"But"introduces the transition from the words to the disciples that preceded (vv. 1-12). The scribes and Pharisees had taken the exact opposite position on Jesus' person than the disciples had. Consequently their futures would be radically different (cf. 16:17-28; 19:27-29).
"Woe"can be a mild exclamation of compassion (24:19), a strong expression of condemnation (11:21), or both (18:17; 26:24). In this address condemnation is in view as is clear from what Jesus said. However, we should not interpret this word as connoting vindictiveness or spitefulness here. Rather it is a judicial announcement of condemnation from Messiah, the Judge.
"Every one of the seven woes' is an exclamation like the blessed' in the Beatitudes. It does not state a wish but a fact. It is not a curse that calls down calamity but a calm, true judgment and verdict rendered by the supreme Judge himself. Hence six of these judgments have the evidence attached by means of a causal hoti[because'] clause which furnishes the full reason for the verdict woe;' and in the remaining judgment (v. 16) the varied form of expression does the same by means of an apposition."840
The leaders were hypocrites because they professed to teach God's will but kept people from entering the kingdom that was God's will for His people then to enter. They kept people from entering the kingdom by not preparing to enter it themselves and by discouraging others from doing so (cf. 18:6-7; 22:41-46).
Some interpreters believe the syntax of verse 13 assumes that the kingdom had already begun.841However the basis for this conclusion is the presupposition that it had begun more than the requirements of the Greek syntax. The syntax requires that we understand the substantival participle tous eiserchomenous("those entering") and the present finite verb oude . . . aphiete("nor . . . do you permit") as describing action happening simultaneous with the speaker's words. Both actions can and do describe what the leaders were doing in anticipation of the kingdom's beginning. Jesus consistently referred to the messianic kingdom as future, never as present. The King's presence does not equate with the kingdom's presence.
Most of the best and earliest copies of Matthew's Gospel available to us omit verse 14. Some of the manuscripts that do contain it place it before verse 13, and others place it after. Perhaps scribes inserted it later since it occurs in the parallel passages (Mark 12:40; Luke 20:47).
