Matthew 23:15

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is become so, ye make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves.

THE SECOND WOE

Just prior to this verse, some authorities insert Matthew 23:14, which reads thus: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, even while for a pretense ye make long prayers: therefore ye shall receive greater condemnation" (see the margin of the ASV). To say the least, such is in complete harmony with all else that Christ said of the Pharisees and scribes.

Matthew 23:15 does not condemn the making of proselytes, far from it. It condemns the making of a proselyte to human opinion rather than to God's word. This was the guilt of the scribes and Pharisees. Had they made converts to the true Jewish faith, that would have been all right; but, instead, they made converts to THEIR PARTY. Boles said, "They exalted the opinions of men above the word of God, which rendered them worthy of such condemnation."[4] Plummer understood this passage in the same way, saying, "The main point here seems to be that the Pharisees, while professing a great zeal for the spread of the true religion, were chiefly bent on winning another adherent to their party."[5]

There were two classes of proselytes: (1) proselytes of the gate, who were not circumcised, and who accepted only portions of Judaism, and (2) proselytes of righteousness, who became true converts. Some of the noblest names of the New Testament were found among such proselytes. The centurion of Matthew 8:5 is an example.[6]

Proselytes, however, often become a problem, sometimes coming to represent all that is worst, both in their old religion and in their new one. This is nearly always the case where one is proselyted to a "system" rather than to Christ and him crucified. Proselytes to error frequently become even more zealous and diligent purveyors of the new doctrine than persons brought up in it. Clare Booth Luce and her diligence for Catholicism show a good example of this.

The son of hell, as Christ used it, refers to the final overthrow of the wicked, and is equivalent to a "son of the devil."

[4] H. Leo Boles, Commentary on Matthew (Nashville: The Gospel Advocate Company, 1936), p. 447.

[5] Alfred Plummer, op. cit., p. 318.

[6] H. Leo Boles, op. cit., p. 447.