Matthew 23:3

All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) All therefore whatsoever . . .—Followed, as the words are, by repeated protests against special and grave errors in the teaching of the Pharisees, it is obvious that they must be received with an implied limitation. So far as they really sit in Moses’ seat, and set forth his teaching—as, e.g., the scribe had done whose answer has been just recorded—they were to be followed with all obedience. That which was wanting was the life, without which even the highest maxims of morality became but the common-places of rhetorical declamation. It was one thing to “draw fine pictures of virtue,” and another to bring thought and word and deed into conformity with them.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

23:1-12 The scribes and Pharisees explained the law of Moses, and enforced obedience to it. They are charged with hypocrisy in religion. We can only judge according to outward appearance; but God searches the heart. They made phylacteries. These were scrolls of paper or parchment, wherein were written four paragraphs of the law, to be worn on their foreheads and left arms, Ex 13:2-10; 13:11-16; De 6:4-9; 11:13-21. They made these phylacteries broad, that they might be thought more zealous for the law than others. God appointed the Jews to make fringes upon their garments, Nu 15:38, to remind them of their being a peculiar people; but the Pharisees made them larger than common, as if they were thereby more religious than others. Pride was the darling, reigning sin of the Pharisees, the sin that most easily beset them, and which our Lord Jesus takes all occasions to speak against. For him that is taught in the word to give respect to him that teaches, is commendable; but for him that teaches, to demand it, to be puffed up with it, is sinful. How much is all this against the spirit of Christianity! The consistent disciple of Christ is pained by being put into chief places. But who that looks around on the visible church, would think this was the spirit required? It is plain that some measure of this antichristian spirit prevails in every religious society, and in every one of our hearts.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

All, therefore, whatsoever ... - That is, all that they teach that is consistent with the Law of Moses - all the commands of Moses which they read to you and properly explain. The word "all" could not be taken without such a restriction, for Christ himself accuses them of teaching many things contrary to that law, and of making it void by their traditions, Matthew 15:1-6.

They say, and do not - The interpretation which they give to the law is in the main correct, but their lives do not correspond with their teaching. It is not the duty of people to imitate their teachers unless their lives are pure; they are to obey the law of God, and not to frame their lives by the example of evil people.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. All therefore—that is, all which, as sitting in that seat and teaching out of that law.

they bid you observe, that observe and do—The word "therefore" is thus, it will be seen, of great importance, as limiting those injunctions which He would have them obey to what they fetched from the law itself. In requiring implicit obedience to such injunctions, He would have them to recognize the authority with which they taught over and above the obligations of the law itself—an important principle truly; but He who denounced the traditions of such teachers (Mt 15:3) cannot have meant here to throw His shield over these. It is remarked by Webster and Wilkinson that the warning to beware of the scribes is given by Mark and Luke (Mr 12:38; Lu 20:46) without any qualification: the charge to respect and obey them being reported by Matthew alone, indicating for whom this Gospel was especially written, and the writer's desire to conciliate the Jews.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 1-3. Our Lord having now done with the Pharisees, turneth his discourse to the more docible people, who (as we heard before) heard him attentively and gladly, Mark 12:37 Luke 19:48. Our Saviour foresaw that some unwary hearers might make two ill uses of what he had spoke against the scribes and Pharisees.

1. Some might report him an enemy to the law, the interpreters of which the Pharisees were.

2. Others might contemn the authority of the law, because he had represented these men, in whose hand the interpretation of it at present was, so truly contemptible.

Whereas, on the other side, many might run into errors of practice, from the example of the scribes and Pharisees, their magistrates and teachers. Against all these mistakes he cautions them in this chapter, showing that he did not undervalue the law of Moses, nor would have his reflections on the Pharisees prejudice any thing which they taught them of it, and according to it; neither would he have his people take the copy of the law from their actions.

The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’s seat: these men were the ordinary readers and interpreters of the law of God. Moses is here put for the law, as Luke 16:31, If they hear not Moses and the prophets; and so Matthew 23:29, They have Moses and the prophets. Moses’s seat signifieth the seat appointed for those that gave the sense of the law, or judgment upon it; thus, Moses of old time hath in every city those that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day, Acts 15:21 2 Corinthians 3:15. Their way was, while they read the Scriptures they stood up: (paying a particular reverence to the pure word of God), Luke 4:16; when they had done reading, they sat down and opened it. Their sitting in the seat of Moses did not signify a succession to Moses, for he had no successor, being the Mediator of the Old Testament; but the delivering and interpreting the doctrine and law of Moses. Dr. Lightfoot thinks it is rather to be understood of the chair of magistracy than the doctrinal chair. The Pharisees being exercised in that, it may be understood of both, for the reading and interpreting the law chiefly belonged to the scribes.

