Mat 23:36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
Mat 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kills the prophets, and stones them who are sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under [her] wings, and you would not!

This is the last time in Matthew that Christ refers to his generation (genea, in Greek). His first describes his generation earlier in Matthew as children who insist that everyone dance to their tune. His favorite adjectives describing of them is "evil and adulterous," which in Greek, is closer to "worthless and cheating." In one previous discussion of his generation, he compares them unfavorably with the people of Nineveh reacting to Jonah, and the queen of Sheba reacting to Solomon. Here, that same idea is extended, comparing them to their forebearers, who killed God's messagers.

This is the first time Christ uses the term translated as "gather together" (episunagô, literally, "collect and bring in"). The next time he uses it (Mat 24:31) to refer specifically to the gathering of the elect. The term has a sense of someone doing work to bring together something for their own use. God is attempting to bring together people to fulfill his purpose for earth, or, people must come together for them to fulfill God's purpose for them.

"Gather" is from episunagô, which means "to collect and bring or carry in." From sunagô, (sullego, sunazo), which means "to bring together," "to collect," and "to gather." Of people, it means "to come together."

Mat 23:34 Wherefore, behold, I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and [some] of them you shall kill and crucify; and [some] of them you shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute [them] from city to city:
Mat 23:35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar.

Alternative: For this, you see I will send you oracles, wise men, and authors and from them you will kill and crucify and scourge in synagogues, and drive from city to city: That on you will fall all the virtuous blood poured out on the ground, from the blood of virtuous Abel to the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

The first verse here again uses the pattern of the four realms to describe persecution of good men (reminding me of an earlier post on Matt 21:35 using the pattern of three), the physical (simple death), mental (the death of someone judged guilty, crucification), spiritual (scourged in synagogues) and finally emotional (hounded from city to city). Christ never repeats an idea without making it clear what realms he is covering. This is why he specifically mentions these various forms of persecution.

More interesting is the second verse, which has a lot going on it it going on it it. First, we have the symbol for life, blood. This blood of physical life is connected with justice and virtue, spiritual qualities. It is "poured out on the ground, which is Christ's metaphor for physical wealth, which falls into the mental realm. Then we have the emotional realm of relationships with the famous brother, Abel and the son Zacharias. These names also represent from A to Z, the beginning and end of the Roman alphabet, another nod at the mental realm.

Finally, why the mention of the temple and the altar? To tie this verse back to Mat 23:16 and Mat 23:18, at the very beginning of this tirade against religious leaders, which are also connected to the physical and social aspect of spiritual worship.


"Send" is the Greek, apostello, which is our source of the word "apostle." It means "to send off," "to send away," or "to dispatch."

"Killed" is from apokteinô, which is a stronger form of the verb "to kill" and "to slay."

"Persecute" is dioko, which means "to pursue," "to chase," or "to drive."

"Shed" is from ekcheô, which means "to pour out."

Mat 23:32 Fill you up then the measure of your fathers.
Mat 23:33 [You] serpents, [you] generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?

Alternative: You fulfill then the full capacity of your fathers. Snakes, offspring of vipers, flee from the judgement of the trash pit.

First, see Matt 12:34 for an earlier formulation of this same idea in this second verse, but which brings in the ideas of "worthlessness" and "beautiful" that are central to Christ's message. Snakes are only referred to as symbols of worthlessness.

These verses make a subtle connection to the beginning of this diatribe about religious leaders simply being actors. In the beginning of these verses, Christ refers to the relative worth of things: the value of the long prayer versus that of a widow's house, the value of tithes of spice against the "weight" of moral principles. Here, Christ combines that idea of physical measurement with the measurements of blood relationships. Our capacity comes from that of our forebearers. For better or worse, we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. That capacity is passed on physically, mentally, and even spiritually in the blood of one generation to the next.

This would have been a much more familiar idea in Christ's time, when people lived closer to nature, than in today's world. Everyone then saw how the generations of animals carried forward their good and bad traits. In the less annonymous community of the past, children did not escape the communities judgment of their parents.

The Jews of Christ's time were quick to claim their relationship with the prophets, but Christ points out that the prophets were the exceptions among them. Their true parents were those who killed the prophets.

What applies to the Jews of his day applies just as readily to everyone today. We are all quick to claim the relationships we are proud of, no matter how tenuous, but just as quick to forget about the more prominent relationships that we are less proud of.

