Matthew 23:15

To make one proselyte] The Ethiopie version has the interesting reading 'to baptise one proselyte.' As, however, there is no evidence that the Pharisees were particularly anxious to make proselytes to Judaism, it is perhaps more probable that our Lord alludes to their zeal in making proselytes from among the Jews to their own sect.

Child of hell] lit. 'a son of Gehenna,' i.e. one fit to go thither: see on Matthew 5:22. Why two-fold more? Because the vices of teachers appear in an accentuated form, and without any redeeming features, in scholars. Others say, 'Because out of a bad heathen they made a worse Jew.' Others suggest a different translation altogether, viz. 'You make him a more deceitful child of hell than yourselves.'