ACC ~ Matthew 23 v29 - 36

OVERVIEW:

Jesus pronounces woe upon the scribes and Pharisees because while pretending to condemn those who killed the prophets, they do worse. Yet in no way did this cause them to be corrected. To build the tombs of the prophets means to interpret prophetic writings only according to the “bodily” (i.e., literal and historical) sense, disregarding the spiritual meaning. Such were the Pharisees who used to kill the prophetic message by separating its body from soul and spirit (ORIGEN). While condemning their ancestors who murdered the prophets, they committed worse crimes, murdering Jesus and the apostles. Fruition of the crime by these last murderers guaranteed them divine punishment for the crimes of all their generation (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). They built the tombs of the prophets to gain human respect, not for the glory of God. Thus they tried to make God their accomplice. As serpents are the cleverest animals, so the hypocrites are the smartest of human beings, yet also the most harmful ones (INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW). There are different hypotheses on the identity of Zechariah from Matthew 23:35 (JEROME).

23:29 | Adorning the Monuments of the Righteous

YOU BUILD TOMBS FOR THE PROPHETS

CHRYSOSTOM: Jesus did not pronounce woe upon them because they blamed others or because they build monuments. Rather, he pronounces woe because while pretending to condemn those who killed the prophets, they do worse. They witness against themselves. As for evidence that their adorning of monuments is a pretense, Luke says, “Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and consent to the deeds of your fathers; for they killed them, and you build their tombs.” [1] Their purpose was not to honor those that were slain but to make a show of the murders. They are afraid lest, when the tombs had perished by time, the proof of their daring should fade away. They set up these buildings as a kind of trophy, priding themselves in the daring deeds of those men and displaying them. This is what is reproved by the Lord. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 74.1. [2]

[1] Lk 11:47-48.

[2] PG 58:679; NPNF 1 10:445.

23:30 | We Would Not Have Shed the Prophets’ Blood

WHO SHED THE BLOOD OF THE PROPHETS

ORIGEN: Once the prophets had departed this life, their bodies were in the tomb but their souls and spirits were in the “realm of the living.” Accordingly, the historical narrative of the prophetic writings is to be regarded as the body but their spiritual meaning and the inner truth as the soul and spirit which inhabits history. It is not improper then for us to consider the “tombs of the prophets” to be the letters on the pages of their books, in which the narrative lays as though it were a body placed in a tomb. Those persons therefore who receive and understand the spiritual meaning of the prophetic writings and the truth hidden within them have the soul and spirit of the prophets and are themselves made into a sort of realm of the living prophets. … Those who neither seek nor accept the spiritual meaning but attend only to the simple, historical narrative study the bodies of the prophets in the letters and pages of the books, as though in so many tombs. Such persons were the Pharisees, who were rightly called Pharisees (that is, the “separated”) because they separated the spiritual meaning of the prophets from their bodily history, as though expelling the prophets’ souls from their bodies, killing them and rendering them devoid of soul and spirit. It was also right for the Pharisees to be called “hypocrites,” because they built and adorned only the tombs of the prophets which contained their bodily history, which is to say that they studied only the letter of their writings and books. They did not understand that those who study dead bodies (the historical narrative) may seem to act with reverence toward the memory of the prophets but are in fact being most irreverent. Their attempts to defend themselves against the charge of being associated with “those who killed the prophets” and to prove themselves innocent only add to the crimes of “those who killed the prophets,” thereby filling up the “measure” of the iniquity of their fathers by not believing in Christ, whom the prophets proclaimed not through the historical sense of their writings but through the spiritual sense. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 27. [1]

[1] GCS 38.2:45-46.

SONS OF THOSE WHO MURDERED THE PROPHETS:

CHRYSOSTOM: And you yourselves continue to do these things in this spirit. Though you may speak to the contrary, you still do them. You say, “If we had lived in the days of our fathers we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.” Yet your own disposition is evident. Even as you are unfolding your intention, you are already expressing it, however disguised. So Jesus adds, “Thus you witness against yourselves, that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets.” If you are the son of a murderer but do not partake of the mind of your father, you yourself are not to blame. But if you do so partake, you have an affinity with his wickedness. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 74.1. [1]

[1] PG 58:679; NPNF 1 10:445.