Though perhaps we suffer from a worse delusion: thinking that we are above the past, both the good and bad. We mistakenly think we can reinvent ourselves from whole cloth: creating our own personal morality. Christ knew better. What is true for us was also true of all previous generations. The only thing that has increased in recent generations is our disconnection from our forebearer's wisdom, replacing it with the fictional reality we see on television.

"Full" is plêroô , which mean "to fill," "to fulfill," and "to fill full."
"Escape " is pheugo, which means "to flee," and "to take flight."
"Damnation" is from krisis, which means "separating," "distinguishing," and "judgment."
"Generation" is gennêma, which means "that which born or produced." It means "offspring," "fruits of the earth," any "product" or "work." It also means breeding and producing.
"Hell" is from geenna, which is Greek for Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom (the Hebrew word), south of Jeruselem where trash, including diseased animals and human corpses was burned. A constant fires was kept burning there. This area was originally where children were sacrificed to Baal, and Baal (Beelzebub, "lord of the flies") is the name that Christ says others call him as the personification of evil.

Mat 23:30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
Mat 23:31 Wherefore you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are the children of those who killed the prophets.

Alternative: And you say that that if you had lived in the days of your fathers, you would not have been their partners in [shedding] the blood of the prophets. Therefore you testify yourselves that you are the children of those who killed the prophets.

Here, the relevant symbol is "blood." As the symbol of life, it is contrasted with "bones" in the previous verses as the symbol of death.

Christ first uses the term "flesh and blood" to refer to the world of the living but specifically as part of our relationships. In the "liquid" cycle of transformation, water is turned into wine (a product of intelligence) and wine is turned into blood (a product of our relationships), and blood is turned into community. He only uses the term (haima) a few times: once to describe the limits of living relationships as the source of knowledge, several times, as here, referring to the shedding of the prophets' blood, and finally, the tranformation of wine into his blood, an act that was to be passed down to his faithful.

Christ's symbolic use of blood is always caught up in relationship. We cannot overlook the part that the shedding of blood has historically paid in religious sacrifice. At the Last Supper in Mat 26:28, Christ said that the shedding of his blood was the basis of the new testament which created a new relationship between man and God. For Christ, human death is tragic because it is a temporary end of living relationships: "blessed are those who mourn." He knew that the loss of body and mind was temporary but that all relationships are completely changed by death. There are no husbands and wives in the afterlife. Our relationship with God trumps all else. Only on earth are human relationships so dear, so important. Christ lost these relationships with his death as surely as we do, which is why he wept at Gethsemane.

Here, the message of blood is twofold. The authority of the Jewish religious leaders depended on their claim of a relationship with the prophets, but their blood relationship was with their forefathers, whose real relationship with the prophets was shedding their blood. This statement becomes completely prophetic later in Mat 27:25 when these same leaders said that the blood of Christ was on both them and their children. This blood knot is complicated. The Jews are both Christ relatives and the decendants of those who were his killers. What is interesting is that, unlike their forefathers, who honored their prophets after their parents killed them, the Jews after Christ chose to deny him rather than claim him (as, for example, the Muslims do). Something had clearly changed in their relationships.

Also extended in this metaphor is blood and bone is the idea of the inside (esothen: within) and the outside (exothen: outward) discussed in the earlier verse. The blood of living relationships and the bone of bodily death are both inside of us. Christ defines what is inside as the animating spirit. The outside is just appearances. Our bones symbolize the fact that our bodies must die, but our blood symbolizes the fact that our relationships live on: if only in our childen. For those who share in the living water, the blood of Christ, death is still real a part of us but temporary. In those who shed the blood of the prophets, death is triumphant.

"Partakers" is from koinônos, which means "a partner," "a comrade," "a companion," and "a sharer of anything." It is from the Greek word meaning "common."

"Witness" is from martureô, which means "to give testimony" and "to bear witness." It as the sense of being true testimony, the opposite of the Gospels word for "false witness," pseudomartureô, which is sometimes translated as "lies."

Mat 23:29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,

Atlernative: Sadly you scribes and Pharisees are actors. Because you build up the prophet's tombs and arrange memorials to righteousness.

The more I study twenty verses here from 13 to 33, the more I realize that there is a very complex interweaving of symbols and ideas. On the surface, they seem like a simple rant against the religious leaders of the time, but they are rich with symbols that Christ uses throughout his teachings.

Many of these symbols leapfrog through the text, but they are hidden by our translation into English. For example, the "houses" of the prophets' tombs are contrasted with the widows's houses that are being devoured in verse 14, but you can't see that because the connection between "house" and "build" in English is not that close, but the terms chosen in Greek are oikia (house) and oikodomeô (build a house).