All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; that is, whatsoever is in Moses which they bid you observe and do. The term all is to be understood restrainedly, with respect to the subject matter or persons spoken of, in multitudes of scriptures. Our Saviour’s cautioning his disciples so often against the leaven of these men, and their traditions, plainly showeth us that must be here the sense of it: Let not the law of God lose his authority with you because of those wicked men. He doth not command them to hear none but them, for then to what purpose did he himself preach, or send out the twelve, if none might hear them? All that can be concluded from this text is that the law of God, or word of God, is not to be despised, whoever reads or delivereth it. He goeth on,

But do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. We are naturally more led by example than by precept. Men had therefore need be cautioned against ill living teachers. Odi philosophum qui non sapit sibi. A man had need very well know the medicine which he taketh from a physician he seeth sick of the same disease, when he himself refuseth and abominates it. He that says and does not, may be heard, but not imitated. There may be a time when men can ordinarily hear no others, which was the present case.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe,.... This must be restrained to things that were agreeable to the chair of Moses, in which they sat, to the law of Moses, which they read and explained, to other parts of Scripture and truth in general; for otherwise many of their glosses and traditions were repugnant to the law, and ought not to be observed, as appears from Matthew 5:1. The word "observe", in this clause, is omitted by the Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, and in Munster's Hebrew Gospel; and Beza says, it is wanting in one ancient copy, but is in others; and is retained in the Syriac and Persic versions

that observe and do; hearken to what they say, give diligent heed unto it, take notice of it, and act according to it:

but do not ye after their works; let their doctrine be the rule of your lives, so far as it agrees with the law of Moses; but let not their actions be drawn into an example by you; conform to their instructions, but do not imitate their practices:

for they say, and do not; they talk of good works, but do none; they bid others do them, but do not practise them themselves; they very strictly and severely enjoin them on others, but are very careless themselves to observe them; and of this the Jews are so conscious, that they suggest the same doctrine (n).

"The daughter of Ahar (a wicked man) came before Rabbi; she said to him, Rabbi, supply me with the necessaries of life: he replied to her, daughter, who art thou? she answered him, the daughter of Ahar: he said to her, is there any of his seed in the world? for lo! it is written, Job 18:19. "He shall neither have son, nor nephew, among his people, nor any remaining, in his dwellings": she replied to him, , "remember his law, or doctrine, but do not remember his works."--Says R. Jochanan, what is that which is written, Malachi 2:7. "For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." If the doctor is like to an angel, or messenger of the Lord of hosts, they should seek the law at his mouth; and if not, they should not seek the law at his mouth. Says Resh Lekish, R. Meir found and explained that Scripture, Proverbs 22:17. "Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart to my knowledge": to their knowledge it is not said, but to my knowledge. R. Chanina says, hence, Psalm 45:10. "Hearken, O daughter! and consider, incline thine ear, forget thine own people, and thy father's house": on which the gloss is, forget their works, and do not learn them: he that knows how to take care not to learn their works, may learn the law from their mouths.''

--And a little after,

"the disciples of the wise men are like to a nut; as a nut, though it is defiled with mire and filth, yet that which is within it is not to be rejected; so a scholar, or a disciple of a wise man, though he act wickedly, his law, or doctrine, is not to be despised.''

Good doctrine is not the worse for being taught by bad men; nor are good works to be slighted and neglected, because they are not done by all that teach them; but it must be owned that examples are very useful and forcible, and practice greatly recommends doctrine; and it is to be wished, that they both always went together.

(n) T. Bab. Chagiga, fol. 15. 2.

Geneva Study Bible

{b} All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

(b) Provided always that they deliver the doctrine of Moses which they profess, which thing the metaphor of the seat shows, which they occupied as teachers of Moses' teaching.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Matthew 23:3. Οὖν] inasmuch as they speak as teachers and interpreters of the Mosaic law.

