Chapter LXXV.—Of the Pharisees Who Sit in the Seat of Moses, and Enjoin Things
Which They Do Not, and of the Other Words Spoken by the Lord Against These Same
Pharisees; Of the Question Whether Matthew’s Narrative Agrees Here with Those Which
are Given by the Other Two Evangelists, and in Particular with that of Luke, Who Introduces
a Passage Resembling This One, Although It is Brought in Not in This Order, But in Another
Connection.
144. Matthew proceeds with his account, observing the following order of narration:
“Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to His disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees
sit in Moses’ seat: all, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but
do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not;” and so on, down to the words, “Ye
shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the
Lord.” 1176 Luke also mentions a similar discourse which was spoken by the Lord in oppos-
ition to the Pharisees and the scribes and the doctors of the law, but reports it as delivered
in the house of a certain Pharisee, who had invited Him to a feast. In order to relate that
passage, he has made a digression from the order which is followed by Matthew, about the
point at which they have both put on record the Lord’s sayings respecting the sign of the
three days and nights in the history of Jonas, and the queen of the south, and the unclean
spirit that returns and finds the house swept.1177 And that paragraph is followed up by
Matthew with these words: “While He yet talked to the people, behold, His mother and His
brethren stood without, desiring to speak with Him.” But in the version which the third
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Gospel presents of the discourse then spoken by the Lord, after the recital of certain sayings
of the Lord which Matthew has omitted to notice, Luke turns off from the order which he
had been observing in concert with Matthew, so that his immediately subsequent narrative
runs thus: “And as He spake, a certain Pharisee besought Him to dine with him: and He
went in, and sat down to meat. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that He had not
first washed before dinner. And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean
the outside of the cup and platter.”1178 And after this, Luke reports other utterances which
were directed against the said Pharisees and scribes and teachers of the law, which are of a
similar tenor to those which Matthew also recounts in this passage which we have taken in
hand at present to consider.1179 Wherefore, although Matthew records these things in a
manner which, while it is true indeed that the house of that Pharisee is not mentioned by
name, yet does not specify as the scene where the words were spoken any place entirely in-
consistent with the idea of His having been in the house referred to; still the facts that the
1176 Matt. xxiii.
1177 Matt. xii. 39–46.
1178 Luke xi. 29–39.
1179 Luke xi. 40–52.
Of the Pharisees Who Sit in the Seat of Moses, and Enjoin Things Which They Do Not, and of the Other Words Spoken by the Lord Against These Same Pharisees; Of the Question Whether Matthew’s Narrative Agrees Here with Those Which are Given by the Other Two Evangelists, and in Particular with that of Luke, Who Introduces a Passage Resembling This One, Although It is Brought in Not in This Order, But in Another Connection.
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Of the Pharisees Who Sit in the Seat of Moses, and Enjoin Things Which They…