Matthew 23:21

English Standard Version

And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The one who takes an oath by the temple takes an oath by it and by him who dwells

King James Version (1611)
And who so shall sweare by the Temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.

King James Version
And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.

New American Standard Bible
"And the one who swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells in it.

New Century Version
And the person who swears by the Temple is really using the Temple and also everything in the Temple.

Amplified Bible
"And whoever swears [an oath] by the sanctuary of the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells within it.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"And whoever swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells within it.

Legacy Standard Bible
And whoever swears by the sanctuary, swears both by the sanctuary and by Him who dwells within it.

Berean Standard Bible
And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the One who dwells in it.

Contemporary English Version
And anyone who swears by the temple also swears by God, who lives there.

Complete Jewish Bible
And someone who swears by the Temple swears by it and the One who lives in it.

Darby Translation
And he that swears by the temple swears by it and by him that dwells in it.

Easy-to-Read Version
And anyone who uses the Temple to make a promise is really using the Temple and God, who lives in it.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And whosoeuer sweareth by the Temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.

George Lamsa Translation
And whoever swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who dwells in it.

Good News Translation
and when he swears by the Temple, he is swearing by it and by God, who lives there;

Lexham English Bible
And the one who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.

Literal Translation
And the one swearing by the Holy Place swears by it, and by the One dwelling in it.

American Standard Version
And he that sweareth by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.

Bible in Basic English
And he who takes an oath by the Temple, takes it by the Temple and by him whose house it is.

Hebrew Names Version
He who swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him who is living in it.

International Standard Version
The one who swears an oath by the sanctuary swears by it and by the one who lives there.1 Kings 8:13; 2 Chronicles 6:2; Psalm 26:8; 132:14;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
And he who sweareth by the temple, sweareth by it, and by whatever abideth in it.

Murdock Translation
And he who sweareth by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth in it.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And who so sweareth by the temple, sweareth by it, and by hym that dwelleth therin.

English Revised Version
And he that sweareth by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.

World English Bible
He who swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him who is living in it.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
And he that sweareth by the temple, sweareth by it and by him that dwelleth therein.

Weymouth's New Testament
he who swears by the Sanctuary swears both by it and by Him who dwells in it;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And he that swerith in the temple, swerith in it, and in hym that dwellith in the temple.

Update Bible Version
And he that swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him that dwells therein.

Webster's Bible Translation
And whoever shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth in it.

New English Translation
And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and the one who dwells in it.

New King James Version
He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells [fn] in it.

New Living Translation
And when you swear ‘by the Temple,' you are swearing by it and by God, who lives in it.

New Life Bible
Whoever makes a promise by the house of God, promises by it and by Him Who is in it.

New Revised Standard
and whoever swears by the sanctuary, swears by it and by the one who dwells in it;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And, he that hath sworn by the Temple, sweareth by it, and by him who dwelleth therein;

Douay-Rheims Bible
And whosoever shall swear by the temple sweareth by it and by him that dwelleth in it.

Revised Standard Version
and he who swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who dwells in it;

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
And whosoever sweareth by the teple sweareth by it and by hym yt dwelleth therin.

Young's Literal Translation
and he who did swear by the sanctuary, doth swear by it, and by Him who is dwelling in it;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and who so sweareth by the temple, sweareth by the same, and by him that dwelleth therin.

Mace New Testament (1729)
and whoever swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.

Simplified Cowboy Version

Contextual Overview

¹³ "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.' You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" ¹⁴Seven Woes to the Scribes and Pharisees Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. ¹⁵ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. ¹⁶ "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' ¹⁷ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? ¹⁸ And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.' ¹⁹ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? ²⁰ So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. ²¹ And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. ²² And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

and by: 1 Kings 8:13, 1 Kings 8:27, 2 Chronicles 6:2, 2 Chronicles 7:2, Psalms 26:8, Psalms 132:13, Psalms 132:14, Ephesians 2:22, Colossians 2:9

Reciprocal: Psalms 11:4 - the Lord's Isaiah 66:1 - The heaven

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And whoso shall swear by the temple,.... As we have before seen they used to do, and as appears from what the poet says w:

Ecce negas, jurasque mihi per templa tonantis Non credo: jura, verpe, per Anchialum.

