^23:23“Woe to you, experts in the law²⁴ and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You give a tenth²⁵ of mint, dill, and cumin,²⁶ yet you neglect what is more important in the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness! You²⁷ should have done these things without neglecting the others. ^23:24Blind guides! You strain out a gnat yet swallow a camel!²⁸

^23:25“Woe to you, experts in the law²⁹ and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. ^23:26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup,³⁰ so that the outside may become clean too!

^23:27“Woe to you, experts in the law³¹ and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean.³²^23:28In the same way, on the outside you look righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

^23:29“Woe to you, experts in the law³³ and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You³⁴ build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves³⁵ of the righteous. ^23:30And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors,³⁶ we would not have participated with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ ^23:31By saying this you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. ^23:32Fill up then the measure of your ancestors! ^23:33You snakes, you offspring of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?³⁷

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Footnotes

24 Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in .
25 Or “you tithe mint.”
26 Cumin (alternately spelled cummin) was an aromatic herb native to the Mediterranean region. Its seeds were used for seasoning.
27 Many witnesses (B C K L W Δ 0102 33 565 892 ) have δέ (de, “but”) after ταῦτα (tauta, “these things”), while many others lack it (א D Γ Θ f1, 13 579 700 1241 1424 ). Since asyndeton was relatively rare in Koine Greek, the conjunction may be an intentional alteration, and is thus omitted from the present translation. includes the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.
28 Grk “Blind guides who strain out a gnat yet who swallow a camel!”
29 Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in .
30 A very difficult textual problem is found here. The most important Alexandrian and Byzantine, as well as significant Western, witnesses (א B C L W 0102 0281 f13 33 𝔐 lat co) have “and the dish” (καὶ τῆς παροψίδος, kai tēs paropsidos) after “cup,” while few important witnesses (D Θ f1 700 and some versional and patristic authorities) omit the phrase. On the one hand, scribes sometimes tended to eliminate redundancy; since “and the dish” is already present in v. 25, it may have been deleted in v. 26 by well-meaning scribes. On the other hand, as B. M. Metzger notes, the singular pronoun αὐτοῦ (autou, “its”) with τὸ ἐκτός (to ektos, “the outside”) in some of the same witnesses that have the longer reading (, B* f13 al) hints that their archetype lacked the words ( ). Further, scribes would be motivated both to add the phrase from v. 25 and to change αὐτοῦ to the plural pronoun αὐτῶν (aujtōn, “their”). Although the external evidence for the shorter reading is not compelling in itself, combined with these two prongs of internal evidence, it is to be slightly preferred.
31 Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in .
32 This was an idiom for hypocrisy—just as the wall was painted on the outside but something different on the inside, so this person was not what he appeared or pretended to be (for discussion of a similar metaphor, see L&N 88.234; τοῖχος). See Deut 28:22; Ezek 13:10–16; Acts 23:3.
33 Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in .
34 Grk “Because you.” Here ὄτι (hoti) has not been translated.
35 Or perhaps “the monuments” (see L&N 7.75–76).
36 Grk “fathers” (so also in v. 32).
37 Grk “the judgment of Gehenna.” See the note on the word hell in .