The Lord had just humbled the disbelieving priests who were flailing against him like wild beasts. With the accuracy of a spear point he gives them a very sharp answer, showing them their own incorrigible condition. Mistaken laity may be more easily set straight, but clerics, if they are evil, are almost impossible to set straight. After this, he then turned his conversation to the apostles and to the people, saying, The Pharisees and scribes sit on the throne of Moses. Their confusion there becomes what they end up teaching.

Therefore when he speaks to the crowds and his disciples he talks about the scribes and Pharisees who sit upon the throne of Moses. I judge these statements to be referring to the following groups. Those who profess that they interpret the law of Moses and glory in this, or who know the law well and seek to profit by this knowledge—these sit upon the throne of Moses. Those who do not depart from the letter of the law are called scribes. Then there are those who profess to know even more, setting themselves apart because they think they are better than the masses. That is why they are called Pharisees, which interpreted means to divide or segregate (for Phares translated means division).^[1]

What does he say concerning these priests? The scribes and Pharisees sit upon the seat of Moses.. . . There are many priests by name but few by works. See therefore how you may sit upon it. The chair does not make the priest, but the priest, the chair. The place does not sanctify the man, but the man, the place. Not every priest is holy, but all the holy are priests. Whoever sits well on that throne will receive honor on its account. Whoever sits on it badly causes injury to the throne. And for this reason, the evil priest is convicted by his priesthood and not honored by it.

He is tempted by the Pharisees and surrounded by their lies. According to the psalmist, The arrows of children are their snares.^[1] Nevertheless, on account of the dignity of the priests and their reputation, he encourages the people to obey them, considering not their works but their teaching. What he says is this: The scribes and Pharisees sit upon the throne of Moses, showing this as a throne of teaching about the law. And we ought to accept this because of what is said in the psalms: He does not sit in the seat of scoffers^[2] and He overturned the seats of those who sold pigeons.^[3]

If they speak well, it is to their credit. If they teach well, it is to yours.^[1] Accept therefore what is yours and do not discuss what is another’s. For just as the priests teach the unfaithful on account of the faithful, judging better to encourage the evil on account of the good rather than to neglect the good on account of the evil, so also therefore you must honor good priests and bad, lest you condemn the good on account of the bad. For it is better to preserve the just with the evil than to subvert the just for the good. For frequently you will treat the bad man with good faith. Remember that wretched land may produce precious gold. Is the gold despised on account of the wretched land? No! But just as gold is taken and the earth is left behind, so also you must accept their teaching and leave behind their customs.

What does he say then to the people? Whatever you have been told to do, obey and do; just do not imitate their deeds. For you are sitting in the church not only as listeners but also as judges of the priests. You may be learning strange things that would be considered inappropriate. You are judging the priests in comparison with yourselves. You should listen to everything they say, but do not do everything which you hear. Yes, all priests teach, but they do not all practice what they teach. For among men there is a ranking that is quite diverse. But in nature everything is equal. For from the beginning men were created in this same way. Only afterwards are they ranked for your sake. Therefore, on account of this, their nature belongs to them in and of itself, but their ranking is for your benefit.

Therefore up until now the scribes and Pharisees among the Jews have been sitting on the throne of Moses. I am not saying this because only scribes and Pharisees will sit on the seat of Moses. They speak but do not do anything, laying heavy and unsupportable burdens on the shoulders of men. Yet they are not even willing to lift a finger to lighten those burdens. For I judge that those who rightly understand and explain Moses according to his spiritual power are the ones who will indeed sit on the throne of Moses. But these are not the scribes and Pharisees. They are much better. They are the beloved disciples of Christ who interpret his word through the grace of God. They are able to sort out different meanings in different words. Indeed, therefore, before the coming of Christ they sat well on the throne of Moses who interpreted the sayings of Moses well and according to reason. However, after the coming of Christ, they sit on the throne of the church, which is the seat and throne of Christ.

Just as the scribes and Pharisees wickedly sat upon the throne of Moses, so do some in the church who sit upon the ecclesiastical throne. There are some in the church who have the right understanding of the law and pass it on correctly. They say what each person needs to do, but they themselves do not do it. Some of them lay heavy burdens upon the shoulders of men, but they won’t even lift a finger to help. These are the ones the Savior is talking about when he says, Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of God.^[1] There are others, however, who sit on the throne, who act before they speak and speak wisely, restraining those who are disordered. They place merciful burdens on the shoulders of others. They themselves are the first to lift the heavy burden, for the exhortation of other listeners. It is these of whom the Lord speaks when he says, He who does so and teaches others to do so, this man will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.^[2]

He mentions here a twofold wickedness. First they require great and extreme strictness of life, without any indulgence, from those over whom they rule. Yet they are much less stringent with themselves. This is opposite from what the truly good pastor ought to hold. He ought to be a rigorous and severe judge in things that concern himself. But in the matters of those whom he rules, he ought to be gentle and ready to make allowances. What these men do is just the opposite.

For such are all they who practice self-restraint in mere words while being unforgiving and grievous to bear when they have had no experience of the difficulty in actions. This is no small fault. In no small way does Jesus increase the former charge.

