Matthew 23:27-28

The Pulpit Commentary - Matthew 23:13-32

Eight woes pronounced on the Pharisees for their conduct and teaching. (Comp. Luke 11:42-52 .) read more

The Pulpit Commentary - Matthew 23:25-28

Fatal blindness. Our Lord continues to denounce woes against hypocrites, both for what they do and for what they are. The relation between doing and being is constant. These things are written for our learning. I. THE HYPOCRITE IS WOEFULLY GUILTY . 1 . He is guilty of heart wickedness. "Nature, like a beauteous wall, Doth oft close in pollution." (Shakespeare.) 2 . He is guilty of deceiving others. (a) Unconverted men must be hypocrites to be endured.... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Matthew 23:27-28

Seventh woe— against another form of the same hypocrisy ( Luke 11:44 ). Whited ( κεκονιαμε ì νοις ) sepulchres. Once a year, about the fifteenth of the month Adar, the Jews used to whitewash the tombs and the places where corpses were buried, partly out of respect for the dead, but chiefly in order to make them conspicuous, and thus to obviate the risk of persons incautiously contracting ceremonial defilement by touching or walking over them ( Numbers 19:16 ). To such... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Matthew 23:28

Appearance and reality. "Ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." This is the revelation, not of a mere observer of men, but of a Divine Heart searcher, a Divine Thought reader. I. MAN JUDGES BY THE OUTWARD APPEARANCE , AND MAKES MISTAKES . When Samuel saw the handsome eldest son of Jesse, he said, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before him." But he was reproved. "The Lord seeth not as man sooth; for man looketh on... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Matthew 23:27

Like unto whited sepulchres - For the construction of sepulchres, see the notes at Matthew 8:28. Those tombs were annually whitewashed to prevent the people from accidentally coming in contact with them as they went up to Jerusalem. This custom is still continued. Dr. Thomson (The Land and the Book, vol. i. p. 148) says, “I have been in places where this is repeated very often. The graves are kept clean and white as snow, a very striking emblem of those painted hypocrites, the Pharisees,... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Matthew 23:27

Matthew 23:27. Wo unto you, for you are like whited sepulchres Here we have the seventh wo. Dr. Shaw, ( Trav., p. 285,) gives a genial description of the different sorts of tombs and sepulchres in the East concluding with this paragraph “Now all these, with the very walls of the enclosure, being always kept clean, white-washed, and beautified; continue to this day to be an excellent comment upon Matthew 23:27.” The scribes and Pharisees, like fine whited sepulchres, looked very beautiful... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Matthew 23:1-39

129. More about scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23:1-39; Mark 12:38-40; Luke 20:45-47)Instead of teaching only the law of Moses, the scribes and Pharisees added countless laws of their own. Instead of making the people’s load lighter, they made it heavier. People could profit from listening to the scribes’ teaching of Moses’ law, but they were not to copy the scribes’ behaviour (Matthew 23:1-4).Jesus gave two specific reasons for his condemnation of the scribes. First, they wanted to make a... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Matthew 23:27

Woe, &c. Compare Matthew 5:9 , and see App-126 . are like unto. Greek. paromoiazo. Occurs only here. whited. Sepulchres were whitened a month before the Passover, to warn off persons from contracting uncleanness (Numbers 19:16 ). dead men's bones = bones of dead people. See App-139 . read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Matthew 23:28

iniquity = lawlessness. App-128 . read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Matthew 23:27

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but inwardly ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.THE SIXTH WOEHere is another figure drawn from the customs of the day and the practice of the scribes and Pharisees, who customarily whitewashed graves in order to make them more easily visible and to prevent... read more

Group of Brands