These two terms are both used very commonly by Christ. He use a "house" is to refer both to the building itself and to the entire family that dwells in it. Houses, in both senses, can be built (using the second term) on stone or sand . The house is like a castle, protected and defined by the "strong man" that defends it. (Peter is the "stone" or strong man on which Christ's assembly will be built.) A widow's house is, by definition, without a strong man to protect it.

What does it mean to build a prophet's tomb into a "house?" In one sense, it means to found the authority of your "family" on the prophet, which is, of course, what all Jewish religious leaders did. However, here, the tomb is portrayed as all for appearances, healthy on the outside but corrupt on the inside. Building up your family based on the tomb is, at its heart, corrupt, like the house built on sand in Mat 7:26.

Another idea that is echoed here is the idea of "righteousness," which came from the previous verse. When Christ uses this term, he constrasts it specifically with "the wicked," that is, poneros, which we always point out means "the worthless." His idea is that there are those that do their duty and obey the laws and those who are worthless, who feel that their larger duty is above them. In the previous verse, Christ establishes that what religious leaders seek is the appearance of being dutiful, in this case, by arranging memorials to those who did their duty. Where the outside, these memorials are dutiful, but it is done with selfish motives. Here, the memorials of the dutifuls become symbolic of this idea.

"Build" is from oikodomeô, which means "to build a house." It generally means "to fashion" and is a metaphor meaning "to build upon" or "to build up."
"Tombs" is from taphos, which means "funeral rights," "funeral feast," "grave," and "tomb."
"Garnish" is from kosmeô, which means "to order," "to arrange," "to rule," "to adorn," and "to equip." It is associated with the idea of kosmos, the order of the universe.
"Sepulchers" is from mnêmeion, which means "memorial," "remembrance," and "record."
"Righteous" is from dikaios, which means observant "rules," "customs," and "duty." Later it means "well-balanced," "impartial," and "just." In Matthew, it is often translated as "the just."

Mat 23:27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead [men's] bones and of all uncleanness.
Mat 23:28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

These last six verses make a larger pattern in the Greek that is lost in English, where the presence of a positive trait is later negated with its opposite. In the last four verses, this is emphasized by repeating the negation in terms (exothen/esothen) that contrast the outward appearance and inward reality.

In the first two verses, the lightness of spices is contrasted with the heaviness of things such as the law. In the next two verses, outward cleanliness is contrasted with the inward nature of a thieving nature and a lack of self-control. In these two verses, the outward appearance of being full of life (mistranslated as "beauty") is contrasted with inward uncleanness of bones and death.
In this pattern, there is a contrast of fullness and emptiness (a very common theme in my study of Asian philosophy). This is clearer in Greek where the particle "a" is use for negation. In the first set of verses, the law is referenced in Greek as nomos. This in negated in the last verse where "inquity" is in Greek anomia, literally, "no law." In between, clean (katharos) from verse three is contrasted with unclean (akatharsia), its opposite, in verse five.

Anomia (no law) also contrasts with dikaios (righteousness), which means "law-abiding." Christ says that religious leaders seek the appearance of being dutiful, but this is all an act because on the inside they are lawless.

There is also a hidden circular pattern, where the tithe of spices starts the series and death, where spices were used to hide the smell of corruption, ends the series.

For me, the pattern seems intentional and intentionally sophisticated. The discussion of spices (small) and heavy matters like the law ends in a discussion of eating, "straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel." This eating theme is continued in the next two verses about plates and cups but is transformed into personality matters with robbery and a lack of self-control. These personality defects lead to death and the final discussion of the tombs and the corruption of the dead. All of this deals directly combines Christ's symbols for the physical realm eating, the body, and death intertwined with his symbols for the mental realm, words (hypocrisy) and the law.

The next few verses finish this cycle with the garnishing of the tombs of the prophets.

"Outward" and "outwardly" is from exothen, which "from without" and "outward."

"Within" is from esothen, which means "from within" and "inward."

"Beautiful" is from horaios, which means "blooming," which in Greek means being in season or the prime of life. (From hora , which means "season," "day," "an hour," and "a specific time.")

"Uncleanness" is from akatharsia, which literally means "not cleaned.

"Extortion" is from harpage, which means "to plunder" and "to rob."

"Excess" is from akrasia, which means "a lack of self-control" and "intemperance." It literally means "no power."