How great indeed were the heavy burdens and the insupportable demands of the law—attributed to the scribes and the Pharisees—about which Christ spoke and which God most assuredly gave them on account of the sin of the golden calf. The scribes and Pharisees taught [this law], persuading the people to live according to the commands of the law and not to go over to the easy and joyful grace of Christ. Indeed, the Lord spoke above about these very burdensome commands, exhorting the Jews, Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.^[1] And in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter says, And you, why do you tempt God and wish to impose a yoke on the necks of the disciples which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear?^[2] For there were indeed those who, commending the burdens of the law to their listeners for certain fabled reasons, could not push these things away from themselves, as if chains were binding on their shoulders above their hearts, as if they were constricted by the chains of reason. For the Pharisees and scribes did not fulfill these duties in any moderation. That is to say, they did not do so with full strength nor even with a moderate effort, such as with a finger. Consequently, however, priests who now order justice among their people but who themselves do not serve even moderately are surely not just in doing so, although they may appear to be just teachers. Such are they who impose heavy burdens on those coming to repentance, they who preach but do not practice; and so, while the punishment of sin is placed on those present, the punishment of future sin is despised.

He then accused them of vanity, from which came their ruin. His previous charges concerned signs of harshness and laziness, but these charges accuse them of a mad desire for glory. This desire drew them away from God. It caused them to make a show in front of others who were watching and corrupted them.

Now that it has become the priest’s special interest to please those who are watching, he exhibits whatever they want. If they are noble, he makes a spectacle of confronting conflicts. If they are lacking in enthusiasm and lazy, he also becomes more lackadaisical. If they delight in ridicule, he delights in ridicule, in order to please those watching. If they are earnest and practice self-restraint, he tries to be the same way, since this is the disposition of the one from whom he seeks praise.

It is not that he does some things one way and some things in another way. No, he is far more predictable. He always acts with the spectator in mind, in all things absolutely. Then, having laid bare their vanity, Jesus shows that it is not even about great and necessary things that they are vainglorious. They are vain about things without warmth or worth. These are the proofs of their baseness: the phylacteries and the fringes of their garments. For they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments.

They called those phylacteries little pictures of the Decalogue, because whoever had them had his own fortification and defense. But the knowledgeable Pharisees did not have them, because these things must be carried in the heart, not the body. They may have children and treasure boxes and granaries, but they do not have knowledge of God. Even today there are those superstitious ladies who have their little Gospels. In the absence of the true cross and other such things, they indeed have the zeal of God but no true knowledge of him. Even today, they too do these same kinds of things in front of us by liquefying gnats for drinking and gulping down honey. This is what some see as the small, short fringe mandated by the law. But a better case is the woman with the bloody flow who touched the fringe of the Lord’s garment. She was not motivated by the superstitious sentiments of the Pharisees. And what is more, she was healed at his touch. And so when they widened their phylacteries and lengthened their fringes, attracting the honor of the people, they were exposed in their hypocrisies, showing why they seek the first seats at dinners and the front chairs in synagogues. They point out gluttony and glory in public and are hailed by men as rabbi, which in colloquial Latin means teacher.

Further, therefore, to the reprehensible Pharisees and scribes who were so concerned about their body and appearance, the Lord said, They do everything to be seen by other men. For they widen their phylacteries and enlarge the tassels of their clothing. The disciples of Jesus did everything to be seen by God alone. The only ornaments they had bound to their hands were good works. Meditating on divine teaching, they observed the divine commands, always applying them fittingly before the eyes of their souls. Their only tassel was the virtue of Jesus whom they imitated.

What are we to say about those who love the places of honor at banquets and the front seats in synagogues and the highest respect in public places and to be called rabbi by everyone? We must first admit that this kind of delight is found not only among the scribes and Pharisees but also in the church of Christ, and not only at dinner, while taking places at the table, but also the front seats in church. These are the deacons, or those who wish to become deacons, yet who squander the savings of widows, praying for a good opportunity and yet will receive a greater judgment.^[1] They covet even more avidly the highly visible first seats of those called priests. Indeed, however, even they do not put as much effort into their scheming as those who are called bishops, the ones who love being called rabbi by men. It is they who ought most clearly to understand that a bishop is to be above reproach and so on,^[2] so that he would be called bishop not by men [only] but rather before God.

Everything he accused them of was small and trifling. Yet he was dealing with the cause of all the evils: ambition, the violent seizing of the teacher’s chair, and so on. These he brings forward and corrects with diligence, confronting this strongly and earnestly charging them. His own disciples needed to be warned about these matters.

You are not to be called rabbi and especially not by men, nor are you to love to be called righteous by someone else. For you have one teacher, and you are all brothers to each other. For you have been born anew, not only from water but also from the spirit, and you have received the spirit of adoption, so that it might be said of you that you were born not of the flesh, nor of the will of man but from God.^[1] It is hard to imagine this being said of anyone or any son until now. You do not call anyone on earth Father in the sense that you say our Father of the one who gives all things through all ages and according to the divine plan. Whoever ministers with the divine word does not put himself forward to be called teacher, for he knows that when he performs well it is Christ who is within him. He should only call himself servant according to the command of Christ, saying, Whoever is greater among you, let him be the servant of all.^[2]

You are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. One has nothing more than another. For in respect to his knowledge he knows nothing from himself. This is why Paul says, For who is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers?^[1]—not masters. Again, call no man your father. This is said in order that they may know whom they ought to call Father in the highest sense. It is not said frivolously as if no one should ever be called father. Just as the human master is not the divine Master, so neither is the father the Father who is the cause of all, both of all masters and of all fathers.

No one should be called teacher or father except God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is the Father, because all things are from him. He alone is the teacher, because through him are made all things and through him all things are reconciled to God.

