Matthew 23:19

New Life Version

You fools and blind men! Which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift holy?

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

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 "It is bad for you, teachers of the Law and proud religious law-keepers, you who pretend to be someone you are not! You keep men from going into the holy nation of heaven. You are not going in yourselves, and you do not allow those to go in who are about to go in. ¹⁴ It is bad for you, teachers of the Law and proud religious law-keepers, you who pretend to be someone you are not! (*You take houses from poor women whose husbands have died. Then you try to cover it up by making long prayers. You will be punished all the more because of this.) ¹⁵ It is bad for you, teachers of the Law and proud religious law-keepers, you who pretend to be someone you are not! You go over land and sea to win one follower. When you have him, you make him twice as much a child of hell as you are. ¹⁶ "It is bad for you, blind leaders! You say, ‘Whoever makes a promise by the house of God, his promise is worth nothing. But whoever makes a promise by the gold of the house of God, then his promise has to be kept.' ¹⁷ You fools and blind men! Which is greater, the gold or the house of God that makes the gold holy? ¹⁸ You say, ‘Whoever will promise by the altar, his promise does not have to be kept. But whoever makes a promise by the gift on the altar, then his promise has to be kept.' ¹⁹ You fools and blind men! Which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift holy? ²⁰ Whoever makes a promise by the altar, promises by it and by everything on it. ²¹ Whoever makes a promise by the house of God, promises by it and by Him Who is in it. ²² Whoever makes a promise by heaven, promises by the throne of God and by Him Who sits there.

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
You will eat bread by the sweat of your face because of hard work, until you return to the ground, because you were taken from the ground. You are dust, and you will return to dust."

Genesis 23:9
Ask him to give me the grave of Machpelah which he has at the other side of his field. Let him give it to me for the full price in front of you, for a place to bury my wife."

Genesis 23:10
Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth. So Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham so what he said could be heard by the sons of Heth and all who came in through the gate of his city.

Genesis 47:30
But let me lie down with my fathers. Carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried." And Joseph said, "I will do as you have said."

Genesis 50:13
They carried him to the land of Canaan. They buried him in the grave of the field of Machpelah, east of Mamre, which Abraham had bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a burying place.

Genesis 50:25
Then Joseph made the sons of Israel promise. He said, "God will take care of you. And you will carry my bones from here."

Job 30:23
For I know that You will bring me to death, to the place for all the living.

Ecclesiastes 6:3
If a man becomes the father of a hundred children and lives many years until he is very old, but he is not happy with good things, and is not buried as he should be, then I say that the child who dies before it is born is shown more favor than he.

Ecclesiastes 12:5
Men will be afraid of a high place and of fears on the road. Flowers will grow on the almond tree. The grasshopper will pull himself along. And desire will be at an end. For man will go to his home that lasts forever, while people filled with sorrow go about in the street.

Ecclesiastes 12:7
Then the dust will return to the earth as it was. 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.