"Hypocrisy" is from hupokrisis, which means "an answer," "an answering," and "the acting of an actor."

"Iniquity" is from anomia, which means "anarchy," "a condition without laws," and, literally, "no law."

"Righteousness" is from dikaios, which means observant "rules," "customs," and "duty." Later it means "well-balanced," "impartial," and "just." In Matthew, it is often translated as "the just."

Mat 23:25
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

Mat 23:26
[You] blind Pharisee, cleanse first that [which is] within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

There is another pattern of three here. First, we were talking about what is light and heavy, herbs versus serious matters of morality. Here, we are talking about cleanliness and what is not clean. In the next verse, we move on to beauty and what is not beautiful. I want to relate these ideas to Christ's general pattern of spirit-body-mind-relationships-spirit, but I don't know if I can do it correctly.

If we related to the most common pattern, weight relates to the body, cleanliness to the mind, and beauty to relationships, but I find myself thinking that these ideas relate to all three areas. Physical matter can be light or weighty, clean or dirty, beautiful or corrupt. Mental, emotional, and even spiritual matters can have all these characteristics as well.

This worries me because it may means that Christ is using more than one pattern, wheels within wheels. I find myself wanting to go back through the entire Gospel and see if this pattern of weight, cleanliness, and beauty reappears again and again in some form.

For example, I know that the Greek word that is usually translated as "good" (kalos, kalia) doesn't mean "good." It means "beautiful." I know also that the concepts of emptiness and fullness (light and heavy) underlie the Beatitudes. I find myself thinking about when Jesus cured the lame man at the pool of Shilom (sp?), telling him to take up his bed and walk. The Pharisees criticized the man for carrying his bed on the Sabbath and then Jesus for curing on the Sabbath. His criticism in the previous verse about losing perspective clearly applies. However, I cannot remember the concept of "clean" (katharizo) coming up that often, and always in regards to cleansing lepers (which makes it more physical than mental). Similar terms, such as "pure" also come up very rarely. Perhaps (make that, almost certainly), I am missing something.

 

 

 

Mat 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you pay tithes of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier [matters] of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

Mat 23:24 [You] blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

Alternative: Sadly, you religious authorities and leaders are just actors because you receive tithe of mint, anise, and cumin, and leave the weight of legal judgment, mercy, and fait: These must be done and not left and they are abandoned. Blind guides strain out gnats and swallow camels.

These verses are all about how religious leaders lose perspective. Because of their greed, they end up focusing on minor but easy matters of tithing instead of larger and much more difficult matters of real religious believe. The contrasts are all about the relative size and weight of things.

I suspect that the three herbs, mint, anise, and cumin, somehow follow Christ's pattern of symbols, the physical, the mental, the emotional, and spiritual. but I don't know enough about the historical use of spices to make the connection. This relationship is clearer in the "weightier matters" where legal judgment is mental, mercy is the emotion, and faith is spirit. (However, mercy was in the Beatitudes used as the opposite of a lack of spirit.)

Gnats (as insects) and camels were both forbidden foods for the Jews. The camel was also the largest animal in the area, as the gnat was the smallest. The point is that, for an actor and a blind guide, it is easy to be careful about small things and just as easy to be mistaken in the largest matters.

"Pay titles" is from apodekatoo, which means to either to pay a tithe or to receive a tithe of a tenth of everything.

"Omitted" and "leave" are both from aphiemi, which is usually translated as "leave" and often as "forgiven."

Mat 23:20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, swears by it, and by all things thereon.

Mat 23:21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, swears by it, and by him that dwells therein.

Mat 23:22 And he that shall swear by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him that sits thereon.

Why does Christ go into this level of detail about "swearing," a practice he has already more generally forbidden in Matt: 5:34? More to the point, what does this have to do with the large context here of his criticism of the religious leaders of his time?

As usual, the answer is that this connects Christ's meaning to his larger use of symbols representing the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual realms. The swearing Christ condemns generally is making oaths to other people involving God. (See posting here.) Here, the discussion is specifically on what we are doing when we make promises directly to God as part of a religious practice, which is very much a part of what Christ recommends as part of the body/mind/relationship/spirit process.

Swearing, as all spoken words, puts thoughts into words. As such, it is part of the mental realm. Christ always tries to connect mental thoughts with physical actions, human relationships, and our spiritual purpose. That is the purpose of these three verses. The physical act of making sacrifices at an altar is connected to the social act of going to the temple, which are both connected to our spiritual purpose: getting in touch with God.