But one might ask, Is it against this precept when the apostle calls himself the teacher of the Gentiles? Or when, as in colloquial speech widely found in the monasteries of Egypt and Palestine, they call each other Father? Remember this distinction. It is one thing to be a father or a teacher by nature, another to be so by generosity. For when we call a man father and reserve the honor of his age, we may thereby be failing to honor the Author of our own lives. One is rightly called a teacher only from his association with the true Teacher. I repeat: The fact that we have one God and one Son of God through nature does not prevent others from being understood as sons of God by adoption. Similarly this does not make the terms father and teacher useless or prevent others from being called father.

Previously when he had asked, What do you think of the Christ? it is worth noting that he did not say, What do you think of me? So it is here that he says you have one master, and he does not make this subjective by saying me but the Christ.

Yet note that this passage repeatedly speaks of the one master, the one teacher, repeatedly applying the term one.^[1] Does this term apply to the Father alone so as to reject the only begotten Son? Is the Father guide? All would agree, and none would challenge it. And yet one, he says, is your guide, even Christ. For just as Christ, being called the one guide, does not cast out the Father from being guide, even so the Father, being called Master, does not cast out the Son from being Master. For the expression one is spoken in contradistinction to the human way of speaking and within the rest of the creation.

For nothing is as crucial as the practice of modesty. This is why he is continually reminding them of this virtue, both when he brought the children into the midst and now. Even when he was preaching on the mount, beginning the Beatitudes, this is where he began. And in this passage he plucks up pride by the roots, saying, Whoever humbles himself will be exalted.^[1]

See how he draws off the hearer right over to the contrary thing. For not only does he forbid him to set his heart upon the first place but also requires him to follow after the last. For so shall you obtain your desire, he says. So one who pursues his own desire for the first must follow after in the last place: Whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

And where will we find this humility? Go to the city of virtue, to the tents of the holy men, to the mountains, to the groves.^[2] There you may see this height of humility.

For these persons, some illustrious from their rank in the world, some having had wealth, in every way put themselves down, by their vesture, by their dwelling, by those to whom they minister. As if they were written characters, they throughout all things are writing the story of humility.^[3]

Since those who have arrived teaching new beliefs for the most part do so from conceit and arrogance, I will say something concerning the value of the teaching. The Lord cuts short this opinion and way as leading to destruction. He says, You love glory and the places of first importance. Meanwhile he desires the servant’s role and cultivates humility.

I wish everyone might hear this, and most of all deacons, priests and bishops, especially those who think to themselves that these were not the words written: He who exalts himself will be humbled. On this basis, they then act as if they do not know that he said, He who has humbled himself will be exalted. They do not hear him who said, Learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly of heart.^[1] They thought themselves to be self-inspired and through this inspiration fell into the judgment of the devil.^[2] They had not thought of critically examining their false humility. They would have done better to have remembered the word of wisdom that says, The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself, and you will find grace before God.^[3] It was the Lord who provided the pattern for this process. No matter how great he was, he humbled himself. For though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name.^[4]

In this wedding feast, which is the calling of God, the Jews maintained that they should be first to recline at the table. Instead, they were humiliated and put in last place, after the Gentiles. The Gentiles, . . . who understood that their invitation was entirely undeserved, were put ahead of the Jews who preceded them to the feast, for what matters is not the priority of the invitation, but the worthiness of the response. The Jews then were invited only to an ordinary meal, but the Gentiles were invited by the Son himself, for whom the feast was held. The Jews were chosen by God on account of their fathers but the Gentiles because of their faith. Christ says elsewhere of the Jews, therefore, When you are invited to a wedding feast [that is, to the wedding of Christ], do not seek to recline at the head table.^[1]

There are those who dare to say that God is not good because of the curses in his law that he places against their sin. And yet the one who is truly the Son of God who gave that same law is also the same one who put blessings into the law. The same God who provides blessings for those who are saved in a similar way applies curses which he placed in the law against sinners. Woe, he says. Woe to you and to those hearing these things who plead the God of the law and yet do not understand that these words were spoken by God in a kindly way. So we understand why Jesus said, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. They believe that it is in fact a good thing to pronounce these curses against sinners. They consider the arrangement of the law’s curses to be a part of God’s design. The chiding father frequently urges his advice on his son for his improvement—advice that may seem to be a curse. He does not wish the curses to be actualized, however, but rather he desires to avert him from even more such curses.

Woe is a voice of sorrowing. For this reason he says that they close the kingdom of heaven, because they hide in the law the consolation of his truth. They lost sight of the advent expected by the prophets. Through deceptive teachings, they do not allow others to go to heaven either. They do not adorn the way of eternity.

The scribes and Pharisees have the knowledge of the prophets and of the law. They know that Christ is the Son of God. They are not ignorant that he was born of the Virgin. Yet they did not seek to serve the people to whom they were accountable. They themselves were not entering the kingdom of heaven, nor did they permit others who were able to do so. Hosea the prophet declares of them, The priests have stolen the way, they have killed the [people of] Shechem,^[1] and again, The priests did not ask where the Lord is.^[2] Surely every teacher who misleads his students shuts the gate of the kingdom of heaven before them.

These are the poisoners of truth. They are reluctant to undertake the salvation of others. They bolt shut the kingdom of heaven. In their ambition they devour widows’ houses and for pretense make long prayers. By this acquaintance with heaven (achieved with those long prayers), they expect they will persevere in the merits of grace quietly, just as a rich person expects to receive the treasure stored up for him. However, they will receive ample judgment and punishment for their particular sins. They will be called to account for their strange and ignorant practices.^[1]

After this, he admonishes them for their gluttony. And it is most grievous that they indulged their own bellies not from rich men’s houses but from the poor. Thereby they aggravated the poverty of the poor, which they should have relieved. They did not merely eat. They devoured.

