Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 23:3
All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, [that] observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
All, therefore, whatsoever … – That is, all that they teach that is consistent with the Law of Moses – all the commands of Moses which they read to you and properly explain. The word all could not be taken without such a restriction, for Christ himself accuses them of teaching many things contrary to that law, and of making it void by their traditions, Mat 15:1-6.
They say, and do not – The interpretation which they give to the law is in the main correct, but their lives do not correspond with their teaching. It is not the duty of people to imitate their teachers unless their lives are pure; they are to obey the law of God, and not to frame their lives by the example of evil people.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 3. All therefore whatsoever] That is, all those things which they read out of the law and prophets, and all things which they teach consistently with them. This must be our Lord’s meaning: he could not have desired them to do every thing, without restriction, which the Jewish doctors taught; because himself warns his disciples against their false teaching, and testifies that they had made the word of God of none effect by their traditions. See Mt 15:6, &c. Besides, as our Lord speaks here in the past tense – whatsoever they HAVE commanded, , he may refer to the teaching of a former period, when they taught the way of God in truth, or were much less corrupted than they were now.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
3. All thereforethat is, allwhich, as sitting in that seat and teaching out of thatlaw.
they bid you observe, thatobserve and doThe word “therefore” is thus, it willbe seen, of great importance, as limiting those injunctions which Hewould have them obey to what they fetched from the law itself. Inrequiring implicit obedience to such injunctions, He would have themto recognize the authority with which they taught over and above theobligations of the law itselfan important principle truly; but Hewho denounced the traditions of such teachers (Mt15:3) cannot have meant here to throw His shield over these. Itis remarked by WEBSTER andWILKINSON that the warningto beware of the scribes is given by Mark and Luke (Mar 12:38;Luk 20:46) without anyqualification: the charge to respect and obey thembeing reported by Matthew alone, indicating for whom this Gospel wasespecially written, and the writer’s desire to conciliate the Jews.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe,…. This must be restrained to things that were agreeable to the chair of Moses, in which they sat, to the law of Moses, which they read and explained, to other parts of Scripture and truth in general; for otherwise many of their glosses and traditions were repugnant to the law, and ought not to be observed, as appears from Mt 5:1. The word “observe”, in this clause, is omitted by the Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, and in Munster’s Hebrew Gospel; and Beza says, it is wanting in one ancient copy, but is in others; and is retained in the Syriac and Persic versions
that observe and do; hearken to what they say, give diligent heed unto it, take notice of it, and act according to it:
but do not ye after their works; let their doctrine be the rule of your lives, so far as it agrees with the law of Moses; but let not their actions be drawn into an example by you; conform to their instructions, but do not imitate their practices:
for they say, and do not; they talk of good works, but do none; they bid others do them, but do not practise them themselves; they very strictly and severely enjoin them on others, but are very careless themselves to observe them; and of this the Jews are so conscious, that they suggest the same doctrine n.
“The daughter of Ahar (a wicked man) came before Rabbi; she said to him, Rabbi, supply me with the necessaries of life: he replied to her, daughter, who art thou? she answered him, the daughter of Ahar: he said to her, is there any of his seed in the world? for lo! it is written,
Job 18:19. “He shall neither have son, nor nephew, among his people, nor any remaining, in his dwellings”: she replied to him, , “remember his law, or doctrine, but do not remember his works.”–Says R. Jochanan, what is that which is written, Mal 2:7. “For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.” If the doctor is like to an angel, or messenger of the Lord of hosts, they should seek the law at his mouth; and if not, they should not seek the law at his mouth. Says Resh Lekish, R. Meir found and explained that Scripture, Pr 22:17. “Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart to my knowledge”: to their knowledge it is not said, but to my knowledge. R. Chanina says, hence,
Ps 45:10. “Hearken, O daughter! and consider, incline thine ear, forget thine own people, and thy father’s house”: on which the gloss is, forget their works, and do not learn them: he that knows how to take care not to learn their works, may learn the law from their mouths.”
–And a little after,
“the disciples of the wise men are like to a nut; as a nut, though it is defiled with mire and filth, yet that which is within it is not to be rejected; so a scholar, or a disciple of a wise man, though he act wickedly, his law, or doctrine, is not to be despised.”
