Saved Beyond The Surface
Matthew 23:25-28
Intoduction
Background
23:25–26. Ritual purity was important to the Pharisees, so they washed their vessels as well as themselves in ritual baths. The school of Shammai—the Pharisaic majority in this period—said that the outside of a cup could be clean even if the inside were not; the minority view of Hillel’s followers was that the inside of the cup must be cleansed first. Jesus sides with the school of Hillel on this point, but does this so that he can make a figurative statement about the inside of the heart.
The statement in Mt. 23:25 starts out as if to describe a standard act of washing vessels, though perhaps one that is defective in not giving priority to the washing of the inside. But the hearer must reassess when the second clause comes. The first clause has, after all, been a metaphorical description of wider patterns of behaviour. The image is of only the appearance of purity. The point is not too different from that in v. 5: ‘They do all their works to be seen by people’. The second clause intends to expose what lies behind the appearances
LEXICON—a. pres. act. indic. of καθαρίζω (LN 79.49) (BAGD 1.a. p. 387): ‘to clean’ [BECNT, LN, NICNT, NIGTC, NTC, PNTC, NTC, WBC; all versions except CEV, NCV], ‘to cleanse’ [BAGD, BNTC, LN], ‘to wash’ [CEV, NCV], ‘to purify’ [BAGD], ‘to make clean’ [BAGD, LN]. This verb means to cause something to become clean [LN].
b. pres. act. indic. of γέμω (LN 59.41) (BAGD 2. p. 153): ‘to be full (of)’ [BAGD, BECNT, BNTC, LN, NICNT, NIGTC, NTC, PNTC; all versions except CEV], ‘to be filled with’ [WBC], ‘to contain’ [LN]. The verb γέμουσιν ‘they are full of’ is translated ‘there is nothing but’ [CEV]. This verb means to be full of some substance or objects [LN].
c. ἁρπαγή (LN 57.237) (BAGD 2. p. 108): ‘greed’ [BECNT; CEV, ESV, GW, NET, NIV, NLT, NRSV, REB], ‘greediness’ [WBC], ‘plunder’ [BAGD, BNTC, LN], ‘violence’ [NICNT], ‘rapacity’ [NIGTC], ‘extortion’ [NTC; KJV], ‘robbery’ [PNTC; NASB], ‘what has been stolen’ [BAGD], ‘things you got by cheating others’ [NCV], ‘what you got by violence’ [TEV], ‘what has been taken by violence’ [LN], ‘booty’ [LN]. This noun denotes that which is taken by force or plundered [LN].
d. ἀκρασία (LN 88.91) (BAGD p. 33): ‘self-indulgence’ [BECNT, BNTC, NIGTC, NTC, WBC; ESV, NASB, NET, NIV, NLT, NRSV, REB], ‘greed’ [NICNT], ‘intemperance’ [NTC], ‘selfishness’ [CEV, TEV], ‘uncontrolled desires’ [GW], ‘pleasing only yourselves’ [NCV], ‘excess’ [KJV], ‘lack of self-control, failure to control oneself’ [LN]. This noun denotes a failure to exercise self-control [LN].
First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside of it may also become clean.
As whitewashing makes something stand out from its surroundings, and given Jewish concerns about the imparting of ritual impurity by graves, the whitewashing of tombs could be for the purpose of identifying the location of tombs rather than for their decoration. Only the state and location of the tomb and the quality of the whitewashing would indicate which was intended.92 But it is clear from the use of ὡραῖοι (‘beautiful’) in Mt. 23:27 that beautification is in view.
23:27–28. Nothing spread ritual impurity as severely as a corpse (it made anyone who touched it unclean for a week—Num 19:11); Pharisees believed that one contracted impurity if even one’s shadow touched a corpse or grave. Inconspicuous tombs (or limestone ossuaries) would be whitewashed each spring before Passover to warn passersby to avoid them and so avoid impurity; the Pharisees either lacked this telltale warning (Lk 11:44) or pretended that it was a mark of distinction rather than evidence of impurity. “Whitewash” probably alludes to Ezekiel 13:10–12 and 22:28; it may have covered over a wall’s weakness but would not stop its collapse.