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15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

made for a pretext, in order to carry on
covetous and rapacious designs more
effectually, ye shall receive greater, more
extreme, damnation. Let it be remarked,
that neither is length nor shortness of
prayer censured
or approved. What
Christ condemns is simply the hypocrisy,
the pretence, or disguise, intended by
them. Prayers may be long or short,
according to the occasion and circum-

stances.

captivity of Babylon, by the Jews, both in Palestine and in all the Greek and Roman cities where they were established, to bring the Gentiles from the worship of idols to serve the true God, appears from various circumstances, and the statements of many writers; and that they succeeded to a great extent, is shown from the Acts of the Apostles, where we see that many of these Gentile proselytes were among the first to receive the gospel in several Verse 15. Ye compass sea and land, &c. principal cities. This zeal appears also -This is a proverbial expression, used to to have been, in many, a very pious one, denote the most strenuous exertions to and to have given rise to efforts which accomplish an object. Proselytes are ge- God was pleased to crown with success, nerally reckoned of two kinds; the first so that the light of the Old Testament proselytes of the covenant, or of righte- scriptures and of religion was largely ousness, who were converts made from diffused through the civilized world, and the Gentiles to Judaism, submitted to signally served to prepare the way for the circumcision, and in every respect con- dissemination of Christianity. The worst formed to the law. The rule of Moses, men among the Jews appear to have been with respect to these, was, that they should the scribes and Pharisees of Judea, and be "as those born in the land; " that is, especially those of Jerusalem; and their be reckoned as Jews. But many stran- zeal in making proselytes could only be gers and aliens dwelt among the Jews, mischievous. They had a wide field of on condition of their nor practising idol- labour among the multitudes of Genatry, nor worshipping any other God be- tiles who resided among them; but side Jehovah; and refraining from labour their conversion to Judaism, when effecton the Jewish sabbath; and were permit- ed by them, was but the exchange of one ted to pay their worship to God in the superstition for another; and the teachers outer-court of the temple, or court of the being vicious, the converts were rendered Gentiles, but separated from the other like them. Still, however, it is doubtful courts by a wall of partition." These whether the word proselytes here is not the later Rabbins have called proselytes used merely for those disciples whom these of the gate, obliged to observe the seven doctors, by every effort, endeavoured to precepts of Noah, (which, however, are collect from among their own people, being no where to be found but in their wri- anxious to exhibit a long train of followtings,) but not to conform to the law ge- ers, devoted to their opinions, and emnerally. The learned in Jewish anti- ployed in proclaiming the fame of their quities are now, however, generally wisdom. The Hebrew word for proselyte, agreed, that this distinction of proselytes indeed, denotes one who comes from of the gate had no existence, and that abroad; and the Greek, one who comes, those only could with propriety be styled generally meaning from a foreign people; proselytes who fully embraced the Jewish but the term proselyte might be used in religion. an adapted sense for the followers of That great zeal was shown after the the different Rabbins, who had left their

16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!

17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?

18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is ' guilty.

19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?

20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.

21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.

* Or, debtor, or bound.

families or other teachers, to attend upon their favourite master.

Twofold more the child of hell, &c.— Being filled with uncharitable zeal, the character of corrupt proselytes, and trained up by a wicked sophistry, which palliated vice, and substituted ceremony for piety, to practise evil with less remorse, and with greater subtlety, than in their former condition, whether Gentiles or Jews. A child of hell, vov yeevvns, is one like Satan in his disposition, and doomed to the same punishment.

Verse 16. Blind guides.-Guides that lead astray; referring not so much to their ignorance, as to their wilful and perverting casuistry, and especially in the sacred matter of oaths; thus ensnaring the consciences of men, and, by confounding the distinctions of right and wrong, making even conscience an ally of vice, which is the most hopeless state into which men can fall. Of this our Lord gives instances. They taught that whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; meaning, that the oath has no force, and may be violated with impunity; but whosoever shall swear by the GOLD of the temple, not the golden ornaments, but the gold of the treasury, and the valuable golden vessels, which, as votive offerings,

