Matthew 23:8

But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. BUT BE NOT YE CALLED RABBI: FOR ONE IS YOUR MASTER, [ Katheegeetees (G2519)] - 'your Guide, your Teacher,' "even Christ; and all ye are brethren....

1-12 The scribes and Pharisees explained the law of Moses, and enforced obedience to it. They are charged with hypocrisy in religion. We can only judge according to outward appearance; but God searches the heart. They made phylacteries. These were scrolls of paper or parchment, wherein were written four paragraphs of the law, to be worn on their foreheads and left arms, Exodus 13:2; Exodus 13:11-2; Deuteronomy 6:4; Deuteronomy 11:13-5. They made these phylacteries broad, that they might be thought more zealous for the law than others. God appointed the Jews to make fringes upon their garments,...

Verse Matthew 23:8. _BUT BE NOT YE CALLED RABBI_] As our Lord probably spoke in Hebrew, the latter word rabbi, in this verse, must have been in the plural; but as the contracted form of the plural sounds almost exactly like the singular, the Greek writer would naturally express them both in the same letters. None of the prophets had ever received this title, nor any of the Jewish doctors before the time of _Hillel_ and _Shammai_, which was about the time of our Lord; and, as disputes on several subjects had run high between these two schools, the people were of course divided; some acknowledging _Hillel_ as rabbi, - infallible teacher, and others giving this title to _Shammai_. The Pharisees, who always sought the honour that comes from men, assumed the title, and got their followers to address them by it. See on...

BE NOT YE ... - Jesus forbade his disciples to seek such titles of distinction. The reason which he gave was that he was himself their Master and Teacher, They were on a level; they were to be equal in authority; they were brethren; and they should neither covet nor receive a title which implied either an elevation of one above another, or which appeared to infringe on the absolute right of the Saviour to be their only Teacher and Master. The direction here is an express command to his disciples not to receive such a title of distinction. They were not to covet it; they were not to seek it; they were not to do anything that implied a wish or a willingness that it should be appended to their names. Everything which would tend to make a distinction among them or destroy their parity - everything which would lead the world to suppose that there were ranks and grades among them as ministers,...

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

BUT BE NOT YE CALLED RABBI,.... Do not be ambitious of any such title, fond of it, or affect it, or be elated with it, should it be given you; nor look upon yourselves as men of power and authority over others; as having the dominion over men's faith, a power to make laws for others, impose them in a magisterial way, and bind and loose men's consciences at pleasure, as these men do: FOR ONE IS YOUR MASTER, EVEN CHRIST; meaning himself, the true Messiah, the head of the church, King of saints, and Lord of all; who had all power in heaven and in earth, to make laws, appoint ordinances, and oblige men to receive his doctrines, and obey his commands: the word "Christ", is left out in the Vulgate Latin, the Syriac, Persic, and Ethiopic versions; but is in the Arabic version, and Munster's Hebrew Gospel, and in all the ancient Greek copies Beza consulted, excepting two: no other indeed can be...

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

WARNINGS TO THE PEOPLE AND THE DISCIPLES. Matthew 23:2 f. Loisy regards this as an interpolation (by a Judaising redactor) out of harmony with the attack that follows. Holtzmann thinks it is Mt.'s, breathing special respect for the Law, like Matthew 5:17 ff., but irreconcilable with Matthew 15:3. But, as Pfleiderer puts it, we must admit that in the attitude of Jesus towards the Mosaic Law different expressions which cannot be reconciled stand side by side, the most natural explanation of which may be found in a change of mood. _Cf._ p. 667. SIT: lit. sat. Plummer suggests that at the end of the verse we should supply when they taught you to observe the Law....

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

MASTER. Leader, Guide, or Director. Greek. _kathgetes,_ Occurs only here and in Matthew 23:10. All the texts read _didlaskalos,_ Teacher. EVEN CHRIST. All the texts omit, with Syriac; but, Scrivener thinks, on insufficient authority. CHRIST. See App-98....