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."