23:31 | You Witness Against Yourselves

THE SAME KINDS OF EVIL

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: We will carefully investigate what the Savior says. The forefathers of the Jews killed the holy prophets who were transmitting the divine word to them in those times. They surely have become witnesses for some of them, because the prophets are now revered and honored. They have placed crowns on their heads or assign … honor to their tombs as to holy things, for believing the prophets to be holy men, they have become the judges of those who have killed them. For by honoring them in this way, they have spoken against those who killed them, and through these things they accuse them of having acted wickedly. But though they agreed to condemn the murders committed by their own forefathers, they were about to become threshing floors for the same kind of evils, indeed, to things even worse. They “killed the author of life” [1] and added to their impieties against him other murders, those of his holy apostles. For while one scrutinizes the sins of others, making a decision according to one’s innate reason, one sees the wickedness and censures it. … He who is led into similar passions is like a blind man carried away. FRAGMENT 260. [2]

[1] Acts 3:15.

[2] MKGK 241.

THOSE WHO MURDERED THE PROPHETS

HILARY OF POITIERS: The form of judgment is perfect; the understanding and idea of equity are instilled in each of us by nature so that the more fully the ideal of equity is known, the less need there is for the forgiveness of iniquity. The people of the law killed all the prophets. They had become inflamed with hatred toward them because of the harshness of their reproaches, since the prophets had publicly called them thieves, murderers, adulterers and sacrilegious. Moreover, because they had denounced the Jews as unworthy of the kingdom of heaven and because they taught that the Gentiles would be the heirs of the covenant of God, they afflicted the prophets with a variety of other punishments. The descendants, however, repudiated the deeds of their fathers, honoring the prophets’ books, decorating their tombs, restoring their sepulchers and attesting by these forms of respect that they were not culpable of the crimes of their fathers. ON MATTHEW 24.8. [1]

[1] SC 258:174.

23:32 | Fill the Measure of Your Ancestors

JUST PIETY

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: Every good deed that is done for God is universally good for everything and everyone. Deeds that are not seen to benefit everything and everyone, however, are done on account of man, as the present matter itself demonstrates. For example, those who build reliquaries and adorn churches seem to be doing good. If they imitate the justice of God, if the poor benefit from their goods and if they do not acquire their goods through violence against others, it is clear that they are building for the glory of God. If they fail to observe God’s justice, … and if the poor never benefit from their goods and if they acquire their goods from others by means of violence or fraud, who is so foolish not to understand that they are building for human respect rather than for the glory of God? Those who build reliquaries in a just manner ensure that the poor do not suffer as a result of it. For the martyrs do not rejoice when they are honored by gifts for which the poor paid with their tears. What kind of justice is it to give gifts to the dead and to despoil the living or to drain blood from the poor and offer it to God? To do such things is not to offer sacrifice to God but to attempt to make God an accomplice in violence, since whoever knowingly accepts a gift which was acquired by sinful means participates in the sin. HOMILY 45. [1]

[1] PG 56:885-86.

23:33 | You Serpents

YOU BROOD OF VIPERS

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: Serpents are the most clever of all the animals, but they use it for evil, not for good, since they are forever scheming to bite something, and, once they’ve attacked, to conceal themselves. Similarly hypocrites are the cleverest of all people, for while appearing to live innocent lives, they are always planning how to injure their neighbor and then to continue along their way as though they had done no harm to anyone. HOMILY 45. [1]

[1] PG 56:889.

RESPONSIBILITY FOR MURDER

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The punishment of all the murders committed in the past will fall on the last generation of murderers according to a certain pattern, although God speaking through the prophet does say that “the fathers will not die for the sins of the children” [1] … and indeed, “each will die for his own sin.” [2] What then should we think about this? [3] How can a later generation be punished for the murders committed by others, concerning whom Christ says these things? Won’t Cain be punished for the murder of Abel? … How is it that these poor souls will be subjected to the punishment due to all these people? For God is not unjust but is the righteous judge, powerful and patient, according to the testimony of the Scripture. Therefore we think there is a certain intention contained within the things that have been spoken that applies to the present case and helps us to fit one thing to another. Let it be taken for granted then that this may be so in the present case. Let us say that they have become robbers in that land. These men were plundering the surrounding villages and killing their inhabitants. But the prince of the realm did not immediately strip them of the ruler’s sword. Rather, he was eager to teach them differently through the use of threats. … But I suppose someone of the last who have been cruelly punished will say that they have received the penalty due to all. … You will also understand something such as this concerning God. For God was extremely patient in the preceding times until he deemed it necessary to set a boundary on his longsuffering. For it was also necessary that the divine anger fall upon these. On the one hand, they continued to sin against people and their fellow servants. On the other hand, they killed the Lord of all. Not that it is for this reason that he harshly punished the last ones but that it is astonishing that he has borne patiently with them to the present time. FRAGMENT 261. [4]

[1] Deut 24:16.

[2] 2 Kings 14:6; cf. Jer 31:30; Ezek 18:20.

