Chapter 23

Chapter 23. — On the Woe Pronounced Upon the Pharisees

¹ Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying: The scribes and the Pharisees have sat down on Moses’ seat; all things, therefore, that they tell you to observe, observe and do; but do not do according to their works. For they say, and do not do. When he had silenced them, and shown that their disease was incurable, then he speaks concerning them; he discourses about life and conduct, correcting his hearers, that they might not despise their teachers, even if they be of a corrupted life. And at the same time he shows that he is not opposed to the law, but rather wills that the things of the law be done, even if those who teach these things are unworthy. For whatever the teachers say, he says, consider that they say it from Moses, or rather from God. Ought one, then, to do all things whatsoever they say, even if they be evil? We say, then, first, that a teacher would never dare to urge anyone toward evil. Next, even if we should grant this, that there will be someone urging others to an evil life, such a one does not speak from Moses’ seat, nor from the law. Nor does the Lord speak concerning such, but concerning those who sit on Moses’ seat, that is, those who teach the things of the law. We must, then, hear those who teach anything from the divine law, even if they themselves do not do it.

² For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with their finger. And all their works they do to be seen by men; for they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments. The Pharisees laid on heavy burdens, compelling men to fulfill the commandments of the law, which were many and hard to keep; or also they weighed men down beyond the commandments of the law, handing on certain traditions beyond the law, while they themselves would not move them with their finger, that is, did nothing themselves, nor dared even to come near to such burdens. For when the teacher not only teaches but also does, he seems to bear the load together with those he teaches, and to help them; but when he loads me down, while he himself does nothing, he weighs me down the more, showing, by the very things he neglects, that it is impossible to accomplish what he says. The Lord, then, accuses the Pharisees, as unwilling to help bear the weight of the commandments and to work together. And not only do they do no good, but they even make a show of doing it; and yet even if they did do it, since they did it to be seen, the gain would be taken away from them. But as it is, of how great condemnation are they worthy, when they neither do it, and yet wish to be glorified as doers? And what do they do? They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments. And this matter was of this kind: it was laid down in the law, Write upon your hand, and let it be unmoved before your eyes. So they wrote the ten commandments of the law upon two skins, that is, parchments, and set the one upon their forehead, and hung the other from the right hand; and they made the borders upon the edges of their garments, certain threads of hyacinth-blue or of scarlet, like fringes. And this too they found laid down in the law, that, seeing them, they might not forget the commandments of God. But God did not will this; rather, the having of the phylactery upon the hand signified that one must work the commandments; and the borders being scarlet signified that we must be marked with the blood of Christ. But the Pharisees falsified it, enlarging the phylacteries and the borders, that they might seem to be keepers of the law.

³ And they love the chief place at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and the greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men Rabbi, Rabbi. Rabbi! As if he should say: Because they love it, for this reason they are condemned. And if the one who merely loves the chief place is blamed, of what is the one worthy who does everything for the sake of it? And the chief seats in the synagogues; there, where they ought rather to have taught others to be humble-minded, there they themselves were corrupted. For they did everything for the sake of glory; and in doing these things they were not ashamed, but rather loved to hear Rabbi, Rabbi, that is, teachers.

⁴ But you, do not be called Rabbi; for one is your teacher, the Christ; and you are all brothers. And call no man your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, who is in the heavens. Nor be called masters; for one is your master, the Christ. But the greater among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. Christ does not forbid that anyone be called a teacher, but the wishing to be called so out of passion, and being eager in every way to be so called. For the dignity of teacher belongs in the proper sense to God alone. And in saying, Call no man father, he does not forbid the honor due to parents, since he wills us to honor our parents, and especially our spiritual fathers; but he leads us to recognize the true Father, that is, God; for properly God is Father. The bodily fathers are not the cause of our begetting, but ministers and joint causes. And showing the gain of humble-mindedness, he says that the greater among you ought to be your servant and least. For he who exalts himself, supposing himself to be something, shall be humbled, being abandoned by God.

