translation (p. 401). Jesus will denounce the grammateis (plural for grammateus) for devouring widows houses (Luke 20:47), so there was a violent greed of sorts.
“self-indulgence”: it literally means “uncontrolled,” In Greek philosophy meant to follow one’s lower or baser instincts. It meant to be “powerless” or “not having power or a command over a thing.” In later writings it meant a “bad mixture” or “ill temperature” (Liddell and Scott). In the NT, it means “lack of self-control” or “self-indulgence” (BDAG). It is startling that Jesus would choose this term since the teachers of the law and Pharisees seemed to control themselves by obeying religious law. This was Paul’s testimony in Phil. 3:6, where he says he was blameless in terms of obeying the law. Evidently, the religious leaders liked to be at the big feasts and chow down. Who knows? Maybe they secretly indulged in sexual sins.
27-28:
The obvious and hard-hitting truth is that the teachers of the law and Pharisees were like whitewashed tombs outwardly, but inwardly they were full of dead men’s bones. Dead things were unclean for the religious leaders (Num. 19:11-14), so these words were hard to hear.
Then Jesus draws the inference: they appeared righteous on the outside, but inwardly they were full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. This latter term was startling because the two religious leaders would have seen themselves as law keepers. But apparently righteousness is supposed to be planted there by the kingdom of God and then to proceed outwardly from a right understanding of who God is and what he requires.
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. (Mic. 6:8, NIV)
Those three latter things were more important than law keeping, as Paul the former Pharisee discovered. He even went further and said that this is the righteousness that comes by faith in Christ, as follows.
7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Phil. 3:7-11, NIV)
One Decisive Difference Between Sinai Covenant and New Covenant
29-33:
In v. 33, I translated it literally, but it means being condemned to Gehenna. Their judgment and Gehenna go together, one (Gehenna) resulting from the first (judgment).
The logic is powerful and decisive. The experts build—maintain and refurbish—the tombs of the prophets, but their ancestors are the ones who killed them. Then the experts testify against themselves and approve of the old prophets’ and righteous people’s (unjust) deaths when they build up the murdered men’s tombs! It is as if the experts told their ancestors, “You kill ‘em, and we’ll welcome ‘em into our tombs! The whole process is like a conveyor belt at a factory! We like it!”
“Employing irony in a manner typical of the prophets (who sometimes told people to go on sinning but to expect God’s judgment for it—1 Kings 18:27; Is 6:9; 29:9; Jer 23:28; 44:25-26; Ezek 3:27; Amos 4:4-5; Eccl 11:9; Rev 22:11 …—Jesus tells his adversaries to fill the brim the role of prophet murderers that they had inherited, and that the judgment collecting generations would finally be poured out in their generation (23:36; cf. 2 Kings 21:10-15); 22:16-20; 24:2-4)” … (Keener, p. 554). “Filling up the cup to the brim refers to meriting all the ‘blood,’ that is, bloodguilt, saved up among past generations, never punished as was deserved (cf. Is 40:2; Deut 32:43; Ps 79:10; Rev 6:10 …)” (Keener, p. 555)
Israelite national solidarity is key here. All the self-righteous religious leaders of all generations will be held accountable for the murder and persecution of the God-sent messengers.
The blood of all of them will be charged or exacted from this generation, because the greatest Prophet and Emissary is here now, and he embodies all of the earlier ones.
“fill up the measure:” it can mean to complete their ancestors’ task or mission. Picture a cup that is half full. Fulfilling the measure means to fill it up. Each generation until these teachers of the law and Pharisees committed violence against the prophets whom God sent; now it is these religious leaders’ turn to take their shot and complete the ungodly mission!
I get the feeling that Jesus is stacking up the OT prophets against the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, and the prophets were mighty men of God, who called down fire and spoke authoritatively to kings with “thus saith the Lord” and prayed for the rain to stop and return again. They saw miracle after miracle. In contrast, who were those two religious groups whom Jesus is now calling out, along with the experts in the law and the Sadducees and the chief priests and humble priests? The teachers of the law and the Pharisees loved feasts and broadened their phylacteries and lengthened their tassels; they were super-fastidious about the finer points of the law. But where were the miracles? Even John the Baptist, the last of the prophets, was better than these current, dry old religious leaders who committed all the sins that Jesus is now enumerating against them. Compared to the prophets of old, they were powerless and pathetic. Judaism had degraded to these legalists, so it was time for it to end and God to move on with a new community, the Jesus Movement, the kingdom community, blessed by the fulness of the Spirit.
