Word Pictures in the New Testament - David Cox

Word Pictures in the NT [Matthew: Chapter 23].
pitiless plainness. The "son of Gehenna" means one fitted for and
so destined for Gehenna. "The more converted the more perverted"
(H.J. Holtzmann). The Pharisees claimed to be in a special sense
sons of the kingdom (Mt 8:12). They were more partisan than
pious. \Diplous\ (twofold, double) is common in the papyri. The
comparative here used, as if from \diplos\, appears also in
Appian. Note the ablative of comparison h–m•n. It was a withering
thrust.
23:16 {Ye blind guides} (\hod•goi tuphloi\). Note omission of
"Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites" with this third woe. In
15:14 Jesus had already called the Pharisees "blind guides"
(leaders). They split hairs about oaths, as Jesus had explained
in 5:33-37, between the temple and the gold of the temple. {He
is a debtor} (\opheilei\). He owes his oath, is bound by his
oath. A.V., {is guilty}, is old English, obsolete sense of guilt
as fine or payment.
23:17 {Ye fools} (\m•roi\). In 5:22 Jesus had warned against
calling a man \m•ros\ in a rage, but here he so terms the blind
Pharisees for their stupidity, description of the class. "It
shows that not the word but the spirit in which it is uttered is
what matters" (McNeile).
23:23 {Ye tithe} (\apodekatoute\). The tithe had to be paid upon
"all the increase of thy seed" (De 14:22; Le 27:30). The
English word tithe is tenth. These small aromatic herbs, mint
(\to h•duosmon\, sweet-smelling), anise or dill (\an•thon\),
cummin (\kuminon\, with aromatic seeds), show the Pharisaic
scrupulous conscientiousness, all marketable commodities. "The
Talmud tells of the ass of a certain Rabbi which had been so well
trained as to refuse corn of which the tithes had not been taken"
(Vincent). {These ye ought} (\tauta edei\). Jesus does not
condemn tithing. What he does condemn is doing it to the neglect
of the {weightier matters} (\ta barutera\). The Pharisees were
externalists; cf. Lu 11:39-44.
23:24 {Strain out the gnat} (\diulizontes ton k•n•pa\). By
filtering through (\dia\), not the "straining at" in swallowing
so crudely suggested by the misprint in the A.V. {Swallow the
camel} (\t•n de kam•lon katapinontes\). Gulping or drinking down
the camel. An oriental hyperbole like that in 19:24. See also
5:29,30; 17:20; 21:21. Both insects and camels were
ceremonially unclean (Le 11:4,20,23,42). "He that kills a flea
http://www.ccel.org/r/robertson_at/wordpictures/htm/MT23.RWP.html (5 of 7) [28/08/2004 09:03:22 a.m.]