⁵ But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour the houses of widows, and for a pretense make long prayers; for this you shall receive the greater judgment. He calls these men hypocrites, as professing reverence and doing nothing worthy of the profession, but for a pretense of praying long, that is, for a long time, devouring the goods of the widows. For in truth they were mockers, deriding the simpler and despoiling them. Therefore you shall also receive the greater judgment, because you devour all the goods of the widows, to whom you ought rather to have given freely, and to have set right their poverty. And in another way too the condemnation will be the greater, because under the guise of a good work, that is, of praying, they accomplish something wicked, the devouring of the goods of the widows; for he is worthy of the greatest condemnation who, under the guise of a good thing, allures men to evil.

⁶ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut up the kingdom of heaven before men; for you neither enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Not only, he says, are you yourselves unbelieving, and have a corrupted life, but you also teach others not to believe in me, and through your life and example you corrupt them. For the people are wont to be made like their rulers, and the more so if they see them inclining toward evil. Let every wicked teacher and ruler see, then, what he gains: the woe, as one who through his own life does not allow any to advance toward the good.

⁷ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you go about the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, you make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves. Not only, he says, do you corrupt the Jews, but also those who from idolatry have come over to the Jewish religion; for these they named proselytes. For you are eager to turn someone to the Jewish way of life and to circumcision; but when he has Judaized, then he is destroyed, being corrupted by your wickedness. And a son of hell is one worthy of it, and having a certain kinship to it, so as to be burned by it.

⁸ Woe to you, blind guides, who say: Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound. Fools and blind, for which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is upon it, he is bound. Fools and blind, for which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Whoever, then, swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things upon it; and whoever swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who dwells in it; and whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits upon it. He calls them blind, as unwilling to teach what is fitting, but honoring the lesser things, while accounting the things of the first honor to be of secondary worth. For they preferred the gold in the temple, and the Cherubim, and the golden jar, above the temple itself. Therefore they also taught many that it is nothing to swear against the temple, but to swear by the gold that surrounded the temple, which for this very reason was wholly venerable, namely that it surrounded the temple. And the gifts placed upon the altar they said were more honorable than the altar itself; so that the Pharisees also laid down this doctrine, that if anyone swore by the gold, or by an ox, or a sheep brought forward for sacrifice, and then forswore himself, he was condemned to pay the equivalent. For they preferred the gift to the altar because of the gains from the sacrifices. But if anyone swore by the temple and forswore himself, since he could not build something equal to the temple, for this reason he was let off; and so the oath by the temple seemed to be the lighter, because of the love of gain of the Pharisees. Under the old covenant, then, Christ does not allow the gift to be greater than the altar; but in our case the altar is rather sanctified by the gifts; for the things upon the altar are changed by divine grace into that very Body of the Master.

⁹ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, judgment and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, and not to have left the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat, but swallow the camel. Again he reproaches them as senseless, because, despising the greater commandments, they sought exactness in the small ones, not even overlooking the tithing of cumin, but tithing even that; and whenever anyone blamed them as petty, they alleged that the law says this. But it would have been better and more pleasing to God, if they had required judgment and mercy and faith of the people. And what is judgment? To do nothing unjust and unreasonable, but all things with discernment and with reason. For mercy at once follows judgment. For he who does all things with discernment knows also whom he ought to pity; and faith follows mercy. For he who shows mercy believes wholly that he will lose nothing, but will receive all things; and besides, one must show mercy, but also believe in the true God. For many of the Greeks had mercy, but, not believing in the living God, did not have faith following upon their mercy. Each of the teachers, then, must tithe from his own people, that is, require from the ten senses, the five bodily and the five of the soul, judgment and mercy and faith. And as for the saying, These you ought to have done, the Lord said it not to urge the tithing of herbs, but that he might not seem to be legislating against Moses for the time. And he names them blind guides, because, while boasting that they teach and know all things, they benefited no one, but rather corrupted all, casting them into a pit of unbelief. And he names them those who strain out the gnat, as guarding against the small sins, but swallowing the camel, that is, the great ones, and overlooking them.

