“But all their works they do to be seen of men; they make broad their phylacteries,[1] enlarge the borders of their garments,[2] and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.  Woe unto them!...

[Footnote 1:  Totafoth or tefillin, plates of metal or strips of parchment, containing passages of the Law; which the devout Jews wore attached to the forehead and left arm, in literal fulfilment of the passages (Ex. xiii. 9; Deut. vi. 8, xi. 18.)]

[Footnote 2:  Zizith, red borders or fringes which the Jews wore at the corner of their cloaks to distinguish them from the pagans (Num. xv. 38, 39; Deut. xxii. 12.)]

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge, shut up the kingdom of heaven against men![1] for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.  Woe unto you, for ye devour widows’ houses, and, for a pretense, make long prayers:  therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.  Woe unto you, for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves!  Woe unto you, for ye are as graves which appear not; and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.[2]

[Footnote 1:  The Pharisees excluded men from the kingdom of God by their fastidious casuistry, which rendered entrance into it too difficult, and discouraged the unlearned.]

[Footnote 2:  Contact with the tombs rendered any one impure.  Great care was, therefore, taken to mark their extent on the ground.  Talm. of Bab., Baba Bathra, 58 a; Baba Metsia, 45 b.  Jesus here reproached the Pharisees for having invented a number of small precepts which might be violated unwittingly, and which only served to multiply infringements of the law.]

“Ye fools, and blind! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith:  these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.  Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.  Woe unto you!

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter;[1] but within they are full of extortion and excess.  Thou blind Pharisee,[2] cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.[3]

[Footnote 1:  The purification of vessels was subjected, amongst the Pharisees, to the most complicated laws (Mark vii. 4.)]

[Footnote 2:  This epithet, often repeated (Matt. xxiii. 16, 17, 19, 24, 26), perhaps contains an allusion to the custom which certain Pharisees had of walking with closed eyes in affectation of sanctity.]

[Footnote 3:  Luke (xi. 37, and following) supposes, not without reason, that this verse was uttered during a repast, in answer to the vain scruples of the Pharisees.]