were deposited within it, he is a debtor, he is bound, and commits the sin of perjury if he performs not his oath. The reason of this distinction was, that they might inculcate the idea that peculiar sanctity attached to these gifts to the temple, and so heighten the supposed meritoriousness of presenting them. The peculiar sanctity of gifts for sacred uses, and the binding nature of the oaths made by them, was held also by the Greeks and Romans. By the latter, they were called donaria; by the former, avabημata, from their being placed in conspicuous situations so as to be admired, and to induce others to make their gifts splendid and worthy of observation. Thus all the mere religions of ceremony bear the same degenerate characters. These corrupt

teachers made similar distinctions between swearing by the altar and that which was offered upon it; and swearing by heaven, and by God himself; but our Lord dissipates all these sophistical distinctions, by at once declaring that every oath, every appeal to any object whatever for the truth of what is affirmed, is in fact an appeal to the God of all creatures, the witness and judge of men, and the sure avenger of deceit and perjury. See the note on chap. v. 33.

22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.

23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

i Luke xi. 42.

Verse 23. For ye pay tithe of mint, &c. -By the law, a tenth of all FRUITS was set apart for the priests; but by this it was not understood that insignificant herbs were included, as not properly coming under that denomination, and being of little value. The Pharisees, however, in their affectation of being more scrupulous in the observance of the law than others, or seeking to increase the merit of their righteousness by a work of supererogation, gave the tithe of mint, anise, (rather dill, avnoov,) and cummin. These are mentioned as specimens ; for St. Luke adds, all manner of herbs." That the law did not require them to pay tithe of herbs, appears from the Talmud, where it is said, "The tithing of corn is from the law, the tithing of herbs from the Rabbins."

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Weightier matters of the law, &c. These are said by St. Matthew to be, judgment, mercy, and faith; by St. Luke, more briefly, judgment and the love of God." Both are of the same import: JUDGMENT is justice, giving to all their due; MERCY is that pity for the distressed which leads to the administration of bountiful relief; and FAITH must be understood of a devout confidence in God. Many eminent commentators indeed take faith here in the sense of fidelity; SO Calvin, "Mihi non est ambiguum quin veritatem erga homines designet ;" but this is manifestly comprehended in justice. Now both mercy, and faith in God, are included in the love of God;" and they necessarily suppose it as the only source from which, when genuine, they can flow. St. Luke therefore sums up both in that high and practical affection. By that are we

rendered tender and compassionate to others; and he that loves God supremely must confide in him absolutely. Of these hallowed affections, which constitute the very substance and reality of religion, the heart of a Pharisee was wholly destitute, and the very rigidness of his attention to trifling matters in religion only served to turn his thoughts from its great and vital principles. Our Lord, in speaking of these as "the weightier matters of the law," probably adverted to their distinguishing the legal precepts into "weighty" and 'light." With them the true order was reversed, and moral duties and vital religious affections were postponed to trivial observances. The true order was restored by our great Teacher for the instruction of his disciples in all ages. 'These

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WEIGHTIER matters ought ye to have done; and not to have left the other undone This last clause, however, is not to be interpreted into a sanction, by our Lord, of this superstitious and self-righteous payment of a tithe on herbs. It is a concession on their own principles; for to pay tenths of these things was a trifling matter in itself, and might be innocently observed or not, according to the principle which actuated each individual; but allowing them that they ought to do this, "judgment, mercy, and faith" were the duties bound upon their consciences, and which could not be neglected without the highest guilt and danger. Our Lord, in this passage, appears to allude to Micah vi. 6-8, where the superior acceptableness to God of moral habits and acts to sacrifices and offerings themselves, however costly, is forcibly expressed.

24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ' for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. 27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

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j Luke xi. 39.

Verse 24. Which strain at a gnat.-To strain, does not here signify a difficult attempt to swallow, but to strain off or out; the meaning of the verb used, diview, being to filter, or percolate. Accordingly, in the older English translations, it is rendered by, strain out." The Septuagint, in Amos vi. 6, uses διυλισμήλον οινον, from which it appears that it was the practice of the Jews to filter their wine; which was done, not only to free it from the insects which in warm climates infest every open vessel in which any thing to their taste is exposed, but also because the Jews reckoned flies in the number of unclean animals, as being accounted a "creeping thing." (Lev. xi. 41.) "One that eats a flea or a gnat," says the Talmud, "is an apostate;" and many other passages show the ridiculous importance which they attached to this construction of the Levitical law against "creeping things." Kwvw, which is said to be bred in the lees of wine, is probably the same as the wine-gnat of the Talmudists. Our Lord's meaning is explained by the connexion of this with the preceding verse. Their consciences made a scruple of trifling faults against rules laid down by fallible men; such as paying tithe of herbs, which at best was but a very doubtful duty; whilst they lived in the ready commission of flagrant violations of the greatest and most weighty precepts of the law of God. Thus they assiduously strained out the gnat and swallowed the camel, or elephant; for the Jews had both proverbs. For this reason also, our Lord calls them blind guides, as they surely must in all

