Matthew 23:17
in Matthew 23You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes it sacred?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Ye fools and blind: for which is greater, the gold, or the temple that hath sanctified the gold?
KJV
Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
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This verse in Matthew 23
Commentary
16 notes on this verseFor since Christ is come, reliance upon the Law is vain; for not Christ by the Law, but the Law by Christ, is sanctified, in whom it rests as on a seat or throne; so are they fools and blind, who, overlooking the sanctifier, pay honour to the things sanctified.
This site's exposition
Woe to you, blind guides
on Matthew 23:16-19
The woe on the "blind guides" targets a rabbinic distinction: an oath by the temple "means nothing," while an oath by its gold binds. Jesus asks which is greater, "the gold, or the temple that makes it sacred," since the greater makes sacred the lesser it holds.
This site's exposition
You blind fools!
Albert Barnes observes that the gold held no holiness of its own. Hilary of Poitiers carries the principle to Christ, in whom the Law rests as on a throne. He calls blind those who honor what is made holy and pass by the One who makes it holy.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
(Verse 16 onwards) Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple is nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is bound by his oath.' Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And, 'Whoever swears by the altar is nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on it is obligated.' Blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore, whoever swears on the altar, swears on it and on all things that are above it.
Now an oath is in confirmation of somewhat that has been spoken. The oath here then may signify testimony of Scripture which we produce in confirmation of that word which we speak. So that Divine Scripture is the temple of God, the gold is the meaning which it contains. As the gold which is outside the Temple is not sanctified, so all thoughts which are without divine Scripture, however admirable they may seem, are not hallowed. We ought not therefore to bring any speculations of our own for the confirmation of doctrine, unless such as we can show are hallowed by being contained in divine Scripture. The altar is the human heart, which is the chief thing in man. The offerings and gifts that are hid upon the altar, are every thing which are done in the heart, as to pray, to sing, to do alms, to fast. Every offering of a man then is sanctified by his heart, by which the offering is made. There cannot therefore be a more honourable offering than the heart of man, out of which the offering proceeds. If then one's conscience does not smite him, he has confidence towards God, not by reason of his gifts, but so to speak because he has rightly ordered the altar of his heart. Thirdly, we may say that over the temple, that is over every Scripture, and over the altar, that is over every heart, there is a certain meaning which is called the Heaven, the throne of God Himself, in which we shall be able to see the things that are revealed face to face, when that which is perfect is come.
Jesus is saying that the gold in the temple, the gold objects dedicated in the temple to the glory of God, whether these be the gold cherubim or the gold jar containing the manna, were considered by the Jews to be worthy of much more …
As by making broad phylacteries and fringes they sought after the reputation of sanctity, and made this again a means of gain, so now He charges them with being teachers of wickedness by their fraudulent pretence of tradition. For when in any dispute or quarrel, or ambiguous cause, one swore by the temple, and was afterwards convicted of falsehood, he was not held guilty. This is what is meant by that, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing, that is, he owes nothing, But if he had sworn by the gold, or by the money which was offered to the Priests in the temple, he was immediately compelled to pay down that by which he had sworn.
The temple pertains to God's glory, and to man's spiritual salvation, but the gold of the temple though it pertains to the glory of God, yet does it more so to the delight of man, and the profit of the Priests. The Jews then pronounced the gold which delighted them, and the gifts which fed them, to be more holy than the temple, that they might make men more disposed to offer gifts, than to pour out prayers in the temple. Whence the Lord suitably reproves them in these words. Yet have some Christians at present an equally foolish notion. See, they say, in any suit if one swear by God, it seems nought; but if one swear by the Gospel, he seems to have done some great thing. To whom we shall say in like manner, Ye fools and blind! the Scriptures were written because of God, God is not because of the Scriptures. Greater therefore is God, than what is hallowed by Him.
8 more voices on this verse
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Quæst. Ev. i. 34.) The temple and altar we may also understand of Christ Himself; the gold and the gifts, of the praise and sacrifice of prayer which we offer in Him and through Him. For not He by them, but they by Him, are sanctified.
