23
Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sat on Moses’ seat. All things therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do, but don’t do their works; for they say, and don’t do. For they bind heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help them. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries + broad, enlarge the fringes+ of their garments, and love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi, Rabbi’ by men. But don’t you be called ‘Rabbi,’ for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of you are brothers. Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven. 10  Neither be called masters, for one is your master, the Christ. 11  But he who is greatest among you will be your servant. 12  Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
13  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
14  “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don’t enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter.+ 15  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much of a son of Gehenna+ as yourselves.
16  “Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’ 17  You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 18  ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated?’ 19  You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? 20  He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it, and by everything on it. 21  He who swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him who was living+ in it. 22  He who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits on it.
23  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin,+ and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone. 24  You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!
25  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness.+ 26  You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also.
27  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. 28  Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous, 30  and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn’t have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ 31  Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets. 32  Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 33  You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?+ 34  Therefore behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city; 35  that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar. 36  Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.
37  “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not! 38  Behold, your house is left to you desolate. 39  For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”+Psalm 118:26
+1:1Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek) both mean “Anointed One”+1:16“Jesus” means “Salvation”.+1:20“Behold”, from “ἰδοὺ”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.+2:1The word for “wise men” (magoi) can also mean teachers, scientists, physicians, astrologers, seers, interpreters of dreams, or sorcerers.+3:6or, immersed+3:7or, immersion+3:11or, immerse+3:11TR and NU add “and with fire”+3:13i.e., the Jordan River+4:10TR and NU read “Go away” instead of “Get behind me”+4:18TR reads “Jesus” instead of “he”+5:5or, land.+5:18literally, iota+5:18or, serif+5:22NU omits “without a cause”.+5:22“Raca” is an Aramaic insult, related to the word for “empty” and conveying the idea of empty-headedness.+5:22or, Hell+5:26literally, kodrantes. A kodrantes was a small copper coin worth about 2 lepta (widow’s mites)—not enough to buy very much of anything.+5:27TR adds “to the ancients”.+5:29or, Hell+5:30or, Hell+5:43Leviticus 19:18+5:43not in the Bible, but see Qumran Manual of Discipline Ix, 21-26+5:47NU reads “Gentiles” instead of “tax collectors”.+6:13NU omits “For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.”+6:27literally, cubit+7:14TR reads “Because” instead of “How”+8:15TR reads “them” instead of “him”+8:28NU reads “Gadarenes”+9:13NU omits “to repentance”.+9:20or, tassel+9:36TR reads “weary” instead of “harassed”+10:3NU omits “Lebbaeus, who was also called”+10:8TR adds “raise the dead,”+10:25Literally, Lord of the Flies, or the devil+10:28or, Hell.+10:29An assarion is a small coin worth one tenth of a drachma or a sixteenth of a denarius. An assarion is approximately the wages of one half hour of agricultural labor.+11:12or, plunder it.+11:19NU reads “actions” instead of “children”+11:23or, Hell+12:35TR adds “of the heart”+13:25darnel is a weed grass (probably bearded darnel or lolium temulentum) that looks very much like wheat until it is mature, when the difference becomes very apparent.+13:33literally, three sata 3 sata is about 39 liters or a bit more than a bushel+13:55or, Judah+14:25The night was equally divided into four watches, so the fourth watch is approximately 3:00 a.m. to sunrise.+14:27or, I AM!+14:36or, tassel+16:18Peter’s name, Petros in Greek, is the word for a specific rock or stone.+16:18Greek, petra, a rock mass or bedrock.+16:18or, Hell+17:21NU omits verse 21.+17:24A didrachma is a Greek silver coin worth 2 drachmas, about as much as 2 Roman denarii, or about 2 days’ wages. It was commonly used to pay the half-shekel temple tax, because 2 drachmas were worth one half shekel of silver. A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces.+17:27A stater is a silver coin equivalent to four Attic or two Alexandrian drachmas, or a Jewish shekel: just exactly enough to cover the half-shekel temple tax for two people. A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces, usually in the form of a silver coin.+18:9or, Hell+18:24Ten thousand talents (about 300 metric tons of silver) represents an extremely large sum of money, equivalent to about 60,000,000 denarii, where one denarius was typical of one day’s wages for agricultural labor.+18:28100 denarii was about one sixtieth of a talent, or about 500 grams (1.1 pounds) of silver.+19:17So MT and TR. NU reads “Why do you ask me about what is good?”+20:2A denarius is a silver Roman coin worth 1/25th of a Roman aureus. This was a common wage for a day of farm labor.+20:3Time was measured from sunrise to sunset, so the third hour would be about 9:00 a.m..+20:5noon and 3:00 p.m.+20:65:00 p.m.+20:26TR reads “let him be” instead of “shall be”+21:1TR & NU read “Bethphage” instead of “Bethsphage”+21:9“Hosanna” means “save us” or “help us, we pray”.+22:24or, seed+22:25or, seed+23:5phylacteries (tefillin in Hebrew) are small leather pouches that some Jewish men wear on their forehead and arm in prayer. They are used to carry a small scroll with some Scripture in it. See Deuteronomy 6:8.+23:5or, tassels+23:14Some Greek manuscripts reverse the order of verses 13 and 14, and some omit verse 13, numbering verse 14 as 13. NU omits verse 14.+23:15or, Hell+23:21NU reads “lives”+23:23cumin is an aromatic seed from Cuminum cyminum, resembling caraway in flavor and appearance. It is used as a spice.+23:25TR reads “self-indulgence” instead of “unrighteousness”+23:33or, Hell