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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Matthew 23:29 - 23:33
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat_23:29-33
29"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30and say, 'If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'31So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. 33You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?"
Mat_23:29 "hypocrites" See Special Topic at Mat_6:2.
▣ "you build the tombs of the prophets" In the OT God's people would kill God's prophets and then build large tombs for them. The building of monuments to God's spokesmen is not what God wanted. He desires obedience to His message (cf. Mat_23:34-35). As the leaders of the OT killed the prophets, these leaders would kill Jesus and His followers.
Mat_23:30 "if" This is a second class conditional sentence, which is called "contrary to fact." A premise is made that is false and, therefore, the conclusion drawn from it is also false.
Mat_23:33 "You serpents, you brood of vipers" Jesus was not always the meek and mild, "turn the other cheek" man often pictured (cf. Mat_3:7; Mat_12:34). Religious self-righteous hypocrisy elicited His harshest condemnation-and still does!
▣ "hell" See Special Topic at Mat_5:22.