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Mat_23:26. Καθάρισον πρῶτον , κ . τ . λ .] i.e. let it be your first care ( πρῶτον , as in Mat_6:33, Mat_7:5, and elsewhere), to see that the wine in the cup is no longer procured by extortion and exorbitance.
ἵνα γένηται , κ . τ . γ .] not: “ut tum recte etiam externae partes possint purgari,” Fritzsche, but with the emphasis on γένηται : in order that what you aim at may then be effected, viz. the purity of the outside as well,—in order that, then, the outside of the cup also may not merely appear to be clean through your washing of it, but may actually become so, by losing that impurity which, in spite of all your cleansing, still adheres to it (which it contracts, as it were, from its contents), simply because it is filled with that which is procured through immoral conduct. The external cleansing is not declared to be unnecessary (de Wette), nor, again, is it intended to be regarded as the true one, which latter can only be brought about after the purifying of the contents has been effected. Bengel fitly observes: “alias enim illa mundities externa non est mundities.” That which is insisted on with πρῶτον is to be attended to in the first place.