Good doctrine is not the worse for being taught by bad men; nor are good works to be slighted and neglected, because they are not done by all that teach them; but it must be owned that examples are very useful and forcible, and practice greatly recommends doctrine; and it is to be wished, that they both always went together.
n T. Bab. Chagiga, fol. 15. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
For they say and do not ( ). “As teachers they have their place, but beware of following their example” (Bruce). So Jesus said: “Do not ye after their works ” ( ). Do not practice their practices. They are only preachers. Jesus does not here disapprove any of their teachings as he does elsewhere. The point made here is that they are only teachers (or preachers) and do not practice what they teach as God sees it.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
(3) All therefore whatsoever . . .Followed, as the words are, by repeated protests against special and grave errors in the teaching of the Pharisees, it is obvious that they must be received with an implied limitation. So far as they really sit in Moses seat, and set forth his teachingas, e.g., the scribe had done whose answer has been just recordedthey were to be followed with all obedience. That which was wanting was the life, without which even the highest maxims of morality became but the common-places of rhetorical declamation. It was one thing to draw fine pictures of virtue, and another to bring thought and word and deed into conformity with them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Bid you observe Not certainly the traditions of men; for those he has most unsparingly condemned. Mat 15:3. But whensoever truly sitting in Moses’ seat and truly delivering, in their own or Moses’ words, the law, that do. Meanwhile the copy of the law is ever in your reach, as your check upon them. Do not err by not knowing the Scriptures.
No argument can be drawn from this entire passage in favour of apostolic succession, of submission of the people to wicked pastors, or of the closing of the Bible to popular perusal.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
a “All things therefore whatever they bid you,
b These do and observe,
b But do not you after their works,
a Because they say, and do not.”
Note again the chiastic formation. In ‘a’ and its parallel we have a reference to what they say, and in ‘b’ and its parallel a reference to activity. ‘Therefore’ indicates that they are to obey the bidding of the Scribes because they sit in Moses’ seat. In other words they are to ‘do and observe’ the Law of Moses in so far as it was received through the Pharisaic Scribes, and failing them the Pharisees, through the readings in the synagogue. The suggestion that it is through their declarations in general must be ruled out simply because in the same context Jesus refers to them as ‘blind guides’ and three times declares them to be ‘blind’. You do not appoint a blind man to keep watch. One thing, however, that must be said in the favour of the Scribes and many of the Pharisees was that they had a firm grasp of the words of the Pentateuch, and could recite them without difficulty in both Hebrew and Aramaic and were thus constantly able to remind the people of them.
It may have been because of his that they were thus to do whatever the Scribes and Pharisees bid them (‘all things’) from the Law of Moses, as they read them out or recited them from memory. Whatever His disagreement with the Scribes and Pharisees He did not want it to prevent His disciples or His would be disciples from obeying the Law of Moses, or going to hear it read. (They would be spreading far and wide after the feast). And if only the Scribes and Pharisees had genuinely obeyed the Law of Moses that they knew by rote He would have been satisfied with them too. But that was the point, they had not (Mat 5:20). They had mainly limited their obedience to ritual matters, or had altered the significance pf the Law to suit themselves by subtle interpretation, thus often caricaturing the Law. On the whole the zeal of their predecessors, who had sought to preserve the Law against Hellenisation, had hardened the Law into a harsh religious observance, and into a condemnation of those who did not follow their ideas. This was made even more intense by conditions in Palestine and the sense of insurrection that was constantly in the air. They really did believe that this might be God’s time and they wanted to ensure that they did not come short. But unfortunately they put the emphasis in the wrong place. (We should note, however, that ‘subtle interpretation’ is not just the preserve of the Scribes. We can all be as guilty of it as they were when trying to defend our positions by stretching or paraphrasing the Greek and Hebrew). So His disciples must not follow their behaviour, because what they say when they proclaim the Law of Moses is not what they actually do. They say and do not. The righteousness of His disciples must therefore exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, for they must actually do what the Law says in the way that He has explained it in the Sermon on the Mount (Mat 5:20).