The fact that Jesus says the Pharisees and teachers of the law inherited the murderous traits of their ancestors is like our sayings: “chip off the old block” and “an apple does not fall far from the tree” (Turner, comments on 23:31-33).
34-35:
Zechariah: he is a prophet in 2 Chron. 24:20-25 who was killed in the temple precincts. His position in in Chronicles makes him the last prophet to be murdered, according to the canonical order of the Hebrew Bible.
Now what about the phrase “son of Barachiah / Berechiah / Berekiah” (spelling variations from Hebrew to Greek to English)?
I now have further details, here:
Was Zechariah, ‘Son of Berekiah,’ the Martyred Prophet?
Jesus is the Apex, the Highest Prophet and Messenger, and these classes of religious leaders are about to do to him what their ancestors did to the earlier prophets and wise men and teachers of the law. Jesus had earlier predicted that the religious leaders would flog his emissaries: “Be on your guard against people, for they shall betray you to their councils, and in their synagogues they shall flog you” (Matt. 10:17).
Abel was regarded by the Jews of Jesus’s day—and by Jesus himself—as living at the very beginning, the foundation of the world. In my view, however, let’s not take this pronouncement as a scientific statement. He is simply interpreting an existing, authoritative story that his listeners could relate to and understand. He was speaking to his Jewish culture.
In any case, from the beginning (Abel) to the end (Zechariah), these teachers of the law and Pharisees are like their ancestors, by solidarity. But Jesus is not saying that Jews literally killed Abel. Why would Jesus say this when Abraham was not even born yet?
What does it mean that the blood of the prophets will be charged to this generation in vv. 35-36? It is the principle of sin accumulation, and the later generation is held responsible for the historic sin: “In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure” (Gen. 15:16). No, the ancient Israelites were not like the Amorites / Canaanites, but the principle of accumulating sins all the way to “this generation” is the same. When Jesus came on the scene, the stakes got higher and the consequences severer. He brought in new standards, and the time was up. All of it is about to come crashing down, after hundreds of years of rot infiltrating and weakening the entire edifice.
Let’s see how Jesus fulfilled his promise to send them prophets, wise persons, and teachers of the law (my tentative translation of Acts):
Prophets:
Agabus was a prophet:
27 In those days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them named Agabus stood up and indicated through the Spirit that there was about to be a severe famine in the whole world (which happened during the reign of Claudius). 29 In proportion to anyone of the disciples who prospered, each one of them determined to send aid to the brothers and sisters residing in Judea. 30 This they did and sent it by the hand of Barnabas and Saul to the elders. (Acts 12:27-30)
Here he is again in action:
10 While we stayed there several days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 He approached us and took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “The Holy Spirit says this: ‘In this way the Jews in Jerusalem shall bind the man whose belt this is and turn him over to the hands of the Gentiles.’” (Acts 21:10-11)
Philip had four unmarried daughters who prophesied:
8 The next day we departed and came to Caesarea and entered the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the seven, and stayed with him. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied. (Acts 21:8-9)
Wise:
Stephen and six others were full of wisdom:
Therefore, brothers and sisters, select seven men who are well attested and full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we will appoint for this office. 4 For we will devote ourselves persistently and continually to prayer and serving the Word.” 5 This reasonable proposal was satisfactory to the entire community. And they selected Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas, the proselyte from Antioch. 6 They stood in front of the apostles, who prayed and laid hands on them. (Acts 6:3-6)
Here is Stephen using such powerful wisdom that he was martyred:
8 Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs in front of all the people. 9 Certain members of the Freedmen Synagogue (as it was called), comprising Cyrenians and Alexandrians and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen, 10 and they were unable to counter the wisdom and Spirit, by whom he was speaking. (Acts 7:8-10)
Here’s a general teaching about wisdom:
“wisdom”: Let’s define it broadly and biblically. BDAG is considered the authoritative Greek lexicon, and it translates the noun sophia (pronounced soh-fee-ah and used 51 times) as “the capacity to understand and function accordingly—wisdom.”
