Teks -- Matthew 23:13 (NET)

23:13 “But woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven! For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in.

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Robertson: Mat 23:13 - Hypocrites

Hypocrites ( hupokritai ).

This terrible word of Jesus appears first from him in the Sermon on the Mount (Mat 6:2, Mat 6:5,Mat 6:16; Mat 7:5), then in Mat 15:7 and Mat 22:18. Here it appears "with terrific iteration"(Bruce) save in the third of the seven woes (Mat 23:13, Mat 23:15, Mat 23:23, Mat 23:25, Mat 23:27, Mat 23:29). The verb in the active (hupokrinō ) meant to separate slowly or slightly subject to gradual inquiry. Then the middle was to make answer, to take up a part on the stage, to act a part. It was an easy step to mean to feign, to pretend, to wear a masque, to act the hypocrite, to play a part. This hardest word from the lips of Jesus falls on those who were the religious leaders of the Jews (Scribes and Pharisees), who had justified this thunderbolt of wrath by their conduct toward Jesus and their treatment of things high and holy. The Textus Receptus has eight woes, adding Mat 22:14 which the Revised Version places in the margin (called Mat 22:13 by Westcott and Hort and rejected on the authority of Aleph B D as a manifest gloss from Mar 12:40 and Luk 20:47). The MSS. that insert it put it either before Mat 23:13 or after Mat 23:13. Plummer cites these seven woes as another example of Matthew’ s fondness for the number seven, more fancy than fact for Matthew’ s Gospel is not the Apocalypse of John. These are all illustrations of Pharisaic saying and not doing (Allen).

Robertson: Mat 23:13 - Ye shut the kingdom of heaven

Ye shut the kingdom of heaven ( kleiete tēn basileian tōn ouranōn ).

In Luk 11:52 the lawyers are accused of keeping the door to the house of knowledge locked and with flinging away the keys so as to keep themselves and the people in ignorance. These custodians of the kingdom by their teaching obscured the way to life. It is a tragedy to think how preachers and teachers of the kingdom of God may block the door for those who try to enter in (tous eiserchomenous , conative present middle participle).

Robertson: Mat 23:13 - Against

Against ( emprosthen ).

Literally, before. These door-keepers of the kingdom slam it shut in men’ s faces and they themselves are on the outside where they will remain. They hide the key to keep others from going in.

Vincent: Mat 23:13 - Hypocrites

Hypocrites ( ὑποκριταί )

From ὑποκρίνω , to separate gradually; so of separating the truth from a mass of falsehood, and thence to subject to inquiry, and, as a result of this, to ex pound or interpret what is elicited. Then, to reply to inquiry, and so to answer on the stage, to speak in dialogue, to act . From this the transition is easy to assuming, feigning, playing a part . The hypocrite is, therefore, etymologically, an actor.

Vincent: Mat 23:13 - Against

Against ( ἔμπροσθεν )

Very graphic. The preposition means before, or in the face of. They shut the door in men's faces.

Wesley: Mat 23:13 - Wo to you

Our Lord pronounced eight blessings upon the mount: he pronounces eight woes here; not as imprecations, but solemn, compassionate declarations of the misery, which these stubborn sinners were bringing upon themselves.

Wesley: Mat 23:13 - Ye go not in

For ye are not poor in spirit; and ye hinder those that would be so.

JFB: Mat 23:13 - But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men

Here they are charged with shutting heaven against men: in Luk 11:52 they are charged with what was worse, taking away the key--"the key of knowledge"--which means, not the key to open knowledge, but knowledge as the only key to open heaven. A right knowledge of God's revealed word is eternal life, as our Lord says (Joh 17:3; Joh 5:39); but this they took away from the people, substituting for it their wretched traditions.

Clarke: Mat 23:13-14 - Wo unto you, scribes

Wo unto you, scribes - I think the fourteenth and thirteenth verses should be transposed. This transposition is authorized by some of the best MSS., versions, and fathers. The fourteenth is wanting in the BDL., and in many others of inferior note, as well as in several of the versions. Griesbach has left it out of the text, in his first edition; I hesitated, and left it in, thus transposed. I am happy to find that a more extensive collation of MSS., etc., afforded proof to that eminent critic that it should be restored to its place. In the second edition, he has transposed the two, just as I had done. The fifteenth reads best after the thirteenth.