Swearing, the altar, the temple, and heaven are therefore extensions of Christ's use of symbols, becoming symbolic of the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual realms. They are all connected to each other and are another example of the complete cycle that connects us to God. Our thoughts lead to actions. Our actions create human relationships. Our relationships with each other connects us to our purpose, which is the spirit given us by God.

In the larger topic of religious leaders, Christ sees no role for "leadership" in this process. Promises to God are between one individual and God. The temple is a public forum for displaying that relationships but while making promises in public may have an important role in the process, a religious hierarchy does not.

"Thereon" is from epano, which means "above a place."

"Altar" is from thusiasterion, which means "an altar for slaying sacrifices," "an altar for burnt sacrifices," and "an altar." It is a derivative of thusia, which means "sacrifice" or "victim."

Mat 23:15

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made one, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

Mat 23:16
Woe unto you, you blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!

Mat 23:17


You fools and blind: for which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?

Mat 23:18

And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever swears by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.

Mat 23:19



Fools and blind: for whether [is] greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

Alternative: Sadly, you religious writers and authorities are just actors. Because you go about the sea and land to produce one convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice the son of your hell. Sadly, you are blind guides who say that those who promise in the temple are nothing, but those who swear on temple gold are owed [something in return]. Foolish and blind because which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold sacred? And those who promise at the altar are nothing but those who swear by [putting] gifts on it are owed [something in return]. Foolish and blind because which is greater, the gifts or the altar that makes the gift holy?

These verses continue Christ's explanation of the problems with all religious leaders, even Christian leaders today. The KJV English translation is more than a little confusing, which is why I offer an alternative, which is much closer, word-for-word, to the original Greek. I would not, of course, suggest that those who did the translation originally had some self-interest in making it confusing.

Christ is clearly saying that religious leaders are motivated by greed. He starts by saying that they make converts in order to enslave those coverts to their authority and for their support. He criticizes these religious leader for teaching that are our promises to God don't count unless they are made in the form of gifts, which are, of course, enjoyed by the priests themselves. Christ points out that devotion to God must be more important than financial support of earthly religious leaders.

Of course, we see the same thing today. Religious leaders constantly tell us that God favors those give to them. TV evangelists will run literally hours of testimonials from people who gave money to their church only to have their prayers answered and even to get more money in return.

How Christ hated this whole line of thought. First, he didn't like people making promises to God at all. Doing so in return for favors was even worse. Teaching people to make promises to God in the form of gifts that you use for your own benefit is the worst yet. For Christ, this was as far as you can get from understanding God and our roles in the plan of God.

"Compass" is from periago, which means "to lead around," "to lead about with oneself," "to go about," and "to walk about."

"Proselyte" is from proselutos, which means "a stranger," "a newcomer," and "one who has come from the Gentiles to become a Jew."

"Make" is from
poieo, which means "to make," "to produce," or "to do."

"Hell" is
geenna, which is Greek for Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom (the Hebrew word), south of Jeruselem where trash, including diseased animals and human corpses was burned. A constant fires was kept burning there. This area was originally where children were sacrificed to Baal, and Baal (Beelzebub, "lord of the flies") is the name that Christ says others call him as the personification of evil.

"Swear" is omnuo (omoô, omnumi), which means "to swear," "to promise," and "to threaten with an oath."

"Debtor" and "guilty" are both from
opheilô, which means "to owe," "to have to pay," and "to account for."

