MATTHEW 23
23
"Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe
mint and dill and cummin, and have
neglected the weightier matters of
the law, justice and mercy and
faith; these you ought to have done,
without neglecting the others. 24 You
blind guides, straining out a gnat
and swallowing a camel!
25
"Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for you
cleanse the outside of the cup and of
the plate, but inside they are full of
extortion and rapacity. 26 You blind
Pharisee! first cleanse the inside of
the cup and of the plate, that the
outside also may be clean.
27
"Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are
DISSIMILARITIES
- Mt enumerates an additional specific herb while
Lk generalizes using “every herb”
- Mt has a longer itemized list of neglects:
prominent are “weightier matters of the law,
mercy (Lk uses “love of God) and faith
- Mt adds v. 24, a hyperbole to highlight the
ridiculousness of the way the scribes and
Pharisees apply the law
-Mt changes abruptly from 2nd to 3rd person plural
in v. 25; Lk instead in v.39 uses 2nd person
consistently
- use of slightly different tableware: plate and
dish (a matter of translation?)
-Mt uses “rapacity” (greed) while Lk uses the
more general “wickedness”
-Lk adds a rhetorical question (v.40) for emphasis
and adds v. 41 which points beyond the external
act of cleansing to an internal one through
almsgiving.
LUKE 11
42
"But woe to you Pharisees! for
you tithe mint and rue and every
herb, and neglect justice and the
love of God;
these you ought to have done,
without neglecting the others.
39
And the Lord said to him,
"Now you Pharisees cleanse the
outside of the cup and of the dish,
but inside you are full of
extortion and wickedness. 40 You
fools! Did not he who made the
outside make the inside
also? 41 But give for alms those
things which are within; and
behold, everything is clean for
you.
44
Woe to you! for you are like
graves which are not seen, and
like whitewashed tombs, which
outwardly appear beautiful, but
within they are full of dead men's
bones and all uncleanness. 28 So
you also outwardly appear
righteous to men, but within you
are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29
"Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for you build
the tombs of the prophets and adorn
the monuments of the
righteous, 30 saying, 'If we had
lived in the days of our fathers, we
would not have taken part with
them in shedding the blood of the
prophets.' 31 Thus you witness
against yourselves, that you are
sons of those who murdered the
prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the
measure of your fathers. 33 You
serpents, you brood of vipers, how
are you to escape being sentenced
to hell?
-Mt uses “tombs” and Lk, “graves” which are men walk over them without
basically synonymous but in the usage here, knowing it."
“tomb” seem to refer to an external/visible
marker of a place of burial while “grave” maybe
the pit/excavation used for burial (below ground
level and therefore hidden);
- So that in Mt the message is the contrast
between external beauty and internal 47
Woe to you! for you build the
rottenness/decay, i.e., external righteousness and tombs of the prophets whom
inner hypocrisy and iniquity while in Lk it is the your fathers killed.
hiddenness of uncleanness that defiles others
without their knowing it
- Lk obviously is much abbreviated while
expressing essentially the same message as
Luke consistent with his “milder” version of 48
So you are witnesses and
Jesus’ attack on the Pharisees consent to the deeds of your
- Mt dramatizes the hypocrisy by having Jesus fathers; for they killed them,
put pretentious words” on the mouths of His and you build their tombs.
enemies (v. 30)
- Mt emphasizes that the group are the sons of
murderers; Lk again more mildly points to the
group as mere witnesses consenting to the
deeds of their fathers
- Lk inadvertently (? – editorial fatigue) or for
accent repeats “you build the(ir) tombs”
- Mt has v. 32 very similar to Mt 3:7b from the 49
Therefore also the Wisdom of
words of John the Baptist: "You brood of God said, 'I will send them
vipers! Who warned you to flee from the prophets and apostles, some of
coming wrath? (without parallel in Luke)
34
Therefore I send you prophets and
wise men and scribes, some of
whom you will kill and crucify, and
some you will scourge in your
synagogues and persecute from
35
town to town, that upon you
may come all the righteous blood
shed on earth, from the blood of
innocent Abel to the blood of
Zechari'ah the son of Barachi'ah,
whom you murdered between the
sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly, I
say to you, all this will come upon -
this generation.
whom they will kill and
- In Mt, it is Jesus who will execute the persecute,' 50 that the blood of all
judgment while Lk refers to the Wisdom of the prophets, shed from the
God as judge foundation of the world, may be
- Once more Lk’s version is shorter, lumping required of this
together “wise men and scribes” into generation, 51 from the blood of
“apostles”; omitting some specific forms of Abel to the blood of Zechari'ah,
killing and persecution (crucifixion, who perished between the altar
scourging), places where such will take place and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell
(“your synagogues”) and the extent (town to you, it shall be required of this
town), qualifiers (righteous, innocent, son of generation.
Barachi’ah)
Lk substitutes Mt’s “all the righteous blood
shed on earth” with “blood of all the prophets,
shed from eth foundation of the world”
- Mt uses the idea of judgment “coming upon”
the scribes and Pharisees while Lk at first
only “tentatively” (v. 50) pronounces
judgment with the use of “may be required of
this generation”; this later becomes definite in
v. 51b: “Yes, I tell you, it shall be required of
this generation.”
- Significantly, Mt in v. 35b now has Jesus
identifying his opponents as the actual
murderers (no longer just the sons of
murderers)
- There is also a slight difference in ordering of
“sanctuary” and “altar” between the two
gospels