Matthew 23:25

"You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!"

Key Reflection

This passage highlights the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees, criticizing them for focusing on minor details while ignoring major ethical and moral issues. Jesus uses the stark contrast between straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel to illustrate their prioritization of trivial matters over more significant concerns in religious practice.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Verse 25. The cup and the platter. The drinking cup, and the dish containing food. The Pharisees were diligent in observing all the washings and oblations required by their traditions. Full of extortion and excess. The outside appeared well. The inside was filled with the fruit of extortion, oppression, and wickedness. The meaning is, that though they took much pains to appear well, yet they obtained a living by extortion and crime. Their cups, neat as they appeared outward, were filled not with the fruits of honest industry, but were extorted from the poor by wicked arts. Instead of excess, many manuscripts and editions of the Greek Testament read wickedness.

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