Clarke: Mat 23:13 - Ye shut up the kingdom

Ye shut up the kingdom - As a key by opening a lock gives entrance into a house, etc., so knowledge of the sacred testimonies, manifested in expounding them to the people, may be said to open the way into the kingdom of heaven. But where men who are termed teachers are destitute of this knowledge themselves, they may be said to shut this kingdom; because they occupy the place of those who should teach, and thus prevent the people from acquiring heavenly knowledge

In ancient times the rabbins carried a key, which was the symbol or emblem of knowledge. Hence it is written in Semachoth, chap. 8., "When Rab. Samuel the little died, his key and his tablets were hung on his tomb, because he died childless."See Schoettgen

The kingdom of heaven here means the Gospel of Christ; the Pharisees would not receive it themselves, and hindered the common people as far as they could.

Calvin: Mat 23:13 - You shut up the kingdom of heaven

Mat 23:13.You shut up the kingdom of heaven Christ pronounces a curse on them, because they pervert their office to the general destruction of the whole people; for since the government of the Church was in their hands, they ought to have been, as it were, porters for the kingdom of heaven. What purpose is served by religion and holy doctrine but to open heaven to us? For we know that all mankind are banished from God, and excluded from the inheritance of eternal salvation. Now the doctrine of religion may be said to be the door by which we enter into life, and therefore Scripture says metaphorically, that the keys of the kingdom of heaven are given to pastors, as I have explained more fully under Mat 16:19. And we ought to abide by this definition, which appears still more strongly from the words of Luke, in which Christ reproaches the lawyers with having taken away the key of knowledge, which means that, though they were the guardians of the Law of God, they deprived the people of the true understanding of it. As, therefore, in the present day, the keys of the kingdom of heaven are committed to the custody of pastors, that they may admit believers into eternal life, and exclude unbelievers from all expectation of it, so the priests and scribes anciently under the Law held the same office.

From the word knowledge we infer how absurdly the Papists forge false keys, as if they possessed some magical power apart from the word of God; for Christ declares that none but those who are ministers of doctrine have the use of keys. If it be objected, that the Pharisees, though they were perverse expounders of the Law still held the keys, I reply: Though, in respect of their office, the keys were entrusted to them, yet they were suppressed by malice and deceit, so that they no longer retained the use of them. And therefore Christ says, that they took away, or stole that key of knowledge, by which they ought to have opened the gate of heaven. In like manner, heaven is shut by Popery against the wretched people, while the very pastors—or, at least, those who hold that office—prevent them by their tyranny from being opened. If we are not excessively indifferent, we will not willingly enter into a league with wicked tyrants, who cruelly shut against us the entrance into life.

Defender: Mat 23:13 - woe unto you

Jesus pronounces eight "woes" on the scribes (or lawyers) and Pharisees in this chapter (Mat 23:13-16, Mat 23:23, Mat 23:25, Mat 23:27, Mat 23:29). Seven times He calls them "hypocrites" and five times He says they are "blind." He calls each a "child of hell" (Mat 23:15), and says they are like "whited sepulchers ... full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness" (Mat 23:27), also "full of hypocrisy and iniquity" (Mat 23:28). They are, He says, "serpents" and a "generation of vipers" (Mat 23:33). One receives the impression that God hates the sin of hypocrisy in religious leaders more than most other sins. New Testament language used here by the Lord Jesus is as severely condemnatory as anything found in the Old Testament. Religionists such as these have persecuted genuine believers, especially faithful teachers and preachers, all though history."

TSK: Mat 23:13 - woe // for ye shut

woe : Mat 23:14, Mat 23:15, Mat 23:27, Mat 23:29; Isa 9:14, Isa 9:15, Isa 33:14; Zec 11:17; Luk 11:43, Luk 11:44

for ye shut : Mat 21:31, Mat 21:32; Luk 11:52; Joh 7:46-52, Joh 9:22, Joh 9:24, Joh 9:34; Act 4:17, Act 4:18, Act 5:28, Act 5:40; Act 8:1, Act 13:8; 1Th 2:15, 1Th 2:16; 2Ti 3:8, 2Ti 4:15

