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Read the Bible

New Living Translation

Matthew 23:19

How blind! For which is more important—the gift on the altar or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Altar;   Blindness;   Church;   Ecclesiasticism;   Hypocrisy;   Oath;   Pharisees;   Satire;   Teachers;   Temple;   Thompson Chain Reference - Blindness;   Blindness-Vision;   Spiritual;   The Topic Concordance - Blindness;   Guidance;   Hypocrisy;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Altar of Burnt-Offering, the;   Blindness, Spiritual;   Fools;   Hypocrites;   Oaths;   Pharisees, the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Pharisees;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Hypocrisy;   Matthew, gospel of;   Pharisees;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Altar;   Anger;   Blindness;   Ethics;   Fool, Foolishness, Folly;   Hypocrisy;   Sanctification;   Worship;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Supralapsarians;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Altar;   Pharisees;   Scribes;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Altar;   Blindness;   Consecration;   Matthew, the Gospel of;   Oaths;   Salutation;   Sanctification;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Hypocrite;   Judas Iscariot;   Sacrifice and Offering;   Sanctification, Sanctify;   Scribes;   Sin;   Text of the New Testament;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Altar ;   Anger (2);   Children of God;   Claim;   Common Life;   Courage;   Discourse;   Error;   Fool (2);   Judgment;   Law of God;   Manuscripts;   Mental Characteristics;   Oath;   Organization (2);   Paradox;   Profaning, Profanity;   Reality;   Sabbath ;   Sanctify, Sanctification;   Self-Control;   Teaching of Jesus;   Temple (2);   Woe;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Blindness;   Oath;   Scribes;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Corban;   Pharisee;   Scribe;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Pharisees;   Scribe;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Oath,;   Scribes;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Vow;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Jesus of Nazareth;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Fool;   Matthew, the Gospel of;   Sanctification;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Hypocrisy;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Blind people!
King James Version (1611)
Ye fooles and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the Altar that sanctifieth the gift?
King James Version
Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
English Standard Version
You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
New American Standard Bible
"You blind men, which is more important, the offering or the altar that sanctifies the offering?
New Century Version
You are blind! Which is greater: the gift or the altar that makes the gift holy?
Amplified Bible
"You [spiritually] blind men, which is more important, the offering, or the altar that sanctifies the offering?
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"You blind men, which is more important, the offering, or the altar that sanctifies the offering?
Legacy Standard Bible
You blind men, which is more important, the offering, or the altar that sanctifies the offering?
Berean Standard Bible
You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes it sacred?
Contemporary English Version
Are you blind? Which is more important, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
Complete Jewish Bible
Blind men! Which is more important? the sacrifice? or the altar which makes the sacrifice holy?
Darby Translation
[Fools and] blind ones, for which is greater, the gift, or the altar which sanctifies the gift?
Easy-to-Read Version
You are blind! Can't you see that the altar is greater than any gift on it? It's the altar that makes the gift holy!
Geneva Bible (1587)
Ye fooles and blinde, whether is greater, the offering, or the altar which sanctifieth the offering?
George Lamsa Translation
O you fools and blind! for which is greater, the offering, or the altar that sanctifies the offering?
Good News Translation
How blind you are! Which is the more important, the gift or the altar which makes the gift holy?
Lexham English Bible
Blind people! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift holy?
Literal Translation
Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
American Standard Version
Ye blind: for which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
Bible in Basic English
You blind ones: which is greater, the offering, or the altar which makes the offering holy?
Hebrew Names Version
You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
International Standard Version
You blind men!blind and foolish men
">[fn] Which is more important, the gift or the altar that makes the gift holy?Exodus 29:37;">[xr]
Etheridge Translation
You foolish and sightless ! for which is greater, the oblation, or the altar that sanctifieth the oblation ?
Murdock Translation
Ye fools, and blind: for which is greater, the oblation, or the altar that sanctifieth the oblation?
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Ye fooles and blynde, for whether is greater, the gyft: or the aulter that sanctifieth the gyft?
English Revised Version
Ye blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
World English Bible
You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Ye fools and blind; for which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
Weymouth's New Testament
"You are blind! Why, which is greater? --the offering, or the altar which makes the offering holy?
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Blynde men, for what is more, the yifte, or the auter that halewith the yifte?
Update Bible Version
You blind men: for which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
Webster's Bible Translation
[Ye] fools, and blind: for which [is] greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
New English Translation
You are blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
New King James Version
Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
New Life Bible
You fools and blind men! Which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift holy?
New Revised Standard
How blind you are! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Blind! for which is greater, The gift, or the altar that halloweth the gift?
Douay-Rheims Bible
Ye foolish and blind: for whether is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
Revised Standard Version
You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Ye foles and blinde: whether is greater ye offeringe or ye aultre which sanctifieth ye offeringe?
Young's Literal Translation
Fools and blind! for which [is] greater, the gift, or the altar that is sanctifying the gift?
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Ye fooles and blynde, whether is greater? the offeringe, or the altare that sanctifieth the offerynge?
Mace New Testament (1729)
ye blind fools, which is most sacred, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
Simplified Cowboy Version