The manner of their false piety in overreaching was even yet more grievous: for a pretense you make long prayers.

It is just for anyone who does evil to receive just retribution. But in this case we have one who is using prayers as a cloak for his own wickedness. And he is deriving even the reason for his avarice as godliness. Sure he is justly liable to a far more grievous punishment. So why did God not stop this and depose them? Because the time had not yet come. He leaves them time for repentance for a while. But by his sayings he tries to avert his own disciples being similarly deceived or to be drawn to emulate these men because of the dignity of their positions. Earlier he said, Observe whatever they tell you but not what they do.^[1] For they do many things amiss.

Imposters of holiness more easily entangle themselves around women. Women are less ready to stand up to such imposters in front of them. These manipulators know that they are softer and more guileless.^[1] . . . They loiter especially with widowed ladies for two reasons. First, because women with men are less easily deceived, having the mettle of men and being less ready to give anything from her purse. Widows are in a position in which they are more easily deceived. Second, they more easily involve themselves in things not subject to anyone else’s authority. So they are taken advantage of. Jesus here confronts the priests and warns Christian leaders against these temptations. They had best not remain with widowed women any more than with others. For even if the desire to remain with widows is not ill motivated, it still may carry the suspicion of being so.

The scribes and Pharisees have laid endless toil upon others. This should draw them toward being more empathic with others’ burdens. But the things that we acquire easily we care less about. So even their unfair advantages do not render them more gentle. Here he lays to the charge of the priests two things. First, that they have been unprofitable for the salvation of many. They have forgotten that they need much toil in order to win over even one. And second, that they were remiss in the preservation of those whom they had won. Not only were they careless but traitors. We see this from the wickedness of their lives, corruption and making others worse. When a disciple sees his teacher to be corrupt, he becomes even more so. He does not stop at his teacher’s corruption.

The scribes and the Pharisees were reviewing the whole world on account of the business and diverse profits taken by their disciples. These profits were taken under the pretense of sanctity.

Jesus reproached those who by their inane observances detracted from the one who rightly should be honored in worship. He himself was the ground and source of the law. The law did not of itself suffice. The ornaments of the altar and temple were not the primary object of worship but were merely pointing the way for the future of true worship. Gold, silver, bronze, brass, pearl and crystal each embrace a particular meaning from their unique natures as metals. Jesus refuted the premise that the gold of the temple or the gifts of the altar could be venerated as if something in themselves rather than the greater one whom they honor. With the coming of Christ the massive structure of legal obligations became futile. Christ was not in the law, but the law was made holy in Christ. He had placed his seat and throne on the law. One who seeks to be religious should anchor himself rightly in the truth. They were stupid and blind who venerated gifts that were sanctified while they allowed sanctity itself to pass by.

Jesus is saying that the gold in the temple, the gold objects dedicated in the temple to the glory of God, whether these be the gold cherubim or the gold jar containing the manna, were considered by the Jews to be worthy of much more honor than the temple.^[1] Therefore they were condemned by the Lord. . . . But the saying possesses a figurative meaning directed against them because they are not receiving the truth regarding Christ. Instead, they were judging Moses and the types given through him as more valuable than Christ. . . . They were rejecting the Christ who sanctifies Moses while simultaneously praising the law. Just as the law was praiseworthy, not because it possesses the types and the symbols but because it prefigures the true mystery of worship in Christ, in the same way the gold is precious because of the one who sanctifies the temple, and heaven is beautiful because of the God who sanctifies it and dwells within it.

Those who work in the fields of the gospel seek the hidden meaning of these passages of Scripture. We are not simply confiscating the higher parts of Scripture but rather looking toward its whole sense. As regards swearing, it is intended as a binding action, seeking to confirm the word concerning which something is sworn.

Consider this analogy. Think of the altar as the heart and the temple as the whole of Scripture. The temple of God’s glory, spiritually understood, is the divinely inspired Scripture. The gold refers to the meanings it conveys. To swear is to witness to the Scriptures, as a validation and confirmation of the word we speak. Therefore we ought to profess the whole sense of Scripture as a confirmation of the sense which we invoke in all of our words.

Gold found outside the temple is not sanctified. Rather, that gold which is found in the temple is the measure of that which is outside it. Similarly the meaning which is found outside of the Scriptures is not holy, but it is contained in the meaning of the Scriptures. Only that sense of Scripture is sanctified which can be seen from within the temple itself, that is, within the whole of Scripture. The temple, that is, the reading of the Scriptures, makes a great and venerable sense, just as consecrated gold is valuable. So we ought not to swear by our own intellects to confirm our beliefs, as if we were creating witnesses that could judge according to the truth. But let us explore further the analogy of the temple, the gold and the altar. The altar is the place where a vow is sanctified. The altar in this passage is the heart of a man. What happens in the heart happens deeply within a person. Vows and gifts placed on the altar are clearly those placed upon the human heart. When you begin to pray, you place the vow of your prayer upon your heart, as if you had placed something upon the altar, so that you might offer your prayer to God.

Suppose you are ready to place an offering of psalms upon your heart, so as to offer to God an offering of psalms, accompanying yourself with a harp. Or suppose you are ready to give alms. You make an offering of alms upon your heart, just as if you had placed something on the altar, as you would offer your alms to God. Suppose you have proposed to fast in order to make an offering of your fasting upon your heart, as if you had placed something upon the altar.