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Mat 23:13

Our Saviour now cometh to denounce eight woes against the teachers of those times, the scribes and Pharisees. Luke saith, Luk 11:52 , Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye enter not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. It was written of old, that the priest’ s lips should preserve knowledge: God hath committed the key of knowledge to the ministers and guides of his church, not that they should take it away, but that the people might seek the law at their mouths, because they are the messengers of the Lord of hosts, Mal 2:7 . Now saith our Saviour, you have taken it away: this Matthew calls a shutting up the kingdom of heaven against men; doing what in them lay to keep men from the knowledge of the mind and will of God, neither themselves teaching them the knowledge of God, which yet was their office and duty, nor suffering others to do it who would. You will neither go in yourselves, neither will you suffer them that are entering to go in. Yourselves are too proud or lazy, to preach the gospel, which is the way to the kingdom of heaven, and when others would, you suffer them not; nor yet will you suffer the people, who have a heart to it, to hear it. For this he calls them hypocrites seven times in this chapter, they pretending to be teachers and openers of the door to the kingdom of heaven, when indeed they did shut it; and denounces a woe to them, comprehending that ruin which soon after came upon them and their city by the Roman armies, and that eternal damnation which slept not, and was due to them. There are no worse men in the world than hypocrites, men pretending highly to God, yet neither themselves doing their duty in embracing the gospel, nor suffering others to do it, but doing what in them lie to hinder people from the means by which they might come to the kingdom of heaven.

Haydock: Mat 23:13 - You shut the kingdom of heaven

You shut the kingdom of heaven. This is here taken for eternal happiness, which can be obtained only by faith in Christ, since he calls himself the gate. (St. John chap. x) ---

Now the Pharisees, by refusing to believe in him, and conspiring against him, deterred those, who would otherwise have believed in Christ, from professing his name and following his doctrines, and thus shut the gate of heaven against them. (Nicholas de Lyra.) ---

In all these reprehensions, it is to be noted, for the honour of the priesthood, Jesus Christ never reprehendeth priests by that name. (S. Cyprian, ep. lxv.)

Gill: Mat 23:13 - But woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites // for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in

But woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,.... It seems from hence, that the Scribes and Pharisees had not left him, at least not all of them, notwithstanding the confusion they were thrown into; but were still about him, observing what he said to the people, and watching an opportunity to take every advantage against him; whom he addresses in a very awful manner, calling them "hypocrites", as he truly might; for they were such, both to God and men: he had detected them already before the people, in several instances of hypocrisy; and gives sufficient reasons, in the following part of this chapter, to support the character, he gives of them, and his charge against them; denouncing a woe upon them in this world, and that which is to come, no less than eight times; expressing his abhorrence of their wickedness, his commiseration of their case, and their certain destruction: "for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men": not eternal life and happiness, the entrance into which can neither be opened nor shut by men: those whom God determines to bring thither, shall have an entrance abundantly ministered to them, in spite of the opposition of men and devils; though these men did all that in them lay, to hinder persons enjoying everlasting glory. But the Gospel dispensation is here meant, which opened by the ministry of John the Baptist, Christ and his disciples, and which the Scribes and Pharisees did all they could to shut; by discouraging the preaching of the Gospel, and the administration of ordinances, in which this dispensation lay; and prejudicing the minds of men against it, that they might not embrace the doctrines of it, nor submit to its ordinances: they, by their office, ought to have opened and explained the Scriptures, the prophecies of the Old Testament relating to the Messiah, and led the people into a knowledge of the mysteries of his kingdom, and encouraged them to enter into this new state of things; which, according to the true intent of Scripture, was to take place, and now did: but instead of this, they shut up the Scriptures, took away the key of knowledge, and laid it aside; and darkened the Scriptures by their false glosses, and obliged the people to observe the traditions of the elders, and which they call סיג לתורה, "an hedge for the law" ^w; to which Beza thinks, the allusion is here, and by which men were shut up, and kept from the true knowledge both of law and Gospel:

for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in: they neither believed in the Messiah themselves, nor embraced the doctrines relating to his person and office: have any of the Pharisees believed on him? No; they received him not, they rejected him, and also the counsel of God, against themselves, not being baptized with the baptism of John, the forerunner of Christ; nor would they suffer others, that were inclined to profess their faith in him, and be baptized, to do it; but discouraged them all they could, by their reproachful treatment of the person, miracles, and ministry of Christ, and by their threatenings and menaces, and by their excommunications of such as made a confession of him.