Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Matthew 23:20
Whose therefore shall swear by the altar, &c.--See on Mat 5:33-37.
blockversewordysbillionaire.aiyourlistWhiteboardAppquizieunschoolblockversewordysbillionaire.aiyourlistWhiteboardAppquizieunschoolAnd he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.
| Word | Greek | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| And | καὶ kai | G2532 | and · conjunction |
| he that shall swear | ὀμόσας omosas | G3660 | to swear · verb — aorist active participle, nominative singular masculine |
| by | ἐν en | G1722 | "in · preposition |
| heaven | οὐρανῷ ouranō | G3772 | the sky · noun — dative singular masculine |
| sweareth | ὀμνύει omnuei | G3660 | to swear · verb — present active indicative, 3rd person singular |
| by | ἐν en | G1722 | "in · preposition |
| the throne | θρόνῳ thronō | G2362 | a stately seat ("throne") · noun — dative singular masculine |
| of God | θεοῦ theou | G2316 | figuratively · noun — genitive singular masculine, a title |
| and | καὶ kai | G2532 | and · conjunction |
| by | ἐν en | G1722 | "in · preposition |
| him that sitteth | καθημένῳ kathēmenō | G2521 | and (to sit · verb — present middle or passive deponent participle, dative singular masculine |
| thereon | ἐπάνω epanō | G1883 | up above · preposition |
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).
Whose therefore shall swear by the altar, &c.--See on Mat 5:33-37.
And he that shall swear by heaven,.... As the Jews were wont to do in common, but did not look upon such an oath as obligatory on them; See Gill on Matthew 5:34, though such an one sweareth by the throne of God; for heaven is God's throne, where he sits, and, in an eminent manner, displays the glory of his majesty: and by him that sitteth thereon, by God himself. Thus swearing by anything that has any relation to God, is implicitly swearing by him; and therefore ought to be considered as binding, as if he was expressed in it; since an appeal cannot be made to things inanimate, nor indeed to any creature, but to God, the searcher of hearts.
Matthew 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).
In like manner the custom which the Jews had of swearing by the Heaven He reprobates. For they did not, as they supposed, avoid the danger of taking an oath by God, because, Whose sweareth by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.
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).