SEV Biblia, Chapter 23:13
¶ Mas ¡ay de vosotros, escribas y fariseos, hipcritas! Porque cerris el Reino de los cielos delante de los hombres; que ni vosotros entris, ni a los que estn entrando dejis entrar.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Matthew 23:13
Verse 13. Ye shut up the kingdom] As a key by opening a lock gives entrance into a house, &c., so knowledge of the sacred testimonies, manifested in expounding them to the people, may be said to open the way into the kingdom of heaven. But where men who are termed teachers are destitute of this knowledge themselves, they may be said to shut this kingdom; because they occupy the place of those who should teach, and thus prevent the people from acquiring heavenly knowledge. In ancient times the rabbins carried a key, which was the symbol or emblem of knowledge. Hence it is written in Semachoth, chap. 8.," When Rab. Samuel the little died, his key and his tablets were hung on his tomb, because he died childless." See Schoettgen.
The kingdom of heaven here means the Gospel of Christ; the Pharisees would not receive it themselves, and hindered the common people as far as they could.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 13. But woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites , etc.] It seems from hence, that the Scribes and Pharisees had not left him, at least not all of them, notwithstanding the confusion they were thrown into; but were still about him, observing what he said to the people, and watching an opportunity to take every advantage against him; whom he addresses in a very awful manner, calling them hypocrites, as he truly might; for they were such, both to God and men: he had detected them already before the people, in several instances of hypocrisy; and gives sufficient reasons, in the following part of this chapter, to support the character, he gives of them, and his charge against them; denouncing a woe upon them in this world, and that which is to come, no less than eight times; expressing his abhorrence of their wickedness, his commiseration of their case, and their certain destruction: for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: not eternal life and happiness, the entrance into which can neither be opened nor shut by men: those whom God determines to bring thither, shall have an entrance abundantly ministered to them, in spite of the opposition of men and devils; though these men did all that in them lay, to hinder persons enjoying everlasting glory. But the Gospel dispensation is here meant, which opened by the ministry of John the Baptist, Christ and his disciples, and which the Scribes and Pharisees did all they could to shut; by discouraging the preaching of the Gospel, and the administration of ordinances, in which this dispensation lay; and prejudicing the minds of men against it, that they might not embrace the doctrines of it, nor submit to its ordinances: they, by their office, ought to have opened and explained the Scriptures, the prophecies of the Old Testament relating to the Messiah, and led the people into a knowledge of the mysteries of his kingdom, and encouraged them to enter into this new state of things; which, according to the true intent of Scripture, was to take place, and now did: but instead of this, they shut up the Scriptures, took away the key of knowledge, and laid it aside; and darkened the Scriptures by their false glosses, and obliged the people to observe the traditions of the elders, and which they call hrwtl gys , an hedge for the law f1254 ; to which Beza thinks, the allusion is here, and by which men were shut up, and kept from the true knowledge both of law and Gospel: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in : they neither believed in the Messiah themselves, nor embraced the doctrines relating to his person and office: have any of the Pharisees believed on him? No; they received him not, they rejected him, and also the counsel of God, against themselves, not being baptized with the baptism of John, the forerunner of Christ; nor would they suffer others, that were inclined to profess their faith in him, and be baptized, to do it; but discouraged them all they could, by their reproachful treatment of the person, miracles, and ministry of Christ, and by their threatenings and menaces, and by their excommunications of such as made a confession of him.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 13-33 - The scribes and Pharisees were enemies to the gospel of Christ, an therefore to the salvation of the souls of men. It is bad to keep awa from Christ ourselves, but worse also to keep others from him. Yet it is no new thing for the show and form of godliness to be made a cloa to the greatest enormities. But dissembled piety will be reckone double iniquity. They were very busy to turn souls to be of their party. Not for the glory of God and the good of souls, but that the might have the credit and advantage of making converts. Gain being their godliness, by a thousand devices they made religion give way to their worldly interests. They were very strict and precise in smalle matters of the law, but careless and loose in weightier matters. It is not the scrupling a little sin that Christ here reproves; if it be sin, though but a gnat, it must be strained out; but the doing that and then swallowing a camel, or, committing a greater sin. While the would seem to be godly, they were neither sober nor righteous. We ar really, what we are inwardly. Outward motives may keep the outsid clean, while the inside is filthy; but if the heart and spirit be mad new, there will be newness of life; here we must begin with ourselves The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was like the ornament of a grave, or dressing up a dead body, only for show. The deceitfulness of sinners' hearts appears in that they go down the streams of the sins of their own day, while they fancy that they shoul have opposed the sins of former days. We sometimes think, if we ha lived when Christ was upon earth, that we should not have despised an rejected him, as men then did; yet Christ in his Spirit, in his word in his ministers, is still no better treated. And it is just with God to give those up to their hearts' lusts, who obstinately persist i gratifying them. Christ gives men their true characters.