Contextual Overview

13 "What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people's faces. You won't go in yourselves, and you don't let others enter either. 14 15 "What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are! 16 "Blind guides! What sorrow awaits you! For you say that it means nothing to swear ‘by God's Temple,' but that it is binding to swear ‘by the gold in the Temple.' 17 Blind fools! Which is more important—the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 And you say that to swear ‘by the altar' is not binding, but to swear ‘by the gifts on the altar' is binding. 19 How blind! For which is more important—the gift on the altar or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 When you swear ‘by the altar,' you are swearing by it and by everything on it. 21 And when you swear ‘by the Temple,' you are swearing by it and by God, who lives in it. 22 And when you swear ‘by heaven,' you are swearing by the throne of God and by God, who sits on the throne.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

or: Exodus 29:37, Exodus 30:29

Reciprocal: Exodus 37:25 - General Exodus 40:26 - General Exodus 40:29 - the altar Leviticus 21:18 - a blind man Numbers 7:1 - sanctified them Deuteronomy 26:4 - before the Isaiah 60:2 - the darkness Haggai 2:12 - General Matthew 5:23 - thou Matthew 23:16 - ye blind Matthew 23:17 - or

Cross-References

Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return."
Genesis 23:9
to let me buy his cave at Machpelah, down at the end of his field. I will pay the full price in the presence of witnesses, so I will have a permanent burial place for my family."
Genesis 23:10
Ephron was sitting there among the others, and he answered Abraham as the others listened, speaking publicly before all the Hittite elders of the town.
Genesis 47:30
When I die, please take my body out of Egypt and bury me with my ancestors." So Joseph promised, "I will do as you ask."
Genesis 50:13
They carried his body to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre. This is the cave that Abraham had bought as a permanent burial site from Ephron the Hittite.
Genesis 50:25
Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath, and he said, "When God comes to help you and lead you back, you must take my bones with you."
Job 30:23
And I know you are sending me to my death— the destination of all who live.
Ecclesiastes 6:3
A man might have a hundred children and live to be very old. But if he finds no satisfaction in life and doesn't even get a decent burial, it would have been better for him to be born dead.
Ecclesiastes 12:5
Remember him before you become fearful of falling and worry about danger in the streets; before your hair turns white like an almond tree in bloom, and you drag along without energy like a dying grasshopper, and the caperberry no longer inspires sexual desire. Remember him before you near the grave, your everlasting home, when the mourners will weep at your funeral.
Ecclesiastes 12:7
For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 of the vessels of the sanctuary, was holy, Exodus 29:37. Christ speaks the sense of the law, and their own traditions, and in their own language, and argues from the same to the confutation of them: חמזבח מקדש, "the altar", they say u, "sanctifies" that which is fit for it; that is, that which is proper to be offered up upon it:

"as the altar sanctifies that which is fit for it, so the ascent unto it sanctifies; and as the altar, and the ascent, sanctify what is fit for them, so the vessels sanctify; the vessels for liquids sanctify the liquids, and the dry measures sanctify the dry; the vessels for liquids do not sanctify the dry, nor the dry measures sanctify the liquids; the holy vessels, which are bored, (or broken,) when they do the service they used to do, when whole, sanctify, if not, they do not sanctify; nor does anything sanctify but in the sanctuary.''

Now, since this is a clear case, that the altar sanctifies the gift, and not the gift the altar, our Lord's question is, which is the greater? A man that has the least share of common sense will easily see, that the altar must be the greater: wherefore these scribes and Pharisees must be wretchedly stupid to give out, that an oath made by the altar was not binding, when one that was made by the gift, or

Korban, was binding; seeing the gift, or offering, received its sanctity from the altar: hence, of the two, an oath made by the altar should be more sacred and obligatory than one made by the gift.

u Misn. Zebachim, c. 9. sect. 7.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The altar that sanctifieth the gift - The altar, dedicated to God, gave all the value or holiness to the offering, and must therefore be the greatest or of the most importance. If, therefore, either bound to the fulfillment of an oath, it must be the altar.


 
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