Matthew 23:14-15

23:14 [[EMPTY]] ¹ 

23:15 “Woe to you, experts in the law ²  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You cross land and sea to make one convert, ³  and when you get one, ⁴  you make him twice as much a child of hell ⁵  as yourselves!

Matthew 23:27

23:27 “Woe to you, experts in the law ⁶  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean. ⁷ 

Matthew 23:29

23:29 “Woe to you, experts in the law ⁸  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You ⁹  build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves ¹⁰  of the righteous.

[23:14]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:15]  ³ tn Or “one proselyte.”

[23:15]  ⁴ tn Grk “when he becomes [one].”

[23:15]  ⁵ 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.”

[23:27]  ⁶ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:27]  ⁷ sn This was an idiom for hypocrisy – just as the wall was painted on the outside but something different on the inside, so this person was not what he appeared or pretended to be (for discussion of a similar metaphor, see L&N 88.234; BDAG 1010 s.v. τοῖχος). See Deut 28:22; Ezek 13:10-16; Acts 23:3.

[23:29]  ⁸ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:29]  ⁹ tn Grk “Because you.” Here ὅτι (Joti) has not been translated.

[23:29]  ¹⁰ tn Or perhaps “the monuments” (see L&N 7.75-76).