In this way the heart of a man makes vows in a holy and venerable way. It is from the heart, that is, the altar, that the vow is offered to God. Therefore it is not possible for the offering of a man to be more honorable than his heart from which the offering is sent up.

Anyone who thinks that his own almsgiving, his own fasting, his own psalms and prayers are in themselves great and who, without good judgment, blesses them and does not reflect that it is just from such a heart that his almsgiving or psalms or prayers or fasting are offered—such a man is blind. For indeed his heart is the altar that sanctifies his offering which is the heart of the world. The heart and the conscience of such a man do not feel remorse but have trust in God,^[1] because his own heart has been rightly formed. He does not rely on his gifts as such or the words of his prayers or of his psalms—although they may seem well composed and chosen from the Scriptures—but on the heart rightly formed. Whoever places his own witness on the altar, that is, his own conscience and the center of his heart, such a man swears by the altar, embracing everything which is contained in it. One who swears according to what we attest to by the temple, that is, through the whole sense of Scriptures, such a man seems to swear according to the word and the will of God which is contained in it. Such a man in this sense swears upon the temple (upon all the Scriptures) and upon the altar (upon the whole heart), that is, an understanding of the sense of the whole of the Scriptures and upon the whole heart. The temple is the glory of God, which we see as in a mirror darkly.^[2] The heavens, however, are above the temple of God, in which sits the throne of God, on which we may look with our face uncovered^[3] when he comes.

One of the Pharisaical traditions regarded oath taking. Some were swearing by the temple, others by the gold of the temple; some by the altar, others by the gifts of the altar. The Pharisees were teaching that one who swore by the gold of the altar or by the gift of the altar was obligated, whereas one who swore by the temple or by the altar was not under obligation. Our Savior spoke against these traditions. He wished to call them back from human traditions to divine revelation. Those who hand on such traditions are blind and foolish. They do not see that what is placed in the temple is not sanctified through itself but through the Lord of the temple. That which is placed on the altar is judged already as a gift of God, which is why it is placed on the altar. It seems foolish to argue that one who swears in one way is bound and one who swears in another way is not bound. This assumes that what is sanctified is above the one who sanctifies. It seems foolish to argue that one who swears by heaven is less vulnerable than one who swears by God himself. Jesus showed them that it was equally as absurd to swear by heaven as to swear by the temple or by the altar. It is irrational to assume that one avoids punishment because he is not swearing by God but by the throne of God. Thus he spoke to the Jews prohibiting them to follow the Pharisaic tradition. Moreover, he clearly rejected the whole business of swearing at all, as if it were a superior way.

Not only among the Jews but among ourselves as well, we find people sinning in these ways. They are swallowing camels. People of this type frequently show off their religion even in the smallest of things. They are rightly called hypocrites for wanting to exploit their religiosity before men but being unwilling to undertake that very faith which God himself has justified. Therefore the imitators of the scribes and Pharisees must be dislodged and sent away from us, lest a woe touches us in the same way it touches them. The scribes could be described as those who valued nothing found in the Scriptures except its plain sense interpreted legalistically. Meanwhile they condemn those who look into the very depths of God himself. Mint and dill and cummin are only spices for food but are not themselves substantial food. What substantive food would mean in conversion would be that which is necessary for the justification of our souls—faith and love—unlike these legalisms, which are more like condiments and flavorings. It is as if a meal might be thought to consist more of condiments and flavorings than the food itself. The seriousness of judgment is neglected while great attention is given to minor matters. Spiritual exercises which in and of themselves are hardly justice are spoken of as justice and compassion and faith. It is lacking in justice to treat these small parts as the whole. When we do not offer to God the observance of all that is necessary for worship, we fail altogether.

O Pharisees, you demand, Jesus says, perhaps the tithes of herbs and the smallest coins while you neglect the commandments, concerning which the violation is greater. And what kind of commandments are these? Justice, that is, to judge uprightly and blamelessly; mercy, that is, genuineness toward God. For justice and mercy and faith toward God are better than the tithe and firstfruits. Therefore the God of all things says through the prophet, And now, Israel, what does the Lord require from you but to do justice and to love and seek mercy and to be prepared to follow the Lord your God.^[1] For the genuine faith of those being saved is seen in their exceeding readiness to follow.

What is lost is the hidden dimension of the evil will. These hidden things of the mind bring about these distortions of the law. The law prescribes that a tenth be given, so they measure out a tenth of a measure of mint and dill but only in order that they might be thought by other men to fulfill the law. They abandon mercy and justice, faith and every form of benevolence. Yet these are the true duties of man. . . . God laughs at the superficial diligence of those who measure cucumbers. God laughs at our attempts to swallow camels, as if the sins of avoidance were less serious than the sins of consumption.

This passage teaches us that we should hasten to be righteous, not merely to appear so. Whoever strives only to appear righteous will cleanse his exterior and will take great care of what can be seen by others but will neglect his heart and his conscience. He fails to realize that the one who is eager to purify his interior life and his thoughts will also naturally want to give a healthy outward appearance as well. Whoever works hard on the externals but neglects his interior life, however, will inevitably be filled with avarice, lust, malice, and many other kinds of evil. For the one who is solicitous of his own interior salvation also takes care of his external, public reputation. But not everyone who cares first about his public reputation is also solicitous of his interior salvation. In this connection, it is written that whoever sees a woman and lusts after her has committed adultery with her in his heart.^[1] He who refrains from acts of fornication, therefore, but commits fornication by lusting in his heart is like the one who cleanses the outside of the cup and plate while the inside is left full of intemperance. Whoever performs acts of mercy for the purpose of earning human respect, doing his good deeds to be seen by men, also seems to cleanse only the exterior of the cup and plate but is full of intemperance and lust for vainglory within.

