Matthew 23:13-16

23:13 “But woe to you, experts in the law ¹  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! ²  You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven! ³  For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in.

23:14 [[EMPTY]] ⁴ 

23:15 “Woe to you, experts in the law ⁵  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You cross land and sea to make one convert, ⁶  and when you get one, ⁷  you make him twice as much a child of hell ⁸  as yourselves!

23:16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple is bound by nothing. ⁹  But whoever swears by the gold of the temple is bound by the oath.’

[23:13]  ¹ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:13]  ² tn Grk “Woe to you…because you…” The causal particle ὅτι (Joti) has not been translated here for rhetorical effect (and so throughout this chapter).

[23:13]  ³ tn Grk “because you are closing the kingdom of heaven before people.”

[23:14]  ⁴ tc The most important mss (א B D L Z Θ Ë¹ 33 892* pc and several versional witnesses) do not have 23:14 “Woe to you experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You devour widows’ property, and as a show you pray long prayers! Therefore you will receive a more severe punishment.” Part or all of the verse is contained (either after v. 12 or after v. 13) in W 0102 0107 ˹³ Ï and several versions, but it is almost certainly not original. The present translation follows NA²⁷ in omitting the verse number as well, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations. Note also that Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47 are very similar in wording and are not disputed textually.

[23:15]  ⁷ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:15]  ⁸ tn Or “one proselyte.”

[23:15]  ⁹ tn Grk “when he becomes [one].”

[23:15]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “a son of Gehenna.” Expressions constructed with υἱός (Juios) followed by a genitive of class or kind denote a person belonging to the class or kind specified by the following genitive (L&N 9.4). Thus the phrase here means “a person who belongs to hell.”

[23:16]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing.”