Matthew 23:27

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Jesus delivers this pronouncement to the scribes and Pharisees during his public teaching in Jerusalem, immediately following his command to cleanse the inside of the cup before addressing its exterior.

The words — ὑποκριταί (hupokritai) literally identifies them as "actors" or "hypocrites," while παρομοιάζετε (paromoiazete) establishes the direct simile of whitewashed tombs.

The thread — The motif of outward purity masking internal defilement appears in Luke 11:44’s unmarked graves, Paul’s rebuke of a "whitewashed wall" in Acts 23:3, and the ritual impurity regulations of Numbers 19:16 concerning contact with dead bones.

Why it lands — The text states that concealed internal corruption remains defiling regardless of polished external appearance, requiring genuine inward reformation rather than performative observance.

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.

The Greek words

King James Version

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.

Cross-references

Luke 11:44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without even noticing.”
Acts 23:3 Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit here to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck.”
Numbers 19:16 Anyone in the open field who touches someone who has been killed by the sword or has died of natural causes, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.
Isaiah 58:1 “Cry aloud, do not hold back! Raise your voice like a ram’s horn. Declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins.