Pharisees With Phylacteries Talking in a Jerusalem Streetby KandD
23:2Matthew 23:2
Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:
To sit in Moses' seat is to claim his authority as teacher, expounder and interpreter of the law and as judge of the people, demanding deference and obedience. As Jewish teachers stood to read the Scriptures but sat to expound them, sitting pictures that claimed right to speak and act in Moses' place. Those who held that place were to be obeyed when what they bade agreed with the law, but their works were not to be copied, for they told others what to do without doing it themselves. They laid heavy traditional burdens on others while exempting themselves, were strict over outward forms yet spiritually lifeless, and passed by the weightier matters of judgment, mercy and faith for lesser concerns. That same wrongful exalting of human authority to rule conscience did not end with the dispersion of the Jews but continues as a curse to the church in every age, and the warnings against following such blind leaders stand as an admonition to future generations.
Meaning of Moses' Seat
The scribes and Pharisees claimed the authority associated with Moses, seating themselves in his seat as teachers, expounders and interpreters of the law and as judges of the people. They presented themselves as taking Moses' place in an exalted place of interpretation of the law given by God, supposing themselves capable of acting in his place and demanding deference and obedience. Their position was that of teachers and interpreters of God's law, represented by Moses' seat.
Jewish teachers stood up to read the Scriptures but were seated when they expounded them, so sitting pictures the claimed authority to expound in Moses' place. To sit in Moses' seat was therefore to claim authority to explain as interpreters in his place, as those capable of acting in his place.
The saying was spoken by Christ in the temple for the last time, to the scribes and Pharisees and His disciples. It came after He had warned and denounced the leaders at their table where they had invited Him to find cause to put Him to death. It belongs to His final day in the temple courts, when hypocrisy was exposed, and in that final temple teaching their character as rulers and elders was exposed to free the people from customs, traditions and unquestioning trust in a corrupt priesthood.
The people respected them as teachers and had obeyed their authority in religious matters, even as they saw them oppose Jesus. They had been taught from infancy to reverence and implicitly bow to that assumed authority.
Hypocrisy and Opposition to Christ
Those in Moses' seat were to be obeyed when what they taught agreed with the law, including what they lawfully bid observe, but their works were not to be imitated because they said what should be done without doing it themselves. They taught duties they neglected and laid burdensome rules rooted in tradition on others while exempting themselves, strict about religious forms and adding human requirements yet lacking spiritual life, with public display and desire for honor revealing hypocrisy and self-righteousness. They were spiritually blind, unable to discern the relative importance of what they should understand, neglecting judgment, mercy and faith while attending to minor and lesser concerns. Their office was lawful religious authority, yet wicked leaders could turn it to unlawful ends, so office neither made conduct right nor authority infallible, nor made them faithful shepherds. They exercised power harshly and in an authoritative manner while leaving the people unfed and without spiritual nourishment as sheep without a shepherd, stirring compassion and deserving censure as thieves and robbers.
They used their place to instill false interpretations, teaching their own words instead of God's words and burying truth under doctrines, maxims and traditions, whereas teachers are accountable to speak God's words and not substitute their own. They taught that Christ was to appear as a great conqueror to break the Roman yoke, holding to the prophecies of glorious reign while from proud hearts refusing those of one who is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Their rejection came not from lack of light and evidence but from malignity, jealousy, prejudice, envy and unholy passion that would not come to the word of God for decision. Claiming to know God and to communicate the light and truth the people needed, they fixed attention on Moses instead of Christ, although Christ had been Israel's beneficent friend throughout its wanderings and is the true bread from heaven who gives life to the world.
They opposed Christ because He drew attention away from them and they feared losing the people's attention, rejecting evidence of His works of compassion and healing, distorting His words, treating the people's joy as a personal insult, working by every means to counteract His influence and discourage belief, and turning the common people from accepting Him. Their influence led the nation to reject its Redeemer, as the people trusted the unbelief of their rulers and learned scribes above the divine power and wisdom attending His words and the clearest evidence of His Messiahship, and fear of these leaders kept many from openly acknowledging Him. Their opposition drove Christ to leave Judea for Galilee to preserve His life until the appointed time. The woes of the chapter are scathing rebukes for impenitence and opposition to truth and righteousness, the same rebukes priests and rulers would hear were He upon the earth today.
