Matthew 23:20

Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. WHOSE THEREFORE SHALL SWEAR BY THE ALTAR ... AND ... BY THE TEMPLE ... AND ... BY HEAVEN ... See the notes at Matthew 5:33....

13-33 The scribes and Pharisees were enemies to the gospel of Christ, and therefore to the salvation of the souls of men. It is bad to keep away from Christ ourselves, but worse also to keep others from him. Yet it is no new thing for the show and form of godliness to be made a cloak to the greatest enormities. But dissembled piety will be reckoned double iniquity. They were very busy to turn souls to be of their party. Not for the glory of God and the good of souls, but that they might have the credit and advantage of making converts. Gain being their godliness, by a thousand devices they made religion give way to their worldly interests. They were very strict and precise in smaller matters of the law, but careless and loose in weightier matters. It is not the scrupling a little sin that Christ here reproves; if it be a sin, though but a gnat, it must be strained out; but the doing tha...

Verse Matthew 23:20. _WHOSO - SHALL SWEAR BY THE ALTAR_] As an oath always supposes a person who witnesses it, and will punish perjury; therefore, whether they swore by the _temple_ or the _gold_, (Matthew 23:16), or by the _altar_ or the _gift_ laid on it, (Matthew 23:18), the oath necessarily supposes the God of the temple, of the altar, and of the gifts, who witnessed the whole, and would, even in _their exempt_ cases, punish the perjury....

EXPOSITION MATTHEW 23:1 _Denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees, and lamentation over Jerusalem which followed their guidance to her own destruction. _(Peculiar to St. Matthew.) MATTHEW 23:1 THEN SPAKE JESUS. Some small portion of this discourse, the close of our Lord's public teaching, is found in Mark 12:38 and Luke 20:45-42 (comp. also Luke 11:1., Luke 11:13.). It is here addres

WHOSOEVER THEREFORE SHALL SWEAR BY THE ALTAR,.... Not that Christ allowed of swearing by the altar, or by the temple, or by heaven, or by any creature, animate or inanimate; for such swearing is elsewhere disapproved of by him, and forbid, but if a man did swear by the altar, he ought to know, and consider that he not only SWEARETH BY IT, but by all the gifts, and offerings that are brought, and laid upon it, AND BY ALL THINGS THEREON; whatever gifts and sacrifices are offered upon it; which, by being put there, become holy, as the altar itself: so that he that swears by the altar, swears also by the gifts of the altar; and consequently, according to their own traditions, such oaths must be binding....

11. THE WOES OF THE KING AND HIS LAMENTATION OVER JERUSALEM. CHAPTER 23 _ 1. The Hypocrisy of the Pharisees.(Matthew 23:1 .) 2. The Woes of the King upon Them.(Matthew 23:13 .) 3. The Lamentation over Jerusalem. (Matthew 23:37 .)_ For the last time we have seen the Pharisees in the presence of the Lord in the previous chapter. What an important part these ecclesiastical leaders of the professing people of God play in this Gospel. They rejected Him; hated Him without a cause, and after they found they could not ensnare Him they resorted to that which Satan had put into their wicked hearts “that they might kill Him.” That which the Lord had foretold in His parable of the vineyard is now soo

SEVEN WOES. Seven is a sacred number and often used in Mt., as in OT (_cf._ especially Isaiah 5) and _Rev._ The first three treat of Pharisaic teaching, the last three of Pharisaic character, the fourth is transitional. i.-iii. The Scribes refused to accept the preaching of Jesus, and deterred others from accepting it (Matthew 23:13; _cf._ Luke 11:52). While they are thus eager to prevent Jews from becoming Christians, they are keen to make converts either from the Gentiles to Judaism, or, more probably, from Jews to Pharisaism, and such converts become excessively Pharisaical (Matthew 23:15); they make casuistical and perverse distinctions with regard to oaths which subvert men's notions of truthfulness and

SCRIBES AND PHARISEES (Matthew 23:1-39) If a man is characteristically and temperamentally an irritable, ill-tempered and irascible creature, notoriously given to uncontrolled outbursts of passionate anger, his anger is neither effective nor impressive. Nobody pays any attention to the anger of a bad-tempered man. But when a person who is characteristically meek and lowly, gentle and loving, suddenly erupts into blazing wrath, even the most thoughtless person is shocked into taking thought. That is why the anger of Jesus is so awe-inspiring a sight. It is seldom in literature that we find so unsparing and sustained an indictment as we find in this chapter when the wrath of Jesus is directed against the Scribes and Pharisees. Before we begin to study the chapter in detail, it will be well to see briefly what the Scribes and Pharisees stood for. The Jews had a deep and las

Matthew 23:1-36. A PROPHETIC ODE, DENOUNCING THE PHARISEES AND THE RELIGIOUS HYPOCRISY OF THE AGE Each division is marked by its special beauty of poetical form....

VER 16. "WOE UNTO YOU, YE BLIND GUIDES, WHICH SAY, 'WHOSOEVER SHALL SWEAR BY THE TEMPLE, IT IS NOTHING; BUT WHOSOEVER SHALL SWEAR BY THE GOLD OF THE TEMPLE, HE IS A DEBTOR!' 17. YE FOOLS AND BLIND: FOR WHETHER IS GREATER, THE GOLD, OR THE TEMPLE THAT SANCTIFIETH THE GOLD? 18. AND, WHOSOEVER SHALL SWEAR BY THE ALTAR, IT IS NOTHING; BUT WHOSOEVER SWEARETH BY THE GIFT THAT IS UPON IT, HE IS GUILTY. 19. YE FOOLS AND BLIND: FOR WHETHER IS GREATER, THE GIFT, OR THE ALTAR THAT SANCTIFIETH THE GIFT? 20. WHOSO THEREFORE SHALL SWEAR BY THE ALTAR, SWEARETH BY IT, AND BY ALL THINGS THEREON. 21. AND WHOSO SHALL SWEAR BY THE TEMPLE, SWEARETH BY IT, AND BY HIM THAT DWELLETH THEREIN. 22. AND HE THAT SHALL SWEAR BY HEAVEN, SWEARETH BY THE THRONE OF GOD, AND BY HIM THAT SITTETH THEREON." Jerome: As by making broad phylacteries and fringes they sought after the reputation of sanctity, and made this again a...