πάντα … ὅσα] Limitations of the sense, which lie outside the point of view marked out by the expression “Moses’ seat,”—as though Jesus had in view only the moral part of the law (Chrysostom), or contemplated merely what had reference to the theocratic polity (Lange), or meant simply to speak comparatively (Bleek),—are in opposition to the text, and are of an arbitrary character, all the more so that the multitude was assumed to possess sufficient capacity for judging as to how much of the teaching was binding upon them, and how much was not. The words are addressed to the ὄχλοι, whom Jesus had neither the power nor the wish to release from their obligations in respect to the manifest teachings of the law. But having a regard to the glaring inconsistency between the teaching and the conduct of their pharisaic instructors, and considering His own fundamental principle with regard to the obligatory character of the law, Matthew 23:18 f., He could not have spoken otherwise than He did when He inculcated upon the people the duty of complying with the words while refusing to imitate the conduct of those instructors. This utterance was conservative, as befitted the needs of the people, and unsparingly outspoken, as the conduct of the Pharisees deserved; but, in opposition to both Pharisees and people, it guarded the holiness of the law. Observe that He is here speaking of the Pharisees in their special capacity as teachers of the Mosaic law (Augustine, Calvin, Grotius, Bengel), so that His language is at variance neither with Matthew 16:6 nor with the axiom given in Matthew 15:13; Acts 5:29.

ποιήσατε κ. τηρεῖτε (see critical notes): aorist and present: do it, and observe it constantly. See Kühner, II. 1, p. 158 f.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Matthew 23:3. εἴπωσιν, say, in the sense of enjoining; no need therefore of τηρεῖν as in T. R.—ποιήσατε καὶ τηρεῖτε: The natural order if the previous τηρεῖν be omitted. The diverse tenses are significant, the former pointing to detailed performance, the latter to habitual observance. Christ here recognises the legitimacy of the scribal function of interpretation in a broad way, which may appear too unqualified and incompatible with His teaching at other times (Matthew 15:1-20) (so Holtz., H. C.). Allowance must be made for Christ’s habit of unqualified statement, especially here when He is going to attack in an uncompromising manner the conduct of the Jewish doctors. He means: as teachers they have their place, but beware of following their example.

Bengel's Gnomen

Matthew 23:3. Οὖν, therefore) This particle limits the expression “whatsoever they bid you observe,” so that the people should not think that they were bound to observe the traditions of the Pharisees equally with the law of Moses;[984] see Matthew 23:4.—τηρεῖτε, observe) sc. mentally.[985]—ΠΟΙΕῖΤΕ, do) sc. actually. An imperative corresponded with by the other which follows.—λέγουσι, they say) Mosaic commands, which ought to be “observed” and “done.”

[984] i.e., because it implies that their claim to obedience rested on their sitting in Moses’ seat.—(I. B.)—i.e. so far, and only so far, as they really sat in Moses’ seat—viz., taught only what Moses in the written law commands.—ED.

[985] τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν) Verse 5–7.μὴ ποιεῖτε) Verse 8–12.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - All therefore. It is because of their official authority as appointed teachers and expositors of the Law that Christ gives the following injunction. That observe and do. Many manuscripts and versions invert the order of the verbs, reading, do and observe. The received text seems most logical. Observe; τηρεῖτε, present imperative, continue to observe as a rule of conduct. Do; ποιήσατε, aorist, do immediately, whenever the occasion arises. All that they taught or commanded out of the Law, or in due accordance therewith, was to be observed and obeyed. The statement is made in general terms, but was conditional and restricted by other considerations. It was only their official injunctions, derived immediately from Scripture, not their glosses, evasions, and interpretations, that were to be regarded with respect. The Lord had already taken occasion to warn against these errors (see Matthew 16:6, 11, 12, etc.). As inheritors of the authority of Moses, and speaking ex cathedra, they were so far worthy of respect. This principle laid down, Christ proceeds to denounce their evil practices. After their works. You must distinguish between their preaching and their practice; the latter is to be shunned with all care. The scribes are never accused of corrupting the sacred text, which, indeed, was scrupulously guarded, and kept pure and unaltered. It was their treatment of the doctrines thereof that was censured. Our Lord shows their evil example in two particulars - their principle was "words, not deeds" (ver. 4), and ostentation in religion (vers. 5-7). They say, and do not. They enunciated the Law, they enjoined obedience to it in the minutest particulars, and yet they themselves continually, in the most important points (ver. 23), infringed, neglected, evaded it. St. Paul, himself a strict Pharisee, denounces in stern language such inconsistent professors (Romans 2:21-23). Matthew 23:3