Matthew 23:15 - Exposition

Third woe— against evil proselytizing. Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte . The word προση ì λυτος is used in the Septuagint to signify "a stranger" or "sojourner" ( Exodus 12:48 , Exodus 12:49 , etc.), and at this time was applied to a convert to Judaism ( Acts 2:10 ; Acts 6:5 ), whether circumcised, "a proselyte of righteousness;" or uncircumcised, "a proselyte of the gate." To compass sea and land is a proverbial expression, denoting the employment of every means, the exercise of the utmost effort. One might have thought that, in its proud isolation and exclusiveness, Judaism would not have exposed itself to this reproach. But what says Josephus? In more than one passage of his histories he testifies to the zealous propagation of the Jewish religion, and in some cases the enforcement of circumcision on vanquished enemies (see 'Ant.,' Matthew 18:3 . 5; Matthew 20:2 . 4; 'Bell. Jud.,' Matthew 2:17 . 10; 'Vita,' § 23). Tacitus ('Hist.,' Matthew 5:5 ) gives a most unfavourable account of the numerous converts which Hebrews made throughout the Roman provinces; and St. Augustine ('De Civit.,' Hebrews 6:11 ) quotes Seneca saying, " Cum interim usque eo sceleratissimae gentis consuetudo convaluit, ut per omnes jam terras recepta sit, victi victoribus leges dederunt " (Edersheim). For similar testimony, we may refer to Horace, 'Sat.,' 1.4. 142, 143; and Juvenal, 'Sat.,' 6.541, etc. But it was not proselytizing in itself that the Lord censured. As possessing revelation and the only true religion in the world, the Jews might well have deemed it their business to enlighten the gross darkness of heathenism, and to endeavour to shed abroad the pure light which was confided to their care to tend and cherish. That they were not expressly commanded to do this, and that little blessing attended their efforts in this direction, was dependent upon the transitory and imperfect character of the old covenant, and the many evils which would be consequent upon association with alien peoples. In making converts, the Pharisees sought rather to secure outward conformity than inward piety, change of external religion than change of heart. There was no love of souls, no burning zeal for the honour of God, in their proselytism. They were prompted only by selfish and base motives—vain glory, party spirit, covetousness; and if they converted men to their own opinions, with their false tenets, gross externalism, and practical immorality, they had far better have left them in their irresponsible ignorance. When he is made; when he is become a proselyte. Twofold more the child of hell; a son of Gehenna ; i.e. worthy of hell fire. So we have 2 Samuel 12:5 , "a son of death;" John 17:12 , "the son of perdition". The converts became doubly the children of hell because, seeing the iniquities of their teachers, they learned an evil lesson from them, "engrafted the vices of the Jews on the vices of the heathen," distrusted all goodness, discarded their old religion and disbelieved the new, making utter shipwreck of their moral life. "Ita natura comparati sumus," says an old commentator, "ut vitia potius quam virtutes imitemur, et in rebus malis a discipulis magistri facile superentur."