The Medieval Church2 voices
Then he sets forth the refutation: you foolish and blind; for which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? It is evident that what is in the temple is holy by reason of the temple; hence he who steals anything in …
He calls them blind for not wanting to teach what was right, but instead valuing what was of lesser importance, and giving second place to that which was worthy of honor. For they valued the gold in the temple, the images of the Cherubim and …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Those that put their own works into the place of Christ's righteousness in justification are guilty of the Pharisees' absurdity, who preferred the gift before the altar. Every true Christian is a living temple; and by virtue thereof common things are sanctified to him; unto the pure all things are pure ( Tit. i.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Ye fools, and blind,.... That argue after so ridiculous a manner, that make use of such thin sophistry, that everybody may see through it; who must be stupid and sottish to the last degree, and their minds foolishly blinded with avarice; as to please and satisfy themselves: with so poor a distinction; that would by no means serve them, but make against them: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
The temple that sanctifieth the gold - To sanctify is to make holy. The gold had no holiness but what it derived from the temple. If in any other place, it would be no more holy than any other gold. It was foolish, then, to suppose that that was more holy than the temple, from which it received all the sanctity which it possessed.
We have in these verses the charges of our Lord against the Jewish teachers, ranged under eight heads. Standing in the midst of the temple, with a listening crowd around him, he publicly denounces the main errors of the scribes and the Pharisees, in unsparing terms. Eight times he uses the solemn expression, “Woe unto you;” seven times he calls them “hypocrites;” twice he speaks of them as “blind guides”—twice as “fools and blind”—once as “serpents! And a generation of vipers!” Let us mark that language well. It teaches a solemn lesson.
We have in these verses the charges of our Lord against the Jewish teachers, ranged under eight heads. Standing in the midst of the temple, with a listening crowd around him, he publicly denounces the main errors of the scribes and the Pharisees, in unsparing terms. Eight times he uses the solemn expression, “Woe unto you;” seven times he calls them “hypocrites;” twice he speaks of them as “blind guides”—twice as “fools and blind”—once as “serpents! And a generation of vipers!” Let us mark that language well. It teaches a solemn lesson. It shows how utterly abominable the spirit of the scribes and the Pharisees is in God’s sight, in whatever form it may be found. Let us glance shortly at the eight charges which our Lord brings forward, and then seek to draw from the whole passage some general instruction. The first “woe” in the list is directed against the systematic opposition of the scribes and Pharisees to the progress of the Gospel. They “shut up the kingdom of heaven;” they would neither go in themselves, nor suffer others go in. They rejected the warning voice of John the Baptist; they refused to acknowledge Jesus when he appeared among them as the Messiah; they tried to keep back Jewish inquirers. They would not believe the Gospel themselves, and they did all in their power to prevent others believing it: this was a great sin. The second “woe” in the list is directed against the covetousness and self-aggrandizing spirit of the scribes and Pharisees. They “devour widows’ houses and for a pretence made long prayer.” They imposed on the credulity of weak and unprotected women by an affection of great devoutness, until they were regarded as their spiritual directors. They scrupled not to abuse the influence thus unrighteously obtained to their own temporal advantage, and, in a word, to make money by their religion: this, again, was a great sin.
How the passage was read
On Matthew 23:1-39On Matthew 23:1-39
The woes, read from inside Israel's own tradition
Read the chapter's own frame before its fire. Jesus opens by AFFIRMING the teaching office: the scribes and Pharisees “sit in Moses' seat,” the expositor's chair of the synagogue (stone seats of honor survive in excavated synagogues), “so practice and observe whatever they tell you” (23:2-3). And in the sharpest woe He still says of the tithe, “these you ought to have done” (23:23). The target throughout is hypocrisy in practice, never Torah observance itself. Each image is concrete: tefillin (the small Scripture boxes bound on arm and forehead in prayer, still worn today) made extra broad to be seen; tzitzit (the commanded tassels, Numbers 15:38, which Jesus Himself wore, Matthew 9:20) made extra long; the oath casuistry of Temple versus gold; herbs tithed while justice goes unweighed.
