THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW

THE NEW TESTAMENT
TRANSLATED FROM
THE SYRIAC PESHITO VERSION BY JAMES MURDOCK

Chapter 23

(Mat 23:1) Then Jesus conversed with the multitude and with his disciples,

(Mat 23:2) and said to them: The Scribes and Pharisees sit in the seat of Moses.

(Mat 23:3) Whatever therefore they tell you to observe, that observe and do. But according to their deeds, practise ye not: for they say, and do not.

(Mat 23:4) They tie up heavy burdens, and lay [them] on men's shoulders; but will not themselves touch them with their finger.

(Mat 23:5) And all their works they do, to be seen of men: for they make their phylacteries broad, and extend the fringes of their garments.

(Mat 23:6) And they love the highest couches at suppers and the highest seats in the synagogues,

(Mat 23:7) and the greeting in the market places, and to be addressed by men with Rabbi.

(Mat 23:8) But be not ye called Rabbi; for one is your Rabbi, and ye are all brethren.

(Mat 23:9) And ye shall not call yourselves Father on earth; for one is your Father, who is in heaven.

(Mat 23:10) And be ye not called guides; for one is your Guide, the Messiah.

(Mat 23:11) And the great one among you will be your servitor.

(Mat 23:12) For whoever shall] exalt himself, will be abased: and whoever shall abase himself, will be exalted.

(Mat 23:13) Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: for ye devour the houses of widows, under the disguise of protracting your prayers. Therefore ye shall receive greater condemnation.

(Mat 23:14) Woe to you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: for ye hold the kingdom of heaven closed before men; for ye enter not yourselves, and those that would enter ye suffer not to enter.

(Mat 23:15) Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: for ye traverse sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is gained, ye make him a child of hell twofold more than yourselves.

(Mat 23:16) Woe to you, ye blind guides: for ye say, Whoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever shall swear by the gold that is in the temple, he is holden.

(Mat 23:17) Ye fools, and blind: for which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?

(Mat 23:18) And, whoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing: but whoever shall swear by the oblation upon it, he is holden.

(Mat 23:19) Ye fools, and blind: for which is greater, the oblation, or the altar that sanctifieth the oblation?

(Mat 23:20) He therefore who sweareth by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all that is upon it.

(Mat 23:21) And he who sweareth by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth in it.

(Mat 23:22) And he who sweareth by heaven, sweareth by throne of God, and by him that sitteth on it.

(Mat 23:23) Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: for ye tithe mint, and anise, and cummin, and omit the graver [matters] of the law, judgment, and mercy, and fidelity: these ought ye to do, and those not to omit.

(Mat 23:24) Ye blind guides, who strain out gnats, and swallow down camels.

(Mat 23:25) Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: for ye cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, while within they are full of rapine and wickedness.

(Mat 23:26) Ye blind Pharisees, cleanse first the inside of the cup and dish, that their outside may be clean also.

(Mat 23:27) Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: for ye are like whited sepulchres, which appear comely without, but are within full of bones of the dead and all impurity.

(Mat 23:28) So ye also, outwardly, appear to men as righteous; but within, ye are full of iniquity and hypocrisy.

(Mat 23:29) Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: for ye build the tombs of the prophets and ye adorn the sepulchres of the righteous;

(Mat 23:30) and ye say: If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been participators with them in the blood of the prophets.

(Mat 23:31) Wherefore ye are witnesses, against yourselves, that ye are the children of them that killed the prophets.

(Mat 23:32) And as for you, fill ye up the measure of your fathers.

(Mat 23:33) Ye serpents, ye race of vipers: how can ye escape the condemnation of hell?

(Mat 23:34) Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; some of whom ye will kill and crucify, and some of them ye will scourge in your synagogues, and will persecute them from city to city:

(Mat 23:35) so that on you may come all the blood of the righteous, which hath been shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zachariah, son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

(Mat 23:36) Verily I say to you, that all these things will come upon this generation.

(Mat 23:37) O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent to thee: how often would I have gathered thy children, as a hen gathereth her young under her wings, and ye would not.

(Mat 23:38) Behold, your house is left to you desolate!

(Mat 23:39) For I say to you, That ye shall not see me henceforth, until ye shall say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.