Jesus' teaching about the Pharisees

[McCulloch]

In The armed Christian

Jesus was teaching one day and he was addressing a crowd of people. He announced this to the crowd and his disciples. "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach" (Matt. 23:1-3)

This one of many such passages. Jesus was saying that the politicians were corrupt and deceptive.

That is an interesting spin on that passage. Another would be that Jesus is teaching that his disciples must follow the teachings of the Pharisees because their teachings are, in fact, the teachings of Almighty God as revealed to Moses. However, he adds, do not follow their example because they are hypocrites, not practicing what they preach. This passage, in my view, has nothing to do with civil authority and everything to do with obedience to God.

Question for debate: What is the correct Christian interpretation of this passage? Is Jesus teaching that politicians are corrupt and deceptive? Or is Jesus teaching about unhypocritical obedience to God? Both? Something else?

If you are a believer, present your own opinions on this matter, backed up with scriptural references. If you are not a believer then present scriptural support backed up by scholarly references by learned believers. If you are an apostate then present only the views of faithful Christians on this matter.

I disagreed with your interpretation of scripture*. To be honest you being an atheist diminishes your credibility in these matters. As an apostatized christian your claims tend to ring with a muted voice. Of course if you are a christian that statement would not be valid.

[Heterodoxus]

Question for debate: What is the correct Christian interpretation of [MT 23:1-3]? Is Jesus teaching that politicians are corrupt and deceptive? Or is Jesus teaching about unhypocritical obedience to God? Both? Something else?

.... If you are an apostate then present only the views of faithful Christians on this matter.

Commenting on Matthew 23:1-12, Matthew Henry wrote --

The scribes and Pharisees explained the law of Moses, and enforced obedience to it. They are charged with hypocrisy in religion.... They made phylacteries.... They made these phylacteries broad, that they might be thought more zealous for the law than others. God appointed the Jews to make fringes upon their garments ... to remind them of their being a peculiar people; but the Pharisees made them larger than common, as if they were thereby more religious than others. Pride was the darling, reigning sin of the Pharisees, the sin that most easily beset them, and which ... Jesus takes all occasions to speak against.... The consistent disciple ... is pained by being put into chief places. (Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary)

IMU, as a former Christian theologist turned (shudder) apostate, Jesus seems to be expanding the thought he expressed in MT 5:20 --

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (ESV)

Looked at together, MT 5:20 and MT 23:1-8 point out that the difficulties being experienced by the Jewish people in that time and place were a direct result of the cruelties they demonstrated against non-Jews because of their adherence to Moses' Law. Nevertheless, Jesus advised his audience to observe the customs of the Scribes and Pharisees in order to avoid being punished by them.

The [strike]Imposter Saul[/strike] Apostle Paul apparently carried Jesus' thoughts to another level when he taught --

... all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs. (ESV)

Carried it, that is, until he was called on the carpet by the Jerusalem elders and made to "purify" himself (Acts 21:17-24). But, that's another issue.

[cnorman18]

For what it's worth, when I was a Christian minister I preached (literally - it was my job) that Jesus was talking about those who proudly paraded their religiousness and claimed great righteousness, while thinking little about others beyond "You should all be like me."

The biggest problem in modern Christianity, specifically the fundamentalist iterations of that honorable religion, is Pharisaism; that was my opinion when I was a Christian, and it has not changed now that I am a Jew (and I would happily admit that there are Pharisaic Jews in that same sense).

If your religion makes you feel puffed up with pride and eager to parade yourself as a paragon of faith and virtue, you're not using it right. That seemed simple to me when I was a very small child.

And, just as in Jesus's day, those who do this are too righteous and holy to even realize it, let alone admit it.