The law of Moses taught through the use of symbols how to maintain purity throughout life’s activities. It was the custom of the Jews, passed on to them from their ancient traditions, to wash carefully their cups and the dish that contained their food. They observed these practices to maintain their purity and to avoid contact with sinful people. Their aim was that they might flee from fellowship with sinners. . . . How much more through such practices were they preparing themselves to flee from sin itself. And yet those who were carefully observing these practices were themselves acting like robbers and violently making a profit, becoming loathsome by doing so. Therefore Jesus says this: Flee unrighteousness, O blind Pharisee. For you fail to perceive how you are acting. For what is in the cup and dish are clean if they are not gained in an unrighteous manner. Righteousness cleanses the vessel much better than water.

If it is proper to regard everything in the gospel according to the moral sense . . . we can say that it is a sort of spiritual food and spiritual drink that we receive when we read the law and the prophets in Scripture. Indeed, the language through which we take our spiritual drink and the biblical narratives on which we are nourished are the plates and cups for our food and drink. This is why we are warned not to take as much care for their outside as we do for their inside, so that our hearts might be filled with pure understanding, not merely adorned with fine rhetoric and grammar. For the Kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.^[1] Whoever strives harder to dress his speech in elegant composition than to fill it with saving doctrine has cleaned only the outside, but the inside remains stained with vanity. . . .

We can also say that the very words of the law and the prophets are the cups of spiritual drink for souls and that the plates or bowls of nourishing food for the faithful are their wise authors. The scribes and Pharisees work diligently at discerning only the external, literal meaning of these prophetic cups and plates and bowls, eager to demonstrate that the vessels themselves are pure and holy. The disciples of Christ . . . hasten to purify and sanctify the interior, spiritual meaning by means of knowledge and credible explanations, so that they might eat and drink the law and the prophets whose inside has been purified, desiring as they do to hear and understand the interior, mystical meaning and to go beyond the literal sense of the words.

The bodies of the just are rightly called temples because their souls reign supreme within them, like God in his temple, or at least because God himself dwells in the bodies of the just. The bodies of sinners, however, are called sepulchers of the dead because their souls are dead within them. For whatever does nothing of a living or spiritual nature with the body is not to be considered truly alive. At the very least, sinners are dead because death itself dwells in their bodies. As long as a sepulcher is closed, it can have a beautiful outward appearance, but if it is opened, it looks horrifying. The case of hypocrites is similar; as long as they are not recognized for who they really are, they can be praiseworthy, but when they are found out, they appear disgusting. Tell me, hypocrite, if it is so good to be good, why do you not strive to be truly what you only appear to be? And if it is so bad to be evil, then why do you allow yourself to be in truth what you would never want to appear to be? What appears to be ugly is even uglier in truth, but what is beautiful in appearance is much more beautiful in reality. Therefore either be what you appear to be or appear to be what you are.

How men can be compared with a cup and a plate is made clear when Christ adds, for you are full of robbery and iniquity within. The Jews washed themselves, their clothing and their utensils as often as they entered the temple or offered sacrifices on solemnities, but they never washed themselves from sin. God neither praised cleanliness of the body nor condemned bodily filth. Nevertheless imagine for the moment that God hates filth of the body, of vessels and other such things. If he were to hate the defilement of things like this, which necessarily get soiled during their ordinary use, how much more would he abhor the defilement of the human conscience, which it is possible for us to keep clean continually? It is not the vessels that need washing with water but the conscience that needs washing with prayer.

O blind Pharisees, first wash the inside of the cup and plate, that the outside might be made clean also. No one notices if the bowl has been cleaned on the inside, but only if it is dirty on the outside does it get washed. A man . . . can never touch a drop of water and yet be perfectly clean before God if he has not been defiled by interior sin. If he were to commit a sin, however, he would be black with filth before God, even though he washes himself in the open sea and in every river of the world.

As the scribes and Pharisees were previously called full of robbery and intemperance,^[1] likewise here they are said to be full of hypocrisy and iniquity and are compared with the bones of the dead and all uncleanness. Hypocrisy, because it is a counterfeit of the good, possesses nothing vital of the good it simulates, but is only its dead bones, so to speak. . . . If we listen with wisdom to what the present passage wants to tell us, we will understand that every simulated righteousness is a dead righteousness, hence no righteousness at all. Just as a dead man can still have the appearance of a man, even though he is in fact no longer a man, so also a dead chastity is no chastity. For any virtue is dead when it is not practiced for God but feigned on account of men. He who feigns righteousness can give the appearance of being righteous even though what he has is not righteousness at all but only a figment of righteousness, much like impersonators who can take on the appearance of another individual without thereby actually becoming the other person. The same is true concerning chastity. Because of this, men who do such things are appropriately compared with whitewashed tombs which look beautiful from the outside, for they give every external appearance of righteousness, even though they are full of the bones of the dead within.

