Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary

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Matthew 23

1Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples,

2saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat.

3All things therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do, but don’t do their works; for they say, and don’t do.

4For 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.

5But they do all their works to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the fringes of their garments,

6and love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,

7the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi, Rabbi’ by men.

8But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi’, for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of you are brothers.

9Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven.

10Neither be called masters, for one is your master, the Christ.

11But he who is greatest among you will be your servant.

12Whoever 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.

15Woe 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 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.’

17You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?

18And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated.’

19You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

20He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it.

21He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who has been living in it.

22He 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.

24You 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.

26You 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.

28Even 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,

30and 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.’

31Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets.

32Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.

33You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?

34Therefore, 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,

35that 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.

36Most 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!

38Behold, your house is left to you desolate.

39For 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!’”

Early Christian commentary

c. 182–188 AD (historical editorial dating) | Irenaeus of Lyons

1. And inasmuch as the apostle has not pronounced against the very substance of flesh and blood, that it cannot inherit the kingdom of God, the same apostle has everywhere adopted the term "flesh and blood" with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, partly indeed to establish His human nature (for He did Himself speak of Himself as the Son of man), and partly that He might confirm the salvation of our flesh. For if the flesh were not in a position to be saved, the Word of God would in no wise have become flesh. And if the blood of the righteous were not to be inquired after, the Lord would certainly not have had blood [in His composition]. But inasmuch as blood cries out (vocalis est) from the beginning [of the world], God said to Cain, when he had slain his brother, "The voice of thy brother's blood crieth to me." And as their blood will be inquired after, he said to those with Noah, "For your blood of your souls will I require, [even] from the hand of all beasts;" and again, "Whosoever will shed man's blood, it shall be shed for his blood." In like manner, too, did the Lord say to those who should afterwards shed His blood, "All righteous blood shall be required which is shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you. All these things shall come upon this generation." He thus points out the recapitulation that should take place in His own person of the effusion of blood from the beginning, of all the righteous men and of the prophets, and that by means of Himself there should be a requisition of their blood. Now this [blood] could not be required unless it also had the capability of being saved; nor would the Lord have summed up these things in Himself, unless He had Himself been made flesh and blood after the way of the original formation [of man], saving in His own person at the end that which had in the beginning perished in Adam.

Commentary · Against Heresies, Book V, Chapter 14, Section 1 · Original source · Irenaeus of Lyons; The Writings of Irenaeus, Volume II, Ante-Nicene Christian Library IX; translated by Alexander Roberts and W. H. Rambaut; T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1869. Existing transcription supplied by Wikisource contributors. · Licence · Source revision · Whitespace normalized; source pagination and footnote reference markers removed. English wording unchanged.