Mat 23:14

Mat 23:14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. My alternative: Sadly, you religious clerks and lawyers are actors. You pray all day but just as a pretext so you can eat up the possessions of widows. For this, you will be judged. Before I get to this verse specifically, I want to note how my thinking about Christ's words is evolving. In parsing the Gospels using the spiritual-physical-mental-emotion world that Christ starts using from his first words in the Gospels, I am coming to the idea that Christ's view of the "hidden" spirit is best understood in terms of purpose or intention rather than the simple idea of a "soul" or "ghost." It is God's purpose that creates the physical world. The purpose expresses itself in the human mind. With the human mind, we are able to mentally abstract God's purpose for us. The nature of our minds and bodies leads to our emotional personal relationships, so they are also driven by our purpose. These personal emotional relationships reflect and amplify our relationship with God. When we die, we survive because our God-given individual purpose survives. This spirit, in the sense of purpose, is something like "God's plan for us," but is larger than that. It is the intention behind everything that happens in our lives. It is not what happens that matters, but the intention behind it. We may wonder why "bad" things happen to us, but nothing God can do is "bad," in itself because His intentions for us are good. Short-term, death, disease, and so on are certainly unpleasant, but, like all of life, they are temporary. Their intention is to shape us in terms of a larger, more long-lasting purpose. However, while divine intentions are always good, driven by a good purpose, human intentions are not always good. They are frequently driven by selfish purposes. That brings us to this verse. Here, you have Christ condemning the intentions of the scribes and Pharisees. It is not that they pray all day, but that they do so for the purpose of consuming the possession of widows. In other words, they use religions to justify their idle lives while living off of others. It is their intentions that we and God should judge their actions by, not their actions alone, which are good. Note: My main research tool for classical Greek, the Perseus Project at Tufts, is down because of hardware problems, which limits the work here because I cannot compare to non-biblical sources. The problem with biblical lexicons is that they take their definitions from traditional translations of the Bible, which obscures the original meaning since the Bible and its popularity over millennia has affected how words are commonly understood today, as opposed to how they were understood when the Bibles were written. For example, the word "hypocrites" above in Christ's time, is from the Greek "hupokrites," which meant "actors," that is, people playing a fictional part. The current meaning of "hypocrites" was taken from the way Christ used the term to refer to the "scribes and Pharisees" above. Remember, translations of the Bible weren't made into English until the Bible had affected the meaning of words for well over a thousand years.

Mat 23:13

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in [yourselves], neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. A better translation of the last part would be "You neither enter in nor let those who are entering enter." Can your religious leaders prevent you from getting an afterlife? Of course not. "The kingdom of heaven" as described extensively by Christ cannot be "the afterlife" as it has come to mean in Christianity. Instead it describes the rule and rules of the universe. In passages such as this, it is the state of mind in which we are ruled by our higher natures, which come from God's will. This might be described as one sense of a "state of grace." Here, the religious leaders of the time are being criticized for making so many rules that people cannot simply let themselves be ruled by "heaven's" will. The simple act of making rules for others prevents people from accepting heaven's will. This is why Christ is so against hierarchies and people bowing down to the will of other people. The natural hierarchy is simple: there is God and below God everyone else is equal. The only way people rise in the favor of other people is by serving them. By trying to put themselves above others and control them, religious (and state leaders) are nothing but actors: they have power only as long as people believe they have power.

"Hypocrites" is from hupokrites, which means "an interpreter," "an actor," "a stage player," and "a dissembler." The primary meaning during Christ's era was "an actor."

"Shut up" is from kleio, which means "to shut," and "to shut up." It is a metaphor for causing the heavens to withhold rain.

"Go in," and "them that are entering" are from eiserchomai, which means both "to go into," "to come in," "to enter," "to enter an office," "to enter a charge," (as in court) and "to come into one's mind."

"Suffer" is from
aphiêmi, which means "to let fall," "to send away," "to let loose," "to get rid of," "to leave alone," "to pass by," "to permit," and "to send forth from oneself." This is the same word that is translated as "leave" and "forgive" in the New Testament.

Mat 23:12
And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

Christ teaches (as does Sun Tzu) that every action creates its opposite. Folk sayings such as "That which goes up, must come down," echoes this idea. In statistics, we can call it "regression to the mean." But the specific topic here is our relationships in society. Christ has said that those who serve others shall become the most powerful, while those who seek power for themselves shall fall. While the lesson is taken as a religious one, pertaining to the afterlife, the applications of these ideas in everyday life are numerous and its affect on human history momentous.

I think of my sister who has worked for years as an "administrator" in various colleges. While she has continued for years, it seems every time she turns around, she is working with a new president who has the title and the "power" but doesn't understand the organization. She has had good bosses and bad, but they have all come and gone, risen and fallen. In everyday life, people avoid the bosses who are above everyone. All bosses are largely disconnected from the everyday decisions which actually make a difference. Those decisions are usually made by those "low people in high places" like my sister who seek only to make things work. While their bosses rise and fall, these people continue, winning the respect of everyone they work with.

In our modern age, it is easy to see the superiority of commerce, where everyone tries to serve the needs of everyone else, as opposed to central control systems where a hierarchy tries to decide what is best for everyone. The more a country is controlled by its powerful elites, the poorer that country becomes. When people are freed from higher powers, the common, ordinary people produce incredible advances that raise everyone up.

"Exalt" and "exalted" are from hupsoô, which means "to lift high," and "to raise up."

"Abased" and "humbled" are from tapeinoo, which means "to lower," "to make low," and "to bring low."