You have been counted worthy to become temples of God. But you have instead suddenly become more like sepulchers, having the same sort of smell. This is dreadful. It is extreme wretchedness that one in whom Christ dwells and in whom the Holy Spirit has worked such great works should turn out to be a sepulcher, a place for death. What wretchedness is this? What mourning and lamentation does this call for! The members of the body of Christ have become a tomb of uncleanness? Remember your sonship and how you were born. Consider of what things you have been counted worthy. Recall what sort of garment you received in baptism. You were intended to be a temple without fault, beautiful, not adorned with gold or pearls but with the spirit that is more precious than these. You are hardly ready to appear in the city above if you remain a sepulcher below. For if here this is forbidden, much more there. Even here you are an object of scorn. You carry around a dead soul. You are shunned. Be honest. If anyone were to go around carrying about a dead body, wouldn’t everyone else rush for cover! Wouldn’t they all flee? But this is what you are like. You go about carrying a corpse far more grievous than this. It is a soul deadened by sins, a soul paralyzed.

Jesus did not pronounce woe upon them because they blamed others or because they build monuments. Rather, he pronounces woe because while pretending to condemn those who killed the prophets, they do worse. They witness against themselves. As for evidence that their adorning of monuments is a pretense, Luke says, Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and consent to the deeds of your fathers; for they killed them, and you build their tombs.^[1] Their purpose was not to honor those that were slain but to make a show of the murders. They are afraid lest, when the tombs had perished by time, the proof of their daring should fade away. They set up these buildings as a kind of trophy, priding themselves in the daring deeds of those men and displaying them. This is what is reproved by the Lord.

Once the prophets had departed this life, their bodies were in the tomb but their souls and spirits were in the realm of the living. Accordingly, the historical narrative of the prophetic writings is to be regarded as the body but their spiritual meaning and the inner truth as the soul and spirit which inhabits history. It is not improper then for us to consider the tombs of the prophets to be the letters on the pages of their books, in which the narrative lays as though it were a body placed in a tomb. Those persons therefore who receive and understand the spiritual meaning of the prophetic writings and the truth hidden within them have the soul and spirit of the prophets and are themselves made into a sort of realm of the living prophets. . . . Those who neither seek nor accept the spiritual meaning but attend only to the simple, historical narrative study the bodies of the prophets in the letters and pages of the books, as though in so many tombs. Such persons were the Pharisees, who were rightly called Pharisees (that is, the separated) because they separated the spiritual meaning of the prophets from their bodily history, as though expelling the prophets’ souls from their bodies, killing them and rendering them devoid of soul and spirit. It was also right for the Pharisees to be called hypocrites, because they built and adorned only the tombs of the prophets which contained their bodily history, which is to say that they studied only the letter of their writings and books. They did not understand that those who study dead bodies (the historical narrative) may seem to act with reverence toward the memory of the prophets but are in fact being most irreverent. Their attempts to defend themselves against the charge of being associated with those who killed the prophets and to prove themselves innocent only add to the crimes of those who killed the prophets, thereby filling up the measure of the iniquity of their fathers by not believing in Christ, whom the prophets proclaimed not through the historical sense of their writings but through the spiritual sense.

CHRYSOSTOM: And you yourselves continue to do these things in this spirit. Though you may speak to the contrary, you still do them. You say, If we had lived in the days of our fathers we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. Yet your own disposition is evident. Even as you are unfolding your intention, you are already expressing it, however disguised. So Jesus adds, Thus you witness against yourselves, that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. If you are the son of a murderer but do not partake of the mind of your father, you yourself are not to blame. But if you do so partake, you have an affinity with his wickedness.

We will carefully investigate what the Savior says. The forefathers of the Jews killed the holy prophets who were transmitting the divine word to them in those times. They surely have become witnesses for some of them, because the prophets are now revered and honored. They have placed crowns on their heads or assign . . . honor to their tombs as to holy things, for believing the prophets to be holy men, they have become the judges of those who have killed them. For by honoring them in this way, they have spoken against those who killed them, and through these things they accuse them of having acted wickedly. But though they agreed to condemn the murders committed by their own forefathers, they were about to become threshing floors for the same kind of evils, indeed, to things even worse. They killed the author of life^[1] and added to their impieties against him other murders, those of his holy apostles. For while one scrutinizes the sins of others, making a decision according to one’s innate reason, one sees the wickedness and censures it. . . . He who is led into similar passions is like a blind man carried away.

The form of judgment is perfect; the understanding and idea of equity are instilled in each of us by nature so that the more fully the ideal of equity is known, the less need there is for the forgiveness of iniquity. The people of the law killed all the prophets. They had become inflamed with hatred toward them because of the harshness of their reproaches, since the prophets had publicly called them thieves, murderers, adulterers and sacrilegious. Moreover, because they had denounced the Jews as unworthy of the kingdom of heaven and because they taught that the Gentiles would be the heirs of the covenant of God, they afflicted the prophets with a variety of other punishments. The descendants, however, repudiated the deeds of their fathers, honoring the prophets’ books, decorating their tombs, restoring their sepulchers and attesting by these forms of respect that they were not culpable of the crimes of their fathers.

Every good deed that is done for God is universally good for everything and everyone. Deeds that are not seen to benefit everything and everyone, however, are done on account of man, as the present matter itself demonstrates. For example, those who build reliquaries and adorn churches seem to be doing good. If they imitate the justice of God, if the poor benefit from their goods and if they do not acquire their goods through violence against others, it is clear that they are building for the glory of God. If they fail to observe God’s justice, . . . and if the poor never benefit from their goods and if they acquire their goods from others by means of violence or fraud, who is so foolish not to understand that they are building for human respect rather than for the glory of God? Those who build reliquaries in a just manner ensure that the poor do not suffer as a result of it. For the martyrs do not rejoice when they are honored by gifts for which the poor paid with their tears. What kind of justice is it to give gifts to the dead and to despoil the living or to drain blood from the poor and offer it to God? To do such things is not to offer sacrifice to God but to attempt to make God an accomplice in violence, since whoever knowingly accepts a gift which was acquired by sinful means participates in the sin.