‘All things.’ There is a question here as to whether ‘all things’ means literally ‘everything they teach’ (which can hardly be true) or whether it is to be read in the light of His other teaching and thus as signifying ‘all things that they cite as reliably based on the Law of Moses’. Some see these words as literally meaning ‘everything they teach’ and see it therefore as indicating biting irony and even sarcasm, e.g. ‘They sit in Moses’ seat. You should do everything that they bid you, for they certainly do not’, or ‘of course if you wish you can do what they say, but do not do what they do’. However most see it as needing to be read in context and therefore as clearly excluding their amplified interpretations and pronouncements, many of which Jesus Himself condemns (compare what ‘was said of old’ in Mat 5:33; Mat 5:38; Mat 5:43; also Mat 12:7; Mat 15:3-9; Mat 15:14; Mat 16:6; Mat 16:12; Mat 23:16-22). What they had to obey was ‘all things that the Scribes and Pharisees told them ‘from Moses’ seat’ which was genuinely in the Law of Moses’. But either way we again have the emphasis on the need to ‘hear and do’ and the condemnation of those who do not (compare Mat 7:21-27). Hearing is not sufficient. And this applies equally as much to us today (see Jas 1:22-25).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 23:3. All therefore, &c. The morality of the Pharisees, as appears from many examples mentioned in the Gospel, was of a very loose kind; and as for the traditions which they taught, they often made void the law of God altogether. It is not therefore to be thought, that Jesus would recommend the doctrines and precepts of the Pharisees without exception; and for this reason we must limit the general expressions here made use of, by what goes before in this discourse; thus, “While these men sit in Moses’ seat, while they rightly explain the doctrines and precepts of the law, be sure to obey them; but by no means imitate their practices.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 23:3 . ] inasmuch as they speak as teachers and interpreters of the Mosaic law .
] Limitations of the sense, which lie outside the point of view marked out by the expression “Moses’ seat,” as though Jesus had in view only the moral part of the law (Chrysostom), or contemplated merely what had reference to the theocratic polity (Lange), or meant simply to speak comparatively (Bleek), are in opposition to the text, and are of an arbitrary character, all the more so that the multitude was assumed to possess sufficient capacity for judging as to how much of the teaching was binding upon them, and how much was not. The words are addressed to the , whom Jesus had neither the power nor the wish to release from their obligations in respect to the manifest teachings of the law. But having a regard to the glaring inconsistency between the teaching and the conduct of their pharisaic instructors, and considering His own fundamental principle with regard to the obligatory character of the law, Mat 23:18 f., He could not have spoken otherwise than He did when He inculcated upon the people the duty of complying with the words while refusing to imitate the conduct of those instructors. This utterance was conservative, as befitted the needs of the people, and unsparingly outspoken, as the conduct of the Pharisees deserved; but, in opposition to both Pharisees and people, it guarded the holiness of the law. Observe that He is here speaking of the Pharisees in their special capacity as teachers of the Mosaic law (Augustine, Calvin, Grotius, Bengel), so that His language is at variance neither with Mat 16:6 nor with the axiom given in Mat 15:13 ; Act 5:29 .
. (see critical notes): aorist and present : do it, and observe it constantly. See Khner, II. 1, p. 158 f.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
Ver. 3. All therefore whatsoever ] Not their traditions, superstitions, and corrupt glosses upon the law, but whatsoever they teach that is agreeable to truth; so long as they sit close to Moses’ chair, and keep it warm, as it were, hearken to them. God’s good gifts are to be acknowledged and improved even in the worst, as David made Saul’s epitaph, 2Sa 1:19-27 , though the devil preached his funeral, 1Sa 28:19 .
But do not ye after their works ] Saith Chrysostom, Si pastores bene vivunt, eorum lucrum est, si bene dicunt, tuum. Accipe quod tuum est, omitte alienum. If ministers do well, it is their own gain; if they say well, it is thine. Take thou what thine own is, and let alone what is another man’s. Sulla and King Richard III commanded others, under great penalties, to be virtuous and modest, when themselves walked the clean contrary way. A deformed painter may draw a goodly picture; a stinking breath sound a mighty blast; and he that hath but a bad voice, show cunning in descant. A blind man may bear a torch in a dark night, and a harp make music to others, which itself is not sensible of. Posts set for direction of passengers by the highway side do point out the way which themselves go not: and sign posts tell the traveller there is wholesome diet or warm lodging within, when themselves remain in the storms without. Leud preachers are like steeple spires, or high pinnacles, which point up to heaven, but press down to the centre.