¹⁰ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of plunder and injustice. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside of them may become clean also. Holding to the traditions of the elders, they washed the cups and the platters, that is, the dishes on which the meats are placed; but they drank wine got by plunder, and ate foods of plunder, and so defiled those very things. Do not acquire wine, then, he says, from injustice, and thereupon the inside of the cup becomes clean. Or he does not speak of cups and dishes, but of the bodily and outward state, and of the inward and spiritual. For you, he says, fashion the outside of the cup, that is, your outward state, to be the more dignified, but your inside is full of filth; for you plunder and act unjustly. But one must wash the inside, that is, the soul, that by the purity of the soul the outward dignity may shine forth together with it.

¹¹ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness; so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. This parable too is understood like the preceding one; for they were eager to appear dignified in their outward state, like the tombs that have been whitewashed, that is, made white with gypsum and lime; but their inward parts were full of all uncleanness and of dead and rotten works.

¹² Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets, and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say: If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. So that you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. He pronounces woe upon them, not because they build the tombs of the prophets, for this is pleasing to God, but because, while pretending these things, and supposedly condemning their fathers, they did worse than those, and surpassed them in wickedness, lying openly that, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have murdered the prophets; for they themselves grieved the Master of the prophets, so as to murder him. Therefore he also says:

¹³ And you, fill up the measure of your fathers. Serpents, offspring of vipers, how shall you flee from the judgment of hell? He says, Fill up the measure of your fathers, not commanding them, or urging them on to murder him, but he says something of this sort: Since you are serpents, and the offspring of such fathers, and have been hurled into so great a wickedness as to be incurable, more quickly be eager to outdo your fathers; and this will come to pass if you murder me; for you will attain the very summit of wickedness if you fill up the bloodthirstiness that was lacking to your fathers. How, then, being such, shall you flee from the punishment?

¹⁴ Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city. He convicts them, who had falsely said that, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have murdered the prophets. For behold, he says, I send prophets, and wise men, and scribes, but nevertheless you will kill them. And he says these things concerning the apostles; for the Holy Spirit, adorning them also with teachings, made them scribes, that is, teachers of the people, and prophets, and filled with all wisdom. And he said, I send, showing the authority of his divinity.

¹⁵ That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation. He says that upon the Jews then living shall come all blood unjustly shed; for they shall be punished worse than their fathers, who were not brought to their senses even after so many examples; just as Lamech too was punished more than Cain, although he had not slain a brother, because he was not brought to his senses by the example concerning Cain. There shall come, then, he says, upon you all the blood, from Abel to Zechariah. And opportunely he made mention of Abel. For as Abel was slain through envy, so also was Christ, being envied. And which Zechariah does he here mention? Some say it is the one numbered among the twelve prophets; but others, the father of the Forerunner; for there is a tradition handed down to us, that there was a certain place in the temple in which the virgins stood. This Zechariah, then, being high priest, set the Theotokos, even after she had borne Christ, in the place of the virgins; and the Jews, being indignant at this, killed him, as having ranked among the virgins a woman who had given birth. And it is nothing to wonder at, if the father of the Forerunner too had a father named Barachiah, just as the one among the twelve prophets is also called the son of Barachiah; for it is likely that, just as the names of these men coincided, so also did the names of their fathers.

¹⁶ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets, and stone those who are sent to you, how often I wished to gather together your children, as a bird gathers her young under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall not see me from now on, until you say: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. He doubles the name of Jerusalem, pitying her and calling her back with compassion; for, just as toward one beloved, but ardently despising the one who loves her, he makes his defense, being about to bring on the punishment. For he charges her as murderous, and that, though he often wished to have mercy on her, she herself would not, but, obeying the devil who scatters her and leads her away from the truth, which is a single and unified thing, she would not receive the Lord who gathers her together. For nothing so scatters from God as sin, just as, on the other hand, a good conscience gathers toward God. And showing his tender love, he set down the example of the bird. Therefore, since you will not, I leave the temple desolate. And from this let us learn that God dwells in the temples for our sake; but when we are given over to despair, then the temples too are forsaken. You shall not, then, see me until the second coming. For then, even unwillingly, they shall worship him, and shall say: Blessed is he who comes. And understand the from now on as meaning, after my crucifixion, not, however, that hour in which he was saying these things. For they saw him many times after he had spoken these things; yet after the crucifixion they did not see him, nor shall they see him until his coming is at hand.