This podcast feed hosts the public teaching ministry of Dr. Bryant K. Owens. I am an independent scholar exploring Christian Studies in today’s secular world. I believe that thoughtful Christianity can bring meaningful change in our churches, classrooms, homes, and communities. With years of experience as both a pastor and educator, I am passionate about the historical Christian worldview and the classical, Socratic approach to learning. My work draws from theology, philosophy, ethics, and the humanities, always with a heart for making faith thoughtful and life-giving.

https://bryantowens.substack.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drbryantowens/

Matthew 23:34-36 v1 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,v2 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 alter. v3 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

This is the conclusion of the Sermon of the Seven Woes that shifts the lessons from the sins of the past to the sins of the future. As the Pharisees and scribes claimed piety over the sins of their forefathers against the prophets, Jesus prophecies of future murder of the Apostles who will carry the message of The Christ to synagogues and towns all over the world. Just as God’s prophets of Old were persecuted and martyred, so too will the coming Church be persecuted and martyred. Just as God sent prophets to proclaim the coming Messiah, Jesus will send Apostles and saints of the Church to preach salvation through the blood of Christ alone. As the Pharisees opposed God’s message in the past, they will continue in the future. The Church will be built upon a foundation of blood. First the blood of Christ. Then the blood of the Apostles and these hypocritical leaders would be judged for it all.

This podcast feed hosts the public teaching ministry of Dr. Bryant K. Owens. I am an independent scholar exploring Christian Studies in today’s secular world. I believe that thoughtful Christianity can bring meaningful change in our churches, classrooms, homes, and communities. With years of experience as both a pastor and educator, I am passionate about the historical Christian worldview and the classical, Socratic approach to learning. My work draws from theology, philosophy, ethics, and the humanities, always with a heart for making faith thoughtful and life-giving.

https://bryantowens.substack.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drbryantowens/

"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?

Woe #7, Matthew 23:29-33 is Jesus’ final woe against the Pharisees and scribes. It condemns them for looking to the past with a romantic vision of the patriarchs and the prophets. They romanticize the time of the prophets and the patriarchs for the purity of the Mosaic Law. Yet their imagination also condemns their forefathers for murdering the prophets of old. These Pharisees and scribes elevate their piety above the patriarchs and are condemned more by Jesus’ words than their blind vision of the past.

This podcast feed hosts the public teaching ministry of Dr. Bryant K. Owens. I am an independent scholar exploring Christian Studies in today’s secular world. I believe that thoughtful Christianity can bring meaningful change in our churches, classrooms, homes, and communities. With years of experience as both a pastor and educator, I am passionate about the historical Christian worldview and the classical, Socratic approach to learning. My work draws from theology, philosophy, ethics, and the humanities, always with a heart for making faith thoughtful and life-giving.

https://bryantowens.substack.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drbryantowens/

"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. In Woe #6, Matthew 23:27-28 Jesus rebukes the scribes and Pharisees for an outward righteous and beautiful appearance. Jesus compares the scribes and Pharisees to whitewashed tombs who appear beautiful and clean outwardly, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.

This podcast feed hosts the public teaching ministry of Dr. Bryant K. Owens. I am an independent scholar exploring Christian Studies in today’s secular world. I believe that thoughtful Christianity can bring meaningful change in our churches, classrooms, homes, and communities. With years of experience as both a pastor and educator, I am passionate about the historical Christian worldview and the classical, Socratic approach to learning. My work draws from theology, philosophy, ethics, and the humanities, always with a heart for making faith thoughtful and life-giving.

https://bryantowens.substack.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drbryantowens/

“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.”

Jesus follows his previous statements with figurative language that condemn the false piety of these religious leaders. He calls out these scribes for being eagerly driven on the single task of polishing up their public image.

[v. 25a] “For you clean the outside of the cup and plate …”

Jesus spoke the truth to these men of the Law. They were diligent to wash up for the public … adorn themselves with the ornate robes of office and put forth a public face of piety and godly obedience.

The scribes and Pharisees seemed to be only concerned with cleanliness that appeared outwardly. They devoted their energies to ceremonial cleanliness through meticulous attention to meals and to the sacrifices on the altar. Yet the figurative purpose of this language by our LORD is meant to expose the external devotions of piety.

This passage of Jonah's prophecy depicts the repentance of the Assyrian Ninevittes following Jonah's brief message of judgment. A review of Jonah's prophecy of judgment from verse four will set the stage for a greater understanding of the mass repentance described in verses six to ten.
"Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" (3:4)
'will be overthrown' (ESV/KJV/NASB) / 'will be overturned' (NIV)


nehpaket - the basic idea is 'to turn' ... but the word is used elsewhere in the OT:
destruction (Gen 19:21)
transformation (Ps. 66:6)

So literally, God declares through Jonah that within 40 days of this declaration in the open square, Nineveh would be changed.
Change was coming on way or another.
Jonah 3:2 shows us that Nineveh was a great city. The Hebrew connotation here could be translated, "Nineveh was a great city to God"

Exaggeration of the unimportant can be the easiest way to gain the attention of others. The contemporary version of this is internet clickbait; an exaggeration of something that is truly unimportant but is expressed as the MOST IMPORTANT thing. It is the way that news media and social media influencers grab the attention of their followers and grow their base of influence.

Hyperbole is a rhetorical device that exaggerates an idea to make a point. Jesus uses hyperbole in this passage to point out the twisted hyperbole that these Pharisees were guilty of doing.

"You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!" (v 24)

This fourth WOE from Jesus in his Sermon of Seven Woes exposes the hypocritical exaggeration from these men of the Law of truly unimportant matters.

Instead, Jesus again drives home the TRUTH of God's Word, the TRUTH of the gospel, that it is not what one does that is the most important, rather it is THE ONE who redeems us, and that we love and adore, that concerns the Father in Heaven. If one is truly humble and merciful and faithful to the WORD of God as Christ is truly humble and merciful and faithful, then one's actions will reflect the same.

Read more at: https://bryantowens.substack.com/p/matthew-2323-24-woe-to-you-camel