In which he intimates, that if the Jew swore by the temple, he would not believe him; as well he might not, since such an oath was accounted nothing; but bids him swear by Anchialus, that is, by אלוה

חי, "Chi Eloah", or חי עליון, "Chi Alon", or "Elion, the living God", or הי העולם, "Chi Haolam, he that lives for ever" x; and suggests, that he should then believe him. Now our Lord, though he did not allow of such swearing, yet justly argues, that he that sweareth by the temple, not only "sweareth by it", which could not be a witness of what was swore; but he must be interpreted to swear by the inhabitant of it, and by him that dwelleth in it; that is, God, for whom it was built, to whom it was dedicated; where he was worshipped, and where he vouchsafed to reside; taking up his dwelling between the cherubim upon the mercy seat, in the most holy place; from whence he communed with men, and gave tokens of his presence; and who only could be the proper witness of the truth, or falsehood, of what was swore; and therefore an oath, by the temple, ought to be looked upon as if made by God himself, and so to be sacred and binding.

w Martial. Epigr. l. 11. Ep. 60. x Vid. Selden. Prolegomena ad lib. de Successionibus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Him that dwelleth therein - That is, God. The temple was his house, his dwelling. In the first, or Solomon’s temple, he dwelt between the cherubims in the most holy place. He manifested himself there by a visible symbol, in the form of a cloud resting on the mercy-seat, 1 Kings 8:10, 1 Kings 8:13; Psalms 80:1.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Matthew 23:21. Whoso shall swear by the temple — Perhaps it is to this custom of swearing by the temple, that Martial alludes, lib. xi. epist. 95.

Ecce negas, jurasque mihi per templa Tonantis;

Non credo; jura, Verpe, per Anchialum.

"Behold, thou deniest, and swearest to me by the temples of Jupiter; I will not credit thee: swear, O Jew, by the temple of Jehovah."

This word probably comes from היכל יה heical Yah, the temple of Jehovah. This seems a better derivation than אם חי אלהים im chai Elohim, as God liveth, though the sound of the latter is nearer to the Latin.

By him that dwelleth therein. — The common reading is κατοικουντι, dwelleth or INHABITETH, but κατοικησαντι, dwelt or DID inhabit, is the reading of CDEFGHKLM, eighty-six others; this reading has been adopted in the editions of Complutum, Colineus, Bengel, and Griesbach. The importance of this reading may be perceived by the following considerations. In the first Jewish temple, God had graciously condescended to manifest himself - he is constantly represented as dwelling between the cherubim, the two figures that stood at each end of the ark of the covenant; between whom, on the mercy seat, the lid of the ark, a splendour of glory was exhibited, which was the symbol and proof of the Divine presence. This the Jews called שכינה Shekinah, the habitation of Jehovah. Now the Jews unanimously acknowledge that five things were wanting in the second temple, which were found in the first, viz.,

1. The ark;

2. The holy spirit of prophecy;

3. The Urim and Thummim;

4. The sacred fire; and

5. The שכינה Shekinah.

As the Lord had long before this time abandoned the Jewish temple, and had now made the human nature of Jesus the Shekinah, (see John 1:14, the Logos was made flesh, εσκηνωσεν, and made his tabernacle - made the Shekinah,-among us,) our Lord could not, with any propriety, say that the supreme Being did now inhabit the temple; and therefore used a word that hinted to them that God had forsaken their temple, and consequently the whole of that service which was performed in it, and had now opened the new and living way to the holiest by the Messiah. But all this was common swearing; and, whether the subject was true or false, the oath was unlawful. A common swearer is worthy of no credit, when, even in the most solemn manner he takes an oath before a magistrate; he is so accustomed to stake his truth, perhaps even his soul, to things whether true or false, that an oath cannot bind him, and indeed is as little respected by himself as it is by his neighbour. Common swearing, and the shocking frequency and multiplication of oaths in civil cases, have destroyed all respect for an oath; so that men seldom feel themselves bound by it; and thus it is useless in many cases to require it as a confirmation, in order to end strife or ascertain truth. Matthew 5:37.