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Mat 23:13-14. Οὐαὶ, woe) Woe is uttered eight times in this passage:[993] blessed is uttered eight times and more in Matthew 5. from Mat 23:3, where see Gnomon.-οὐαὶ ὑμῖν-κλείετε τὴν βασιλεὶαν-κατεσθίετε τὰς οἰκίας τῶν χηρῶν, κ.τ.λ., woe unto you-ye shut up the kingdom-ye devour widows’ houses, etc.) In many MSS. these words are transposed;[994] but that must come first in which the kingdom of heaven is mentioned; cf. ch. Mat 4:17, Mat 5:3, etc.[995]-ὑποκριταὶ, hypocrites) The characteristics of hypocrites may be ascertained from this indictment, as Thomasius has done in his Cautions. Woes were denounced against them, not because they were Scribes and Pharisees, but because they were hypocrites.-κλείετε, ye shut up) i.e. with a key: ye shut up as being ignorant and blind.-ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, before men[996]) sc. before their eyes, when they were just close.-οὐκ εἰσέρχεσθε, ye do not enter) a great woe, and the first; cf. Mat 5:3, on the first degree of blessedness.-τοὺς εἰσερχομένους, them that are entering) sc. either in will or in deed.
[993] Our Saviour had used various degrees of argument against His opponents all along from ch. Mat 9:4; but now, at the last, moved by a holy fervour, He brings forth most plainly the whole fact as it really was.-Harm., p. 472.
[994] Such is the reading of E. M.; but E. V. supports the order approved by Bengel. In his Apparatus Criticus, Bengel says of the reading:-“κλείετε-κατεσθίετε”-“Sic Erasmus, Beza, Bodl. 1. 2, Cypr. Laud. 1. 2, Roe et sex et octo alii, vel etiam Cam. Item Hilar. Euthym. Copt. Lat., etiam apud Hieron.” Of the order “κατεσθίετε-κλείετε,” he says:-“Comp. Stap. Steph. edd. Aug. 1, 2, 4, Byz. Gehl. Mosc Wo. 1, 2, etc., Chrysost. Theophyl., opus imperf. Arab. Lat. pauculi, Syr. Quinque Colbertinos pro illâ lectione citat Millius, a silentio amicorum, qui Bezam adhibuerant argumentatus; pro hâc Simonius in notis ad h. l. Vide Gnomon: quanquam is prior videtur esse versus, quem scorsum referunt Marcus et Lucas.”-(I. B.)
[995] Although that verse seems likely to come first, which Mark and Luke represent as spoken separately.-App. Crit. Ed. ii. p. 134.
[996] E. V. “against men.”-(I. B.)
BDLZ a Vulg. (Amiat. MS.) omit all the words of Mat 23:14, oval-οὐαὶ-κατεσθίετε τ. οἰκίας τ. χηρῶν (Rec. Text adding καὶ) προφασει-προσευχόμενοι διὰ τοῦτο-κρίμα. The Canons of Euseb. seem to omit the words: also Origen, who speaks of “the second woe in Matthew” being οὐαὶ-ὅτι περιάγετε τὴν θάλασσαν, etc. 4, 352a. Therefore Lachm. and Tischend. rightly omit them. The words seem to me to have crept in from Mar 12:40 and Luk 20:47. However bc and Hilary 725d and 89 supports the words here.-ED. The margin of Bengel’s Ed. ii. holds the omission of Mat 23:14 as all but equal to the Rec. Text.-E. B.