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ages be deemed, who, in conducting others, so stumble in a plain path, and yet walk fearlessly over a precipice; in other words, who fill men's consciences with scruples as to things indifferent, and sear them as with a hot iron, rendering them wholly insensible to great transgressions.

Verse 25. Make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter.—The allusion here is not to the purifications of vessels and cups used at meals, in which indeed they were somewhat superstitiously exact; but our Lord speaks metaphorically, and compares them to those who should cleanse the outside only of a vessel, whilst its interior, the most important part to be kept in a state of cleanliness, was left filthy. Thus the Pharisees were scrupulously careful of external and ceremonial purity, practising all the prescribed ablutions with due attention, and maintaining in all things a fair show of piety; but within they were full, a strong expression, of extortion and excess. The word here rendered excess is akpaola, intemperance. Griesbach reads adrias, injustice; which, however, but repeats the same thought by another word. The general word akpaσia, comprehends excess of every kind, whether of the passions, or the bodily appetites; to both which many of the scribes and Pharisees, notwithstanding their "form of godliness," were secretly addicted. In some мss. we have uncleanness, in others covetousness, and in others wickedness.

Whited sepulchres.-The public burying places of the Jews were without the cities. The more opulent hewed them out of

for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,

rocks in their own grounds, and ornamented them. Graves are distinguished by Jewish writers into deep sepulchres, to which answers Luke xi. 44, "graves that appear not ;" and marked or painted sepulchres. These besides their architectural or other ornaments were marked with resemblances of bones in chalk, annually renewed on the fifteenth of the month of Adar, that priests, Nazarites, and travel lers might avoid the pollution of touching them. Many of these tombs, especially those erected in honour of prophets and kings, were grand and beautiful. A stronger metaphor than this, or one more just, cannot be conceived. As an adorned tomb is but a garniture of death and corruption, which at once marks them, and makes them noticeable; so the external sanctity of the Pharisees was in disgusting contrast with their inward turpitude, and, when once exposed by our Lord, became, in the eyes of his follow. ers, a visible sign of that hypocrisy and iniquity which they were thus taught to avoid, lest they should be morally contaminated, as the Jews were ceremonially polluted by graves, and whatever appertained to the dead. The mark of spiritual death was upon these false teachers, who were to be avoided as a pollution.

Verse 29. Ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish, beautify, the sepulchres of the righteous.-To honour illustrious men by building them splendid tombs, has been the practice of all civilized nations, and prevailed among the Jews. Extraordinary honours were paid to the tombs of Mordecai and Esther; Herod repaired the tomb of David with great splendour; and the Pharisees, among

popular acts, both erected sepulchral monuments to the different prophets who had appeared in their nation, and added new ornaments to those still standing. It was the eulogy of a Rabbi by one of his disciples, that he had adorned the sepulchres of Adam and of Abraham. And such was their sacredness, that the rule was, "All sepulchres might be removed but those of a king and a prophet." St. Jerome speaks of the tombs of several of the prophets as in existence in his day. We are not to understand that our Lord condemns any thing in this practice, but its hypocrisy, as far as the Pharisees were implicated. By these acts they professed their veneration for those ancient prophets, and yet wholly disregarded their words: they said, in doing this, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets; and yet they persecuted John the Baptist, the acknowledged prophet of their own day, and were even at that moment plotting and confederating to take away the life of Christ. "Wherefore," says our Lord, "ye are witnesses against yourselves, that ye are the sons of them that killed the prophets; " the force of which observation arises from the term children or sons, viol, signifying not only DESCENDANTS, but IMITATORS, or persons of the same dispositions. It is as though he had said, "The spirit in which ye do these hypocritical honours to the prophets of old, confesses not only that ye are descended lineally from haters and murderers of good men; so that the disgrace of being of a sanguinary and persecuting ancestry attaches to you; but that you inherit

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