For they say, and do not ] They had tongues which spake by the talent, but their hands scarcely wrought by the ounce; like that ridiculous actor at Smyrna, who pronouncing O coelum, O heaven, pointed with his finger toward the ground: a so these Pharisees had the heaven commonly at their tongues’ end, but the earth continually at their fingers’ end. In a certain battle against the Turks, there was a bishop that thus encouraged the army: Play the men, fellow soldiers, today: and I dare promise you, that if ye die fighting, ye shall sup tonight with God in heaven. Now after the battle was begun the bishop withdrew himself; and when some of the soldiers inquired among themselves what was become of the bishop, and why he would not take a supper with them that night in heaven, others answered, Hodie sibi ieiunium indixit, ideoque non vult nobiscum in coelo caenare. This is fasting day with him, and therefore he will eat no supper, no, not in heaven. Epictetus was wont to say that there were many philosophers (we may say divines) , , as far as a few words would go. But , , &c., is religion now become a word? goodness a name? as Brutus once cried out. Should it be said of holiness, as it was once in another place, audivimus famam; we have heard the fame thereof with our ears, and that is all? Job 28:22 . The foolish virgins were found with their sic dicentes, so talking but the good servants shall be found with their sic facientes, so doing. Christ was full of grace as well as truth. John Baptist was both a burning and shining light. Origen’s teaching and living were said to be both one. b That is the best sermon surely, that is dug out of a man’s own breast, when he practiseth what he preacheth, non verbis solum praedicans sed exemplis, not by words only by by example, as Eusebius testifieth of Origen, and Mr Gataker of Mr Stock. As the want hereof occasioned Campian to write ministris eorum nihil vilius, their ministers are most base.
a Of this actor, Polemo, chaffing, said, .
b Spectemur agendo. Joh 1:16 . . Basil. Quod iussit et gessit. Bern. Eph 41.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
3. ] The here is very significant: because they sit on Moses’ seat: and this clears the meaning, and shews it to be, ‘all things which they, as successors of Moses, out of his law, command you to observe, do;’ there being a distinction between their lawful teaching as expounders of the law, and their frivolous traditions superadded thereto, and blamed below.
, do, as occasion arises. , observe, having respect to them as a constant rule of conduct. The present binds on the habitual practice to the mere momentary act of the aorist .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 23:3 . , say, in the sense of enjoining; no need therefore of as in T. R. : The natural order if the previous be omitted. The diverse tenses are significant, the former pointing to detailed performance, the latter to habitual observance. Christ here recognises the legitimacy of the scribal function of interpretation in a broad way, which may appear too unqualified and incompatible with His teaching at other times (Mat 15:1-20 ) (so Holtz., H. C.). Allowance must be made for Christ’s habit of unqualified statement, especially here when He is going to attack in an uncompromising manner the conduct of the Jewish doctors. He means: as teachers they have their place, but beware of following their example.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
All = All things. This shows that the words following are not a command, for the whole chapter is taken up with a denunciation of the very things that they thus bade. Later (Mat 27:20-23) they “bade” the People to ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus.
that. Omit this word as not being in the Greek, or required by the Figure of speech Ellipsis.
Observe and do = ye observe and do. The second person plural is exactly the same in the Indicative and Imperative, and nothing can determine which is the Mood but the context: and the Structure determines its meaning.
observe. Inwardly.
do. Outwardly.
but. Marking the contrast between “ye do”and”do ye not”. after = according to. Greek. kata. App-104.
they say = they say [ought to be done], but they do not do the works themselves.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
3. ] The here is very significant:-because they sit on Moses seat: and this clears the meaning, and shews it to be, all things which they, as successors of Moses, out of his law, command you to observe, do; there being a distinction between their lawful teaching as expounders of the law, and their frivolous traditions superadded thereto, and blamed below.
