Matthew 23:18

Study note

Setting — Jesus addresses the scribes and Pharisees in the temple courts, delivering this rebuke immediately after questioning their logic on consecrated gold and gifts. He speaks to them as part of a continuous judicial pronouncement against their hypocritical religious leadership.

The words — The noun θυσιαστηρίου (thusiastēriou) refers literally to the stone altar where sacrifices were burned. The construction ὃς ἄν (hos an) functions as an indefinite relative clause meaning “whoever” or “anyone who.”

The thread — This dispute over swearing by sacred objects repeats in Matthew 23:17 and 23:19, where Jesus frames the altar and temple as the greater consecrating reality. The same legal tradition appears in Leviticus 19:12 and Numbers 30:2, where vows tied to the sanctuary were strictly regulated by Mosaic law.

Why it lands — The text exposes a human rule that attempts to downgrade oaths made by the altar while upholding those made by the gift upon it. It demands the reader abandon calculated loopholes and recognize that swearing by any consecrated object binds the swearer to the object’s holiness.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.