Wisdom is really lacking in our society. What is the clever saying I’ve heard several times recently? “You may have a smart phone, but not a wise one. You don’t have a wisdom phone.” Wisdom is discernment or seeing through appearances and making the right decision, at the right time, at the right place, and in the right spirit (disposition), with the right people.
Teachers of the law or “scribes”:
This term could be translated as scribes, and Jesus said, “Because of this, every teacher of the law who has become a disciple for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings forth from his storehouse new and old things.” (Matt. 13:52)
It is not clear who these teachers were, but see my comments at 13:52 for more discussion.
In any case, Jesus has fulfilled and is fulfilling his promise to send a variety of proclaimers to the Jewish community, then and now.
Whoever wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews qualifies to be a kingdom teacher of the law.
Of course Paul knew how to teach the OT as it should be taught, in his epistles.
As noted, Jesus said a teacher of the law will know how to bring out good things from the Scriptures (our Old Testament):
He said to them, “Because of this, every teacher of the law who has become a disciple for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings forth from his storehouse new things and new things.” (Matt. 13:52)
In Stephen’s sermon (Acts 7), he gave a long overview of Israel’s history and how the ancient Israelites misunderstood God’s ways. Here Stephen repeats what Jesus is saying in his denunciation of the religious establishment in his time:
51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised of hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, as your forefathers did and you! 52 Which one of the prophets did your forefathers not persecute? And they killed forerunners who announced the coming of the Righteous One, and you have become his betrayers and murders, 53 who received the law as the ordinances of angels, which you have not kept!” (Acts 7:51-53)
Apollos particularly was a powerful teacher of the law:
24 A Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, a learned man, powerful in Scripture, landed at Ephesus. 25 He was teaching the path of the Lord, and alive in the Spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the story of Jesus, understanding only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Pricilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and laid out before him the path of God more accurately. 27 When he intended go through Achaea, they encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. He arrived and greatly helped those who had believed by grace. 28 He powerfully refuted the Jews publicly, demonstrating from the Scriptures that the Messiah was Jesus. (Acts 28:24-28)
Maybe a few priests who converted became teachers of the law:
And the Word of God was increasing, and the number of disciples was growing strongly in Jerusalem, and a large group of priests obeyed the faith. (Acts 6:7)
In addition to the above-named disciples, we’ll never know how many unnamed Jesus followers filled the three roles of prophets, the wise, and teachers of the law in the early kingdom community.
36:
“I tell you the truth”: The authoritative formula emphasizes pronouncements which are noteworthy and will be surprising or uncomfortable to the listener.
What does it mean that all these woes shall come on this generation? As I note in Matthew 10:23, where the same puzzle came up, what does it mean that the disciples won’t complete their task of going through all the towns in Israel before the Son of Man comes? The best solution is found in Matt. 26:64, where Jesus proclaims before Caiaphas the high priest and the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish Court and Council in Judaism, that from now on they will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven. This confession refers to the Son of Man in Dan. 7:13-14, when he comes in clouds of heaven:
13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (Dan. 7:13-14, NIV)
The Ancient of Days is God. Jesus was about to ascend and be enthroned on high, sitting next to God. So his coming here in v. 23 refers to his ascension and then coming back (invisibly) in judgment over Jerusalem, which happened from 66-70 A.D. In that latter year, the Romans sacked the city and destroyed the temple. It is simply a fact that the disciples did not complete their task of going through the towns of Israel before this “coming” happened.
See my post with some photos of the Arch of Titus:
Matt 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 and 17 in Parallel Columns Are Finally Clear
Matthew 24:4-35 Predicts Destruction of Jerusalem and Temple
Matthew 24:36 to 25:46–From Second Coming to New Messianic Age
God’s wrath is judicial.
It is not like this:
(Source)
But like this:
(Source)
That is a picture of God in judgment.
The Wrath of God in the New Testament
Do I Really Know God? He Shows Wrath
The Wrath of God in the Old Testament
Everyone Shall Be Judged by Their Works and Words
Bible Basics about the Final Judgment
GrowApp for Matt. 23:13-36
1. Jesus was not quarreling with his family relations but denouncing religious leaders who kept people from a walk with God. Have you ever had to make a break with old religious beliefs?
RELATED
9. Authoritative Testimony in Matthew’s Gospel
1. Church Fathers and Matthew’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES AND MORE
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find a “Summary and Conclusion” for discipleship.
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 