[3] Cyril’s explanation aims to harmonize the words of Jesus, which would seem to find the Pharisees of his time also responsible for the crimes of their predecessors, with the numerous scriptural claims that everyone is responsible for their own crimes alone. In agreement with the context, he has no difficulty in demonstrating that the Pharisees of Jesus’ time were no less guilty than their predecessors.

[4] MKGK 241-42.

HOW ARE YOU TO ESCAPE?

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: “How will you avoid being sentenced to Gehenna?” They build churches but do not hold the true faith of the churches they build. They read the Scriptures but do not believe them. They call upon the prophets, apostles and martyrs but neither imitate their works nor profess their faith. Have you not heard him who said, “It is not those who say to me ‘Lord, Lord’ who will enter into the kingdom of heaven but those who do the will of my Father”? [1] Just as not all who call upon the Lord are of the Lord but only those who do his will, neither does everyone who extols the apostles, prophets and martyrs thereby venerate them, but only those who imitate their works and hold their faith. HOMILY 45. [2]

[1] Mt 7:21.

[2] PG 56:890.

23:34 | Sending Prophets, Wise Men and Scribes

TONGUES LIKE WHIPS

ORIGEN: The unfruitful scribes of the law are different from the scribes who were sent by Christ on account of the gospel, in whose work the spirit vivifies but the letter does not kill, as does the letter of the law. Those who follow the letter of the law incur faithlessness and vain superstitions. Those who follow the letter of the gospel (i.e., its simple narrative), however, are saved. For the literal story of the gospel itself is sufficient for the salvation of the more simple among us. And if you see scribes of the law and Pharisees acting not only against “wise men” of the gospel and “prophets” of Christ but also against the “scribes” of the new covenant, you will see how (insofar as they are able) they kill the prophets of Christ and crucify the scribes and scourge them with slanderous speech in their synagogues. It is common to hear how the sects, the socalled spiritual men of the Pharisees, use their tongues like whips to scourge Christians with curses and to pursue them “from town to town,” sometimes bodily, sometimes spiritually, wanting to expel them from their own town, which is the law and prophets and the gospel and the apostles, and to drive them by deceitful means into another, foreign town, which is another gospel. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 27. [1]

[1] GCS 38.2:47-48.

23:35 | Righteous Blood

THE BLOOD OF ZECHARIAH

JEROME: Because we read about so many Zechariahs in Scripture, we need to inquire into the identity of this particular Zechariah, the son of Barachiah. Lest we mistake him for another, the Gospel specifies “whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.” Yet there remains a variety of diverse opinions on this question, each of which ought to be considered. [1] Some say that this Zechariah the son of Barachiah is the eleventh of the twelve minor prophets. Although their fathers share the same name, however, they cannot be the same persons because the prophet Zechariah was never said to have been killed between the sanctuary and the altar and especially because the temple had just recently been destroyed in the prophet’s time. Others want us to believe that this Zechariah is the father of John the Baptist, killed because he proclaimed the advent of the Savior on the basis of something he had dreamed. Because this theory doesn’t have the authority of Scripture, however, it can be disproven as easily as it can be proven. Still others maintain that this is the Zechariah who was killed between the sanctuary and the altar by Joash the king of Judah, as is chronicled in the book of Kings. [2] But that Zechariah was the son of Jehoida the priest, not Barachiah, as the Scripture relates: “Joash did not remember the good which Jehoida, Zechariah’s father, had done for him.” [3] COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 4.23.35. [4]

[1] The difficulty here brought to light by Jerome intrigues modern scholars as well, because from the Old Testament it cannot be deduced with precision who this “Zechariah son of Barachia” actually was.

[2] 2 Chron 24:20-22.

[3] 2 Chron 24:22.

[4] CCL 77:219-20.

23:36 | It Will Come on This Generation

COMMITTING GRIEVOUS ACTS

CHRYSOSTOM: Mark how well he has forewarned them. Even after he has pointed out their hypocrisy, they claim that they would not have shed the blood of the prophets. Jesus shamed them thoroughly, saying, “While you condemn them, you do things worse. These things shall not be without punishment.” He thus implants in them fear beyond words. He reminds them of hell. Then because that was to come, he brought home to them the terrors as even present. “Truly I say to you, all this will come upon this generation.” He added also unspeakable severity to the vengeance, saying that they shall suffer more grievous things than all these. Yet in no way did this cause them to be corrected. But if anyone ask why they will suffer more grievously than all, we would say, Because they have first committed more grievous things than all, and by none of the things that have been done to correct them have they been brought to a sound mind. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 74.2. [1]

[1] PG 58:681; NPNF 1 10:446.