“Whited sepulchres” is seasonal and local: before Passover, graves were freshly marked with white lime so that pilgrims would not contract corpse impurity unawares; the Mishnah schedules the grave-marking in the month of Adar, a month before the feast (Shekalim 1:1). The pilgrim crowds hearing Jesus had just walked roads lined with newly whitened tombs. And the register of the speech is one Israel's own tradition could use of itself: the Talmud preserves a list of seven types of Pharisee, most of them bad, and warns against the “plague of Pharisees” (Sotah 22b), a self-critique sharper than most sermons. The chapter is a woe-oracle in the prophets' own tradition (Isaiah 1, Malachi 1-2), spoken in the Temple, and it ends not in triumph but in a lament that aches: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem... how often would I have gathered thy children together” (23:37).
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: Mishnah Shekalim 1:1 (graves marked in Adar, before Passover) · Sotah 22b (Babylonian Talmud, the seven types of Pharisee) · Mishnah Menachot 4:1 (tefillin and tzitzit in practice)
The words behind it
16 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| μωροὶ | moroi | Foolish | G3474 → | 12 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| τυφλοί, | tuphloi | blind! | G5185 → | 50 times |
| τίς | tis | Which | G5101 → | 563 times |
| γὰρ | gar | for | G1063 → | 1039 times |
| μείζων | meizon | greater | G3173 → | 243 times |
| ἐστίν, | estin | is, | G1510 → | 2333 times |
| ὁ | ho | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| χρυσὸς | chrusos | gold | G5557 → | 10 times |
| ἢ | e | or | G2228 → | 342 times |
| ὁ | ho | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ναὸς | naos | temple | G3485 → | 45 times |
| ὁ | ho | which | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ἁγιάσας | hagiasas | is sanctifying | G37 → | 28 times |
| τὸν | ton | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| χρυσόν; | chruson | gold? | G5557 → | 10 times |
μωροὶFoolish
moroiG3474 →12 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
τυφλοί,blind!
tuphloiG5185 →50 times
τίςWhich
tisG5101 →563 times
γὰρfor
garG1063 →1039 times
μείζωνgreater
meizonG3173 →243 times
ἐστίν,is,
estinG1510 →2333 times
ὁthe
hoG3588 →19766 times
χρυσὸςgold
chrusosG5557 →10 times
ἢor
eG2228 →342 times
ὁthe
hoG3588 →19766 times
ναὸςtemple
naosG3485 →45 times
ὁwhich
hoG3588 →19766 times
ἁγιάσαςis sanctifying
hagiasasG37 →28 times
τὸνthe
tonG3588 →19766 times
χρυσόν;gold?
chrusonG5557 →10 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
7 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 94:8Take notice, O senseless among the people! O fools, when will you be wise?
it leads to
- Psalms 92:6
A senseless man does not know, and a fool does not understand,
- Titus 3:3
For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
- Psalms 49:10
For it is clear that wise men die, and the foolish and the senseless both perish and leave their wealth to others.
- Deuteronomy 32:29
If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.
- Isaiah 27:11
When its limbs are dry, they are broken off. Women come and use them for kindling; for this is a people without understanding. Therefore their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator…
- Psalms 92:6
Through
Matthew 23:19You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes it sacred?
it leads to
- Exodus 29:37
For seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar will become most holy; whatever touches the altar will be holy.
- Exodus 30:29
You are to consecrate them so that they will be most holy. Whatever touches them shall be holy.
- Exodus 29:37
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Matthew
This page draws on 15 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Hilary of Poitiers, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew; Jerome, Commentary on Matthew; Jerome, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Lightfoot, Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae on Matthew; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Pseudo-Chrysostom, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Theodore of Heraclea, FRAGMENT 115.16; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Matthew and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Matthew.