Warning for Later Generations
The warning about undue assumption of authority reaches beyond the dispersion of the Jews, for exalting human authority to rule the conscience did not cease then but continues as a terrible curse to the church in every age. It is still manifested by high professors of piety who refuse to examine the testimony of the Scriptures concerning special truths for this time. The same false reasoning that led the scribes and Pharisees to bury truth under their doctrines, maxims and traditions and to reject Christ from malignity, jealousy, prejudice, envy and unholy passion rather than from lack of light and evidence is repeated in the present day among rulers and ministers.
The fearful denunciations of the scribes and Pharisees and the warnings not to follow these blind leaders were given with prophetic foresight of that future work and were placed on record as an admonition to future generations. The passage therefore warns against Pharisaism in those who seek authority over others without God's authorization. Such rule is marked by pride and desire to dominate rather than humility and teachability, departs from the Bible standard, and can corrupt the work entrusted to them.
The principle of obeying what is lawfully bid means complying with lawful civil requirements, such as obtaining a college diploma, passing the state board examination, and holding a certificate to practice medicine. It includes studying required subjects even when not thought essential. Yet worldly methods are not to be copied, for subjects that other schools teach in their way can be taught in a different way, teaching drugs by showing the dangers of using them and how to get along without them instead of how to give them, and teaching geology to show that evolution is false instead of on an evolution basis.
Their failure warns to consider what kind of guidance God's flock is receiving today, for though sitting in the recognized place of religious teachers they exercised power harshly and in an authoritative manner while leaving the people without spiritual nourishment as sheep without a shepherd, deserving censure as thieves and robbers and stirring compassion. The call is for much more well-organized effort and far less preaching. Instruction in the church is to be given modestly by teachers who practice and do the Word they hold forth and in meekness and humbleness open mind and heart to its light and understanding, for God's Word gives light and understanding.
To sit in Moses' seat is to claim his authority as teacher, expounder and interpreter of the law and as judge of the people, demanding deference and obedience. As Jewish teachers stood to read the Scriptures but sat to expound them, sitting pictures that claimed right to speak and act in Moses' place. Those who held that place were to be obeyed when what they bade agreed with the law, but their works were not to be copied, for they told others what to do without doing it themselves. They laid heavy traditional burdens on others while exempting themselves, were strict over outward forms yet spiritually lifeless, and passed by the weightier matters of judgment, mercy and faith for lesser concerns. That same wrongful exalting of human authority to rule conscience did not end with the dispersion of the Jews but continues as a curse to the church in every age, and the warnings against following such blind leaders stand as an admonition to future generations.
Meaning of Moses' Seat
The scribes and Pharisees claimed the authority associated with Moses, seating themselves in his seat as teachers, expounders and interpreters of the law and as judges of the people. They presented themselves as taking Moses' place in an exalted place of interpretation of the law given by God, supposing themselves capable of acting in his place and demanding deference and obedience. Their position was that of teachers and interpreters of God's law, represented by Moses' seat.
Jewish teachers stood up to read the Scriptures but were seated when they expounded them, so sitting pictures the claimed authority to expound in Moses' place. To sit in Moses' seat was therefore to claim authority to explain as interpreters in his place, as those capable of acting in his place.
The saying was spoken by Christ in the temple for the last time, to the scribes and Pharisees and His disciples. It came after He had warned and denounced the leaders at their table where they had invited Him to find cause to put Him to death. It belongs to His final day in the temple courts, when hypocrisy was exposed, and in that final temple teaching their character as rulers and elders was exposed to free the people from customs, traditions and unquestioning trust in a corrupt priesthood.
The people respected them as teachers and had obeyed their authority in religious matters, even as they saw them oppose Jesus. They had been taught from infancy to reverence and implicitly bow to that assumed authority.