, do, as occasion arises. , observe, having respect to them as a constant rule of conduct. The present binds on the habitual practice to the mere momentary act of the aorist.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 23:3. , therefore) This particle limits the expression whatsoever they bid you observe, so that the people should not think that they were bound to observe the traditions of the Pharisees equally with the law of Moses;[984] see Mat 23:4.-, observe) sc. mentally.[985]-, do) sc. actually. An imperative corresponded with by the other which follows.-, they say) Mosaic commands, which ought to be observed and done.
[984] i.e., because it implies that their claim to obedience rested on their sitting in Moses seat.-(I. B.)-i.e. so far, and only so far, as they really sat in Moses seat-viz., taught only what Moses in the written law commands.-ED.
[985] ) Verse 5-7. ) Verse 8-12.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
whatsoever: Mat 15:2-9, Exo 18:19, Exo 18:20, Exo 18:23, Deu 4:5, Deu 5:27, Deu 17:9-12, 2Ch 30:12, Act 5:29, Rom 13:1
for: Mat 21:30, Psa 50:16-20, Rom 2:19-24, 2Ti 3:5, Tit 1:16
Reciprocal: Deu 5:1 – General Deu 19:17 – General Deu 33:10 – They shall teach Ezr 7:25 – teach ye Mar 1:44 – show Luk 6:49 – that heareth Rom 2:21 – therefore Gal 6:13 – keep Tit 3:1 – to be subject
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
23:3
The scribes and Pharisees had no authority on their own account, but the law which they enforced was just as binding as was the personal teaching of Moses while he was living. The inconsistency of a teacher does not lessen the force of what he teaches if it is according to the law. These scribes and Pharisees were hypocrites and failed to “practice what they preached,” yet the disciples were told to obey the law regardless of the unfaithfulness of these teachers; that was because the law of Moses was still in force at the time Jesus was speaking. Note the two words observe and do that were to be recognized by the disciples. A truth or declaration should be observed or respected although it may not contain any direct command for action. But a practical commandment must be not only observed but also must be done.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 23:3. All things therefore whatsoever they bid you, these do and observe. Their official position and authority are respected, because the law was still an element in their teaching. The office did not sanctify the officer. Mens official utterances are often vastly superior to their lives. The verse has a special application to the Jews, still under the Mosaic law, but a wider one in the Christian dispensation. There is always a tendency to Pharisaism in public, especially hierarchical teachers. The extremes of slavish subjection and of revolution, in both church and state, are here forbidden.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
23:3 {b} All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, [that] observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
(b) Provided always that they deliver the doctrine of Moses which they profess, which thing the metaphor of the seat shows, which they occupied as teachers of Moses’ teaching.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jesus’ statement in the first part of Mat 23:3 contradicts what He said earlier about how the other Jews should respond to the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees (Mat 15:7; Mat 16:5-12). Assuming the consistency of Jesus’ teaching we should understand His words here as ironical. [Note: J. Jeremias, New Testament Theology, Part I, The Proclamation of Jesus, p. 210.] Another view sees Jesus affirming the authority of the Pharisees in principle, since they taught the Torah, but not endorsing all their teachings (halakhah, legal interpretations of Scripture). [Note: See Noel S. Rabbinowitz, "Mat 23:2-4 : Does Jesus Recognize the Authority of the Pharisees and Does He Endorse their Halakhah?" Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 46:3 (September 2003):423-47.] The first, preferable interpretation allows the Greek aorist verb ekathisan ("to sit," Mat 23:2) to have its natural force. This view also explains the chiasm in Mat 23:2-4 in which the first two statements constitute irony and the second two give non-ironical advice.
A The leaders presumed to take on Moses’ teaching authority. Mat 23:2
B Do what they say. Mat 23:3 a
B’ Do not do what they do. Mat 23:3 b
A’ Their teaching merely binds people. Mat 23:4
Jesus continued to use irony in this address (Mat 23:23-28).
Both the School of Hillel and the School of Shammai increased the burden of responsibility on the Jews by adding to the Law. [Note: Edersheim, The Life . . ., 2:407.]