23
Matthew
Seven Woes on the Scribes and Pharisees
Matthew 23:1-39
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Study notes
The address distinguishes the binding force of teaching from the seat of Moses against the leaders' consistent refusal to practice what they prescribe. It exposes patterns of visible piety that obstruct rather than open access to the kingdom, whether through imposed burdens, selective missionary zeal, casuistic oaths, or meticulous tithing that neglects justice and mercy. The reversal demanded of disciples redefines greatness as service and forbids honorific titles that belong ultimately to God and the Christ. The culminating woes trace a trajectory from present inconsistency to future complicity in the shedding of righteous blood, culminating in the lament over Jerusalem's repeated refusal to be gathered and the declaration that its house stands desolate until the condition of recognition is met.
What is Seven Woes on the Scribes and Pharisees about?
Jesus addresses the crowds and his disciples right after the series of public challenges in the temple courts has ended with his question about the Messiah’s son. The scene centers on the scribes and Pharisees who have sat down on the seat of Moses, a position that grants them recognized authority to interpret the law for the people. Yet the opening words already draw a sharp line between what they say and what they do, between the burdens they impose and the help they refuse to give.
The central conflict is not merely personal misconduct but the way these leaders use their teaching office to block access to the kingdom of the heavens while appearing devout. They widen phylacteries and seek public greetings, yet the text repeatedly labels the resulting behavior as that of hypocrites who shut the door they themselves will not enter. This unit matters in its immediate setting because it records Jesus’ final extended public address to Israel’s religious authorities before the private discourse on the temple’s destruction begins. The contrast between their honored position and their actual effect on the people prepares the reader for the judgment language that follows without yet moving into predictions of future events.
Where does this passage sit in Matthew?
This address follows directly from the temple-court exchanges that close in 22:41-46. After the Pharisees fall silent before Jesus’ question about the Messiah’s son, the narrative shifts from public debate to a single extended speech delivered to the crowds and disciples. The transition is marked by the simple notice that Jesus “spoke to the crowds and to his disciples,” moving the focus from opponents who question to listeners who must now decide what to do with the authority they have just witnessed.
Within the larger sequence of chapters 21–23, the woes function as the climactic exposure of those who have challenged Jesus’ authority since his arrival in Jerusalem. The repeated charge that the scribes and Pharisees “shut the kingdom of the heavens” echoes the earlier parables of the two sons, the wicked tenants, and the wedding banquet, each of which ends with leaders who refuse the invitation they claim to guard. The language of “hypocrites” and the binding of burdens also recalls the earlier warnings against practices done “to be seen by people,” now applied specifically to those seated on Moses’ seat.
Matthew positions the discourse immediately before the private teaching on the Mount of Olives. The lament over Jerusalem in 23:37-39, with its declaration that “your house is left to you desolate,” supplies the immediate warrant for the temple’s coming destruction announced in 24:2. At the same time, the final line about not seeing Jesus again until the crowds say “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” returns to the acclamation that opened the week, creating a frame around the entire Jerusalem ministry. The chapter therefore serves as both verdict on the present leaders and preparation for the disciples who will carry the kingdom message after the temple’s fall.
How is the passage structured?
The unit opens with a public address that immediately separates speech from conduct. Jesus speaks to the crowds and disciples about those who occupy the seat of Moses, directing hearers to do and keep what is said while withholding imitation of the works performed. Four concise observations follow, each exposing a pattern of visible display: heavy burdens imposed without assistance, phylacteries and fringes enlarged, preferred seats at dinners and synagogues sought, and marketplace greetings pursued. These descriptions accumulate without interruption.
A sharp pivot occurs at verse 8. The second-person plural commands redirect attention from the scribes and Pharisees to the disciples themselves, forbidding the titles Rabbi, father, and teacher. The reversal is completed by the paired sayings on servanthood and exaltation, which invert the honor-seeking just described.
The seven woes then unfold in two movements. The first three target exclusionary practices and missionary zeal that produce greater condemnation. The next four expose distorted priorities through paired contrasts: temple gold versus the temple, altar gift versus the altar, mint and dill versus judgment and mercy, and the outside of the cup versus its inside. Each woe repeats the vocative address while varying the indictment, creating rhythmic escalation rather than simple repetition.
After the final woe, the address narrows to direct second-person accusation in verses 32–36, linking present actions to the accumulated blood from Abel onward and fixing the judgment upon this generation. The unit closes with an apostrophe to Jerusalem that shifts from collective indictment to personal lament, employing the hen-and-chicks image before pronouncing desolation and the condition for any future recognition.
What is the historical background?
The phrase seat of Moses points to the recognized place from which recognized teachers expounded the law in synagogue settings. First-century synagogues often featured a raised bench or chair where an authorized reader or interpreter would sit while handling scrolls and offering rulings; the image therefore signals institutional authority rather than a literal piece of furniture belonging to Moses himself. Scribes and Pharisees occupied this role without holding priestly office, so their influence rested on expertise in copying, interpreting, and applying Torah rather than on sacrificial duties at the temple.