Serpents are the most clever of all the animals, but they use it for evil, not for good, since they are forever scheming to bite something, and, once they’ve attacked, to conceal themselves. Similarly hypocrites are the cleverest of all people, for while appearing to live innocent lives, they are always planning how to injure their neighbor and then to continue along their way as though they had done no harm to anyone.

The punishment of all the murders committed in the past will fall on the last generation of murderers according to a certain pattern, although God speaking through the prophet does say that the fathers will not die for the sins of the children^[1] . . . and indeed, each will die for his own sin.^[2] What then should we think about this?^[3] How can a later generation be punished for the murders committed by others, concerning whom Christ says these things? Won’t Cain be punished for the murder of Abel? . . . How is it that these poor souls will be subjected to the punishment due to all these people? For God is not unjust but is the righteous judge, powerful and patient, according to the testimony of the Scripture. Therefore we think there is a certain intention contained within the things that have been spoken that applies to the present case and helps us to fit one thing to another. Let it be taken for granted then that this may be so in the present case. Let us say that they have become robbers in that land. These men were plundering the surrounding villages and killing their inhabitants. But the prince of the realm did not immediately strip them of the ruler’s sword. Rather, he was eager to teach them differently through the use of threats. . . . But I suppose someone of the last who have been cruelly punished will say that they have received the penalty due to all. . . . You will also understand something such as this concerning God. For God was extremely patient in the preceding times until he deemed it necessary to set a boundary on his longsuffering. For it was also necessary that the divine anger fall upon these. On the one hand, they continued to sin against people and their fellow servants. On the other hand, they killed the Lord of all. Not that it is for this reason that he harshly punished the last ones but that it is astonishing that he has borne patiently with them to the present time.

How will you avoid being sentenced to Gehenna? They build churches but do not hold the true faith of the churches they build. They read the Scriptures but do not believe them. They call upon the prophets, apostles and martyrs but neither imitate their works nor profess their faith. Have you not heard him who said, It is not those who say to me ‘Lord, Lord’ who will enter into the kingdom of heaven but those who do the will of my Father?^[1] Just as not all who call upon the Lord are of the Lord but only those who do his will, neither does everyone who extols the apostles, prophets and martyrs thereby venerate them, but only those who imitate their works and hold their faith.

The unfruitful scribes of the law are different from the scribes who were sent by Christ on account of the gospel, in whose work the spirit vivifies but the letter does not kill, as does the letter of the law. Those who follow the letter of the law incur faithlessness and vain superstitions. Those who follow the letter of the gospel (i.e., its simple narrative), however, are saved. For the literal story of the gospel itself is sufficient for the salvation of the more simple among us. And if you see scribes of the law and Pharisees acting not only against wise men of the gospel and prophets of Christ but also against the scribes of the new covenant, you will see how (insofar as they are able) they kill the prophets of Christ and crucify the scribes and scourge them with slanderous speech in their synagogues. It is common to hear how the sects, the socalled spiritual men of the Pharisees, use their tongues like whips to scourge Christians with curses and to pursue them from town to town, sometimes bodily, sometimes spiritually, wanting to expel them from their own town, which is the law and prophets and the gospel and the apostles, and to drive them by deceitful means into another, foreign town, which is another gospel.

Because we read about so many Zechariahs in Scripture, we need to inquire into the identity of this particular Zechariah, the son of Barachiah. Lest we mistake him for another, the Gospel specifies whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar. Yet there remains a variety of diverse opinions on this question, each of which ought to be considered.^[1] Some say that this Zechariah the son of Barachiah is the eleventh of the twelve minor prophets. Although their fathers share the same name, however, they cannot be the same persons because the prophet Zechariah was never said to have been killed between the sanctuary and the altar and especially because the temple had just recently been destroyed in the prophet’s time. Others want us to believe that this Zechariah is the father of John the Baptist, killed because he proclaimed the advent of the Savior on the basis of something he had dreamed. Because this theory doesn’t have the authority of Scripture, however, it can be disproven as easily as it can be proven. Still others maintain that this is the Zechariah who was killed between the sanctuary and the altar by Joash the king of Judah, as is chronicled in the book of Kings.^[2] But that Zechariah was the son of Jehoida the priest, not Barachiah, as the Scripture relates: Joash did not remember the good which Jehoida, Zechariah’s father, had done for him.^[3]

Mark how well he has forewarned them. Even after he has pointed out their hypocrisy, they claim that they would not have shed the blood of the prophets. Jesus shamed them thoroughly, saying, While you condemn them, you do things worse. These things shall not be without punishment. He thus implants in them fear beyond words. He reminds them of hell. Then because that was to come, he brought home to them the terrors as even present. Truly I say to you, all this will come upon this generation. He added also unspeakable severity to the vengeance, saying that they shall suffer more grievous things than all these. Yet in no way did this cause them to be corrected. But if anyone ask why they will suffer more grievously than all, we would say, Because they have first committed more grievous things than all, and by none of the things that have been done to correct them have they been brought to a sound mind.