Hypocrisy and Opposition to Christ
Those in Moses' seat were to be obeyed when what they taught agreed with the law, including what they lawfully bid observe, but their works were not to be imitated because they said what should be done without doing it themselves.
They taught duties they neglected and laid burdensome rules rooted in tradition on others while exempting themselves, strict about religious forms and adding human requirements yet lacking spiritual life, with public display and desire for honor revealing hypocrisy and self-righteousness.
They were spiritually blind, unable to discern the relative importance of what they should understand, neglecting judgment, mercy and faith while attending to minor and lesser concerns.
Their office was lawful religious authority, yet wicked leaders could turn it to unlawful ends, so office neither made conduct right nor authority infallible, nor made them faithful shepherds.
They exercised power harshly and in an authoritative manner while leaving the people unfed and without spiritual nourishment as sheep without a shepherd, stirring compassion and deserving censure as thieves and robbers.
They used their place to instill false interpretations, teaching their own words instead of God's words and burying truth under doctrines, maxims and traditions, whereas teachers are accountable to speak God's words and not substitute their own.
They taught that Christ was to appear as a great conqueror to break the Roman yoke, holding to the prophecies of glorious reign while from proud hearts refusing those of one who is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
Their rejection came not from lack of light and evidence but from malignity, jealousy, prejudice, envy and unholy passion that would not come to the word of God for decision.
Claiming to know God and to communicate the light and truth the people needed, they fixed attention on Moses instead of Christ, although Christ had been Israel's beneficent friend throughout its wanderings and is the true bread from heaven who gives life to the world.
They opposed Christ because He drew attention away from them and they feared losing the people's attention, rejecting evidence of His works of compassion and healing, distorting His words, treating the people's joy as a personal insult, working by every means to counteract His influence and discourage belief, and turning the common people from accepting Him.
Their influence led the nation to reject its Redeemer, as the people trusted the unbelief of their rulers and learned scribes above the divine power and wisdom attending His words and the clearest evidence of His Messiahship, and fear of these leaders kept many from openly acknowledging Him.
Their opposition drove Christ to leave Judea for Galilee to preserve His life until the appointed time.
The woes of the chapter are scathing rebukes for impenitence and opposition to truth and righteousness, the same rebukes priests and rulers would hear were He upon the earth today.
Warning for Later Generations
The warning about undue assumption of authority reaches beyond the dispersion of the Jews, for exalting human authority to rule the conscience did not cease then but continues as a terrible curse to the church in every age. It is still manifested by high professors of piety who refuse to examine the testimony of the Scriptures concerning special truths for this time. The same false reasoning that led the scribes and Pharisees to bury truth under their doctrines, maxims and traditions and to reject Christ from malignity, jealousy, prejudice, envy and unholy passion rather than from lack of light and evidence is repeated in the present day among rulers and ministers.
The fearful denunciations of the scribes and Pharisees and the warnings not to follow these blind leaders were given with prophetic foresight of that future work and were placed on record as an admonition to future generations. The passage therefore warns against Pharisaism in those who seek authority over others without God's authorization. Such rule is marked by pride and desire to dominate rather than humility and teachability, departs from the Bible standard, and can corrupt the work entrusted to them.
The principle of obeying what is lawfully bid means complying with lawful civil requirements, such as obtaining a college diploma, passing the state board examination, and holding a certificate to practice medicine. It includes studying required subjects even when not thought essential. Yet worldly methods are not to be copied, for subjects that other schools teach in their way can be taught in a different way, teaching drugs by showing the dangers of using them and how to get along without them instead of how to give them, and teaching geology to show that evolution is false instead of on an evolution basis.
Their failure warns to consider what kind of guidance God's flock is receiving today, for though sitting in the recognized place of religious teachers they exercised power harshly and in an authoritative manner while leaving the people without spiritual nourishment as sheep without a shepherd, deserving censure as thieves and robbers and stirring compassion. The call is for much more well-organized effort and far less preaching. Instruction in the church is to be given modestly by teachers who practice and do the Word they hold forth and in meekness and humbleness open mind and heart to its light and understanding, for God's Word gives light and understanding.