Phylacteries and fringes were visible markers prescribed in Exodus and Deuteronomy. Small leather boxes containing scriptural texts were bound to arm and forehead during prayer, while tassels on outer garments served as constant reminders of the commandments. Widening these items drew public attention to the wearer’s observance. The same concern for visible piety appears in the preference for places of honor at meals and in synagogue assemblies, where seating reflected social rank.
Tithing extended beyond field crops to include garden herbs such as mint, dill, and cumin. Strict interpreters counted even the smallest produce to avoid any shortfall, yet the passage notes that attention to these details could coexist with neglect of larger legal requirements such as justice in court, mercy toward the vulnerable, and faithfulness in relationships. Proselytes were Gentiles who accepted circumcision, baptism, and full Torah observance; the charge that such converts became twice as liable to judgment reflects the perception that zealous new adherents sometimes adopted the same selective rigor as their teachers.
Oaths sworn by temple gold or altar gifts illustrate a form of casuistry in which the binding force of a vow was tied to the object named rather than to God. The temple itself was understood as the dwelling place of the divine presence, so swearing by it or by heaven invoked the one who sat upon the throne. Whitewashed tombs, painted each spring before Passover, prevented accidental defilement; the practice supplies the image of outward beauty concealing inner corruption. Gehenna, the valley of refuse south of Jerusalem’s walls, supplied a concrete picture of unquenchable fire and was already associated in Jewish tradition with final judgment.
The closing address to Jerusalem draws on the city’s long history as the site of both prophetic ministry and royal temple worship. The image of a hen gathering chicks evokes protective care familiar from everyday rural life, while the declaration that the house is left desolate uses language associated with the temple’s departure by the divine presence in earlier prophetic texts.
What does this passage teach about God?
The passage presents the scribes and Pharisees as occupying an authorized teaching office yet exercising it in a way that contradicts its purpose. Because they have sat down on the seat of Moses, their words retain binding force, but their refusal to act on those words exposes a deeper disorder: the law they transmit becomes a weight that crushes rather than a path that leads. This separation between speech and deed is not treated as private inconsistency; it directly affects access to the kingdom of the heavens, which they shut before others while declining to enter themselves.
The repeated address to them as hypocrites draws attention to the mismatch between outward appearance and inward reality. Widened phylacteries and enlarged fringes, preferred seats and public greetings, meticulous tithing of garden herbs—all these visible acts stand in contrast to the neglect of judgment, mercy, and faith. The same pattern appears in the image of the cup cleaned on the outside while full of plunder inside, and in the whitewashed graves that conceal bones and uncleanness. The text thereby locates sin not chiefly in isolated transgressions but in a sustained posture that preserves the form of righteousness while emptying it of its substance.
Jesus’ mission is portrayed as both sending and gathering. He commissions prophets, wise men, and scribes, knowing that some will be killed, yet he also expresses repeated desire to gather Jerusalem’s children as a hen gathers her chicks. The unwillingness of the city to be gathered results in the house being left desolate. At the same time, the passage insists that this desolation is not the final word; recognition of the one who comes in the name of the Lord remains the condition for future seeing.
Divine judgment is presented as measured and cumulative. The blood of the righteous from Abel onward is said to come upon this generation, and the leaders are told to fill up the measure of their fathers. The language of Gehenna and the warning that they will not escape its judgment underscore that the authority they claim will not shield them from accountability. At the same time, the call for disciples to practice humility and servanthood—refusing titles that belong ultimately to the one heavenly Father and the Christ—reorients status within the community around the pattern already embodied by Jesus himself.
What are the interpretive difficulties?
The inclusion of verse 14 among the woes raises a manuscript question. Several early witnesses omit it, while others place it after verse 12 or in different sequences. Where the verse stands in the transmitted text, it extends the pattern already visible in the surrounding woes by linking public prayer with the seizure of widows’ property. Readers can weigh the shorter and longer forms without losing the force of the charge that the leaders’ religious display conceals exploitation.
A second tension concerns the opening directive that the crowds and disciples must do and keep whatever the scribes and Pharisees say from the seat of Moses. The command stands beside the immediate accusation that these same teachers bind burdens they will not touch. The passage does not resolve how hearers are to distinguish the content of the teaching from the example that contradicts it; it simply juxtaposes the two obligations.
The woes themselves leave open the precise mechanism by which the leaders shut the kingdom of the heavens. The text states only that they neither enter nor permit others to enter, without describing any formal decree or explicit prohibition. The subsequent images of tithing minutiae while neglecting judgment, mercy, and faith, or of cleaning the outside of the cup while the inside remains full, illustrate the inconsistency but do not supply a single legal or ritual act that accounts for the blockage.
