Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
| Word | Greek | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| fools | μωροὶ mōroi | G3474 | dull or stupid (as if shut up) · adjective — vocative plural masculine |
| and | καὶ kai | G2532 | and · conjunction |
| blind | τυφλοί, tuphloi | G5185 | opaque (as if smoky) · adjective — vocative plural masculine |
| for | γὰρ gar | G1063 | properly · conjunction |
| whether | τί ti | G5101 | an interrogative pronoun · interrogative pronoun — nominative singular neuter |
| greater | μεῖζον, meizon | G3173 | big (literally or figuratively · adjective — nominative singular neuter, comparative |
| the gift | δῶρον dōron | G1435 | a present · noun — nominative singular neuter |
| or | ἢ ē | G2228 | disjunctive · conjunction |
| the altar | θυσιαστήριον thusiastērion | G2379 | a place of sacrifice · noun — nominative singular neuter |
| that sanctifieth | ἁγιάζον hagiazon | G37 | to make holy · verb — present active participle, nominative singular neuter |
| the gift | δῶρον; dōron | G1435 | a present · noun — accusative singular neuter |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Ye fools, and blind! for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?--(See Exo 29:37).
Ye fools, and blind,.... This is very justly repeated, since this is no less an instance of their folly, blindness, and stupidity. In three copies of Beza's the word "fools" is not; nor is it in the Vulgate Latin, nor in Munster's Hebrew Gospel; but the Syriac, Arabic, Persic, and Ethiopic versions have it: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? The gift, or offering, before it was devoted to sacred use, and brought, and laid upon the altar, was common, had no ceremonial sanctity in it, and might be put to any use; but when it was brought, and laid upon the altar, it became holy; for, according to the law, whatever touched the altar, and indeed all, or any…
Read the whole note in the consoleMatthew 23:16-22 Matthew 23:16-22 16. Woe to you, blind guides! who say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but he who shall swear by the gold of the temple is guilty. 17. Fools, and blind! for which is greater, the gold, or the temple which sanctifieth the gold? 18. And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gift which is upon it is guilty. 19. Fools, and blind! for which is greater, the gilt, or the altar which sanctifieth the gift? 20. Whosoever therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things that are on it. 21. And whosoever shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth in it. 22.…
Read the whole note in the consoleThe religious leaders declared certain oaths less binding in order to commit fraud. Jesus calls for honest fulfillment of commitments (see 5:33-37).
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
For 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.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
