Discovery BoxMatthew 23:23 
Context23:23 “Woe to you, experts in the law 1 and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You give a tenth 2 of mint, dill, and cumin, 3 yet you neglect what is more important in the law – justice, mercy, and faithfulness! You 4 should have done these things without neglecting the others.
Matthew 5:18
Context5:18 I 5 tell you the truth, 6 until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter 7 will pass from the law until everything takes place.
Matthew 12:4
Context12:4 how he entered the house of God and they ate 8 the sacred bread, 9 which was against the law 10 for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests? 11
Matthew 13:52
Context13:52 Then he said to them, “Therefore every expert in the law 12 who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his treasure what is new and old.”
Matthew 20:18
Context20:18 “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the experts in the law. 13 They will condemn him to death,
Matthew 21:15
Context21:15 But when the chief priests and the experts in the law 14 saw the wonderful things he did and heard the children crying out in the temple courts, 15 “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant
Matthew 23:13
Context23:13 “But woe to you, experts in the law 16 and you Pharisees, hypocrites! 17 You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven! 18 For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in.
Matthew 23:15
Context23:15 “Woe to you, experts in the law 19 and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You cross land and sea to make one convert, 20 and when you get one, 21 you make him twice as much a child of hell 22 as yourselves!
Matthew 23:25
Context23:25 “Woe to you, experts in the law 23 and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
Matthew 23:27
Context23:27 “Woe to you, experts in the law 24 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. 25
Matthew 23:34
Context23:34 “For this reason I 26 am sending you prophets and wise men and experts in the law, 27 some of whom you will kill and crucify, 28 and some you will flog 29 in your synagogues 30 and pursue from town to town,
1 tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
2 tn Or “you tithe mint.”
3 sn Cumin (alternately spelled cummin) was an aromatic herb native to the Mediterranean region. Its seeds were used for seasoning.
4 tc ‡ Many witnesses (B C K L W Δ 0102 33 565 892 pm) have δέ (de, “but”) after ταῦτα (tauta, “these things”), while many others lack it (א D Γ Θ Ë1,13 579 700 1241 1424 pm). Since asyndeton was relatively rare in Koine Greek, the conjunction may be an intentional alteration, and is thus omitted from the present translation. NA27 includes the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.
5 tn Grk “For I tell.” Here an explanatory γάρ (gar) has not been translated.
6 tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”
7 tn Grk “Not one iota or one serif.”
sn The smallest letter refers to the smallest Hebrew letter (yod) and the stroke of a letter to a serif (a hook or projection on a Hebrew letter).
8 tc The Greek verb ἔφαγεν (efagen, “he ate”) is found in a majority of witnesses (Ì70 C D L W Θ Ë1,13 33 Ï latt sy co) in place of ἔφαγον (efagon, “they ate”), the wording found in א B pc. ἔφαγεν is most likely motivated by the parallels in Mark and Luke (both of which have the singular).
9 tn Grk “the bread of presentation.”
sn The sacred bread refers to the “bread of presentation,” “showbread,” or “bread of the Presence,” twelve loaves prepared weekly for the tabernacle and later, the temple. See Exod 25:30; 35:13; 39:36; Lev 24:5-9. Each loaf was made from 3 quarts (3.5 liters; Heb “two tenths of an ephah”) of fine flour. The loaves were placed on a table in the holy place of the tabernacle, on the north side opposite the lampstand (Exod 26:35). It was the duty of the priest each Sabbath to place fresh bread on the table; the loaves from the previous week were then given to Aaron and his descendants, who ate them in the holy place, because they were considered sacred (Lev 24:9). See also Mark 2:23-28, Luke 6:1-5.
10 sn Jesus’ response to the charge that what his disciples were doing was against the law is one of analogy: “If David did it for his troops in a time of need, then so can I with my disciples.” Jesus is clear that on the surface there was a violation here. What is not as clear is whether he is arguing a “greater need” makes this permissible or that this was within the intention of the law all along.
11 sn See 1 Sam 21:1-6.
12 tn Or “every scribe.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4. It is possible that the term translated “expert in the law” (traditionally, “scribe”) here is a self-description used by the author, Matthew, to represent his role in conveying the traditions about Jesus to his intended audience. See David E. Orton, The Understanding Scribe [JSNTSup].
13 tn Or “and the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
14 tn Or “and the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
15 tn Grk “crying out in the temple [courts] and saying.” The participle λέγοντας (legontas) is somewhat redundant here in contemporary English and has not been translated.
16 tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
17 tn Grk “Woe to you…because you…” The causal particle ὅτι (Joti) has not been translated here for rhetorical effect (and so throughout this chapter).
18 tn Grk “because you are closing the kingdom of heaven before people.”
19 tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
20 tn Or “one proselyte.”
21 tn Grk “when he becomes [one].”
22 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.”
sn See the note on the word hell in 5:22.
23 tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
24 tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
25 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.
26 tn Grk “behold I am sending.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).
27 tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.
28 sn See the note on crucified in 20:19.
29 tn BDAG 620 s.v. μαστιγόω 1.a states, “of flogging as a punishment decreed by the synagogue (Dt 25:2f; s. the Mishna Tractate Sanhedrin-Makkoth, edited w. notes by SKrauss ’33) w. acc. of pers. Mt 10:17; 23:34.”