The final lament over Jerusalem introduces a further silence. Jesus recalls repeated attempts to gather the city’s children, yet the passage supplies no record of those earlier appeals within this Gospel. The statement that the house is left desolate and that the crowds will not see him again until they say “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” therefore stands as an unresolved condition rather than a completed prediction. The text registers both the desire to protect and the refusal that prevents it, without indicating whether the quoted greeting will ever be uttered by the present generation.
Movement by movement
Moses' Seat and the Disciples' Calling23:1-12
The opening command separates what the scribes and Pharisees say from what they do. After noting that they have sat down on the seat of Moses, Jesus tells the crowds and disciples, "Therefore whatever they may say to you, do and keep, but do not do according to their works, for they say and do not do." The next verses trace the pattern in four short strokes: heavy burdens placed on others while the leaders themselves refuse even to touch them with a finger, works performed only to be seen, widened phylacteries and enlarged fringes, and the pursuit of honored seats and marketplace greetings. These details accumulate without pause until the address shifts at verse 8. The second-person commands now address the disciples directly: they are not to be called Rabbi, nor to call anyone father on earth, nor to be called teachers, because one is their teacher and they are all brothers. Greatness is redefined without reference to visible rank: "The greatest among you will be your servant." The closing proverb about exalting and humbling stands as the only warrant offered for this reversal.
Woes on Access, Proselytes, and Oaths23:13-22
The first of these three woes charges the scribes and Pharisees with shutting the kingdom of the heavens before people, neither entering themselves nor permitting those who are entering to enter. The language of access is spatial and immediate: the kingdom stands open yet blocked by their own refusal and by the barriers they place in front of others. The next woe turns to missionary effort. They cross sea and dry land to gain a single proselyte, only to render him twice as much a son of Gehenna as themselves. The outcome reverses the intended gain; the convert inherits a deeper share in the very judgment the teachers already face. The third woe addresses their handling of oaths. They distinguish the temple from its gold and the altar from its gift, declaring one binding and the other not. Jesus counters each distinction by asking which is greater, then states the consequence plainly: whoever swears by the altar swears by everything on it, whoever swears by the temple swears by the one who dwells in it, and whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and the one who sits upon it. In each case the leaders treat the lesser thing as decisive while ignoring the greater reality that gives it force. The sequence moves from blocked entry to corrupted expansion to evasive speech, each woe exposing a pattern in which visible religious activity conceals an actual hindrance to God.
Woes on Tithing and Outward Cleanliness23:23-28
The scribes and Pharisees tithe mint and dill and cumin while leaving the weightier matters of the law undone. The text names those matters directly as judgment and mercy and faith, then adds that these it was necessary to do and not to leave those undone. The same leaders are called blind guides who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel, an image that places their exactness over tiny things beside their failure to notice what is largest. A second woe turns to the cup and the dish. They clean the outside, yet inside the vessels are full of plunder and self-indulgence. The command that follows is to clean the inside first so the outside may also become clean. The third image in the movement compares the same men to whitewashed graves that outwardly appear beautiful but inside are full of bones of the dead and all uncleanness. The application is immediate: outwardly they appear righteous to people, but inside they are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Each saying keeps the same pattern already visible in the earlier woes, where visible religious acts stand apart from the inward condition the law itself requires.
Woe on Tombs of the Prophets23:29-36
The final woe opens by confronting the scribes and Pharisees with their practice of building the graves of the prophets and adorning the monuments of the just. Their accompanying claim that they would not have been participants with their fathers in the blood of the prophets is presented as self-incriminating testimony: the very act of honoring the dead while continuing the pattern of rejection shows they are sons of those who murdered the prophets. The terse directive that follows, “Fill up then the measure of your fathers,” shifts the address from description to summons, framing their coming actions as the completion of an inherited quantity. The language intensifies with the direct address “Serpents, offspring of vipers,” which precedes the question how they will flee the judgment of Gehenna. Jesus then states that he himself sends prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom they will kill and crucify, flog in synagogues, and drive from town to town. The purpose clause ties these future acts to the arrival of all righteous blood from Abel to Zechariah upon this generation, with the explicit note that the blood of Zechariah was shed between the temple and the altar. The movement therefore moves from present religious display to future complicity and a single generation’s accountability for the full line of shed blood.
Lament over Jerusalem23:37-39
The direct address to Jerusalem breaks from the preceding sequence of woes with a doubled name that carries both affection and accusation. The city is characterized as the one who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, yet the following clause recalls repeated initiative: how often I desired to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. The image underscores protective intent met by refusal, and the sentence ends simply with and you were not willing. That unwillingness is met immediately by the declaration Behold, your house is left to you desolate. The term house can point to the temple structure or the city itself; the text leaves both possibilities open. The final verse then sets a temporal boundary: you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' The condition is stated without specifying when or whether the required words will be spoken, so the lament closes on a note of suspended recognition rather than outright finality. Within the chapter’s movement from public indictment to this personal address, the shift registers the cost of the leaders’ pattern of resistance now borne by the city as a whole.
Notes accompany the Anselm Project Bible, an AI translation from the original languages. Tap any verse above for the committee's word-level decisions.
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