Matthew 23
23
Religious Fashion Shows
1-3Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer.
4-7“Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’
8-10“Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father’; you have only one Father, and he’s in heaven. And don’t let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ.
11-12“Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.
Frauds!
13“I’ve had it with you! You’re hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God’s kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won’t let anyone else in either.
15“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You go halfway around the world to make a convert, but once you get him you make him into a replica of yourselves, double-damned.
16-22“You’re hopeless! What arrogant stupidity! You say, ‘If someone makes a promise with his fingers crossed, that’s nothing; but if he swears with his hand on the Bible, that’s serious.’ What ignorance! Does the leather on the Bible carry more weight than the skin on your hands? And what about this piece of trivia: ‘If you shake hands on a promise, that’s nothing; but if you raise your hand that God is your witness, that’s serious’? What ridiculous hairsplitting! What difference does it make whether you shake hands or raise hands? A promise is a promise. What difference does it make if you make your promise inside or outside a house of worship? A promise is a promise. God is present, watching and holding you to account regardless.
23-24“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?
25-26“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You buff the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something.
27-28“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You’re like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it’s all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. People look at you and think you’re saints, but beneath the skin you’re total frauds.
29-32“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You build granite tombs for your prophets and marble monuments for your saints. And you say that if you had lived in the days of your ancestors, no blood would have been on your hands. You protest too much! You’re cut from the same cloth as those murderers, and daily add to the death count.
33-34“Snakes! Cold-blooded sneaks! Do you think you can worm your way out of this? Never have to pay the piper? It’s on account of people like you that I send prophets and wise guides and scholars generation after generation—and generation after generation you treat them like dirt, greeting them with lynch mobs, hounding them with abuse.
35-36“You can’t squirm out of this: Every drop of righteous blood ever spilled on this earth, beginning with the blood of that good man Abel right down to the blood of Zechariah, Barachiah’s son, whom you murdered at his prayers, is on your head. All this, I’m telling you, is coming down on you, on your generation.
37-39“Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Murderer of prophets! Killer of the ones who brought you God’s news! How often I’ve ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn’t let me. And now you’re so desolate, nothing but a ghost town. What is there left to say? Only this: I’m out of here soon. The next time you see me you’ll say, ‘Oh, God has blessed him! He’s come, bringing God’s rule!’”
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Matthew 23: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Matthew 23
23
Seven Woes Pronounced on the Scribes and Pharisees
1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, 2saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on the seat of Moses. 3Therefore do and observe everything that they tell you, but do not do as they do,#Literally “their deeds” for they tell others to do something#*The words “others to do something” are not in the Greek text but are implied and do not do it themselves.#*The words “it themselves” are not in the Greek text but are implied 4And they tie up heavy burdens#Some manuscripts have “burdens that are heavy and hard to bear” and put them#*Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing with their finger to move them. 5And they do all their deeds in order to be seen by people, for they make their phylacteries broad and make their#Literally “the”; the Greek article is used here as a possessive pronoun tassels long. 6And they love the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues 7and the greetings in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by people. 8But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ because one is your teacher, and you are all brothers, 9And do not call anyone#*Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation your father on earth, for one is your heavenly Father. 10And do not be called teachers, because one is your teacher, the Christ. 11And the greatest among you will be your servant. 12And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
13“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you shut the kingdom of heaven before people! For you do not enter, nor permit those wanting to go in#*Here the present tense has been translated as voluntative (“wanting to go in”) to enter.#The most important Greek manuscripts omit v. 14, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you devour widows’ houses and for show you pray long prayers! Therefore you will receive the greater condemnation.”
15“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you travel around the sea and the dry land to make one convert, and when he becomes one,#*Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are!
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 is bound by his oath.’#The phrase “by his oath” is not in the Greek text but is implied 17Fools and blind people! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold holy? 18And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing! But whoever swears by the gift that is on it is bound by his oath.’#The phrase “by his oath” is not in the Greek text but is implied 19Blind people! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift holy? 20Therefore the one who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything that is on it. 21And the one who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. 22And the one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by the one who sits on it.
23“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you pay a tenth of mint and dill and cumin, and neglect the more important matters of the law—justice and mercy and faithfulness! It was necessary#Some manuscripts have “But it was necessary” to do these things while not neglecting those.#Literally “and those not to neglect” 24Blind guides who filter out a gnat and swallow a camel!
25“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence! 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the dish,#Some manuscripts omit “and the dish” so that the outside of it may become clean also.
27“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean! 28In the same way, on the outside you also appear righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, 30and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in the blood of the prophets!’ 31Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets! 32And you—fill up the measure of your fathers! 33Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How will you escape from the condemnation to hell? 34For this reason, behold, I am sending to you prophets and wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues and will pursue from town to town, 35so that upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous Abel up to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation!
The Lament over Jerusalem
37“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How many times I wanted to gather your children together the way#Literally “in the manner in which” a hen gathers her young together under her#*Literally “the”; the Greek article is used here as a possessive pronoun wings, and you were not willing! 38Behold, your house has been left to you desolate! 39For I tell you, you will never see me from now on until you say,
‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”#A quotation from Ps 118:26
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