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MATTHEW 23:27 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 23:26Matt 23:28
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.”
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. The seventh and climactic woe: the whitewashed tombs that are beautiful outside and dead inside. Tombs were whitewashed before Passover to warn pilgrims not to inadvertently touch them and become ritually impure. The image is the perfect summary of the Pharisaic hypocrisy: the external beauty that warns others away from impurity while the inside is full of death and all uncleanness.

Church Fathers on Matthew 23:27

As above they are said to be 'full of extortion and excess,' so here they are 'full of hypocrisy and iniquity,' and are likened to dead men’s bones, and all uncleanness.

Origen · 3rd century

Justly are the bodies of the righteous said to be temples, because in the body of the righteous the soul has dominion, as God in His temple; or because God Himself dwells in righteous bodies. But the bodies of sinners are called sepulchres of the dead, because the sinner’s soul is dead in his body; for that cannot be deemed to be alive, which does no spiritual or living act.

Pseudo-Chrysostom · 5th century

Sepulchres are whitened with lime without, and decorated with marble painted in gold and various colours, but within are full of dead men’s bones. Thus crooked teachers who teach one thing and do another, affect purity in their dress, and humility in their speech, but within are full of all uncleanness, covetousness, and lust.

Jerome · 4th century
Read all 6 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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