Greek Textus Receptus
{VAR1: ουαι 3759 INJ δε 1161 CONJ } {VAR2: ουαι 3759 INJ } υμιν 5213 P-2DP γραμματεις 1122 N-VPM και 2532 CONJ φαρισαιοι 5330 N-VPM υποκριται 5273 N-VPM οτι 3754 CONJ κατεσθιετε 2719 5719 V-PAI-2P τας 3588 T-APF οικιας 3614 N-APF των 3588 T-GPF χηρων 5503 N-GPF και 2532 CONJ προφασει 4392 N-DSF μακρα 3117 A-APN προσευχομενοι 4336 5740 V-PNP-NPM δια 1223 PREP τουτο 5124 D-ASN ληψεσθε 2983 5695 V-FDI-2P περισσοτερον 4053 A-ASN-C κριμα 2917 N-ASN
Vincent's NT Word Studies
13. Hypocrites (upokritai). From uJpokrinw, to separate gradually; so of separating the truth from a mass of falsehood, and thence to subject to inquiry, and, as a result of this, to expound or interpret what is elicited. Then, to reply to inquiry, and so to answer on the state, to speak in dialogue, to act. From this the transition is easy to assuming, feigning, playing a part. The hypocrite is, therefore, etymologically, an actor.Against (emprosqen). Very graphic. The preposition means before, or in the face of. They shut the door in men's faces.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
23:13 {Hypocrites} (hupokritai). this terrible word of Jesus appears first from him in the Sermon on the Mount (#Mt 6:2,5,16; 7:5), qen in #15:7 and #22:18. Here it appears "with terrific iteration" (Bruce) save in the third of the seven woes (#23:13,15,23,25,27,29). The verb in the active (hupokrin") meant to separate slowly or slightly subject to gradual inquiry. qen the middle was to make answer, to take up a part on the stage, to act a part. It was an easy step to mean to feign, to pretend, to wear a masque, to act the hypocrite, to play a part. this hardest word from the liy of Jesus falls on those who were the religious leaders of the Jews (Scribes and Pharisees), who had justified this thunderbolt of wrath by their conduct toward Jesus and their treatment of things high and holy. The _Textus Receptus has eight woes, adding verse #14 which the Revised Version places in the margin (called verse #13 by Westcott and Hort and rejected on the authority of Aleph B D as a manifest gloss from #Mr 12:40 and #Lu 20:47). The MSS. that insert it put it either before 13 or after 13. Plummer cites these seven woes as another example of Matthew's fondness for the number seven, more fancy than fact for Matthew's Gospel is not the Apocalypse of John. These are all illustrations of Pharisaic saying and not doing (Allen). {Ye shut the kingdom of heaven} (kleiete tn basileian t"n ouran"n). In #Lu 11:52 the lawyers are accused of keeping the door to the house of knowledge locked and with flinging away the keys so as to keep themselves and the people in ignorance. These custodians of the kingdom by their teaching obscured the way to life. It is a tragedy to think how preachers and teachers of the kingdom of God may block the door for those who try to enter in (tous eisercomenous, conative present middle participle). {Against} (emprosqen). Literally, before. These door-keepers of the kingdom slam it shut in men's faces and they themselves are on the outside where they will remain. They hide the key to keep others from going in.
