to make
one proselyte; and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child
of hell than yourselves! Woe unto you, for ye are as graves which
appear not; and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.[2]

[Footnote 1: The Pharisees excluded men from the kingdom of God by
their fastidious casuistry, which rendered entrance into it too
difficult, and discouraged the unlearned.]

[Footnote 2: Contact with the tombs rendered any one impure. Great
care was, therefore, taken to mark their extent on the ground. Talm.
of Bab., _Baba Bathra_, 58 _a_; _Baba Metsia_, 45 _b_. Jesus here
reproached the Pharisees for having invented a number of small
precepts which might be violated unwittingly, and which only served to
multiply infringements of the law.]

"Ye fools, and blind! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin,
and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy,
and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other
undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
Woe unto you!

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean
the outside of the cup and of the platter;[1] but within they are
full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee,[2] cleanse first
that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may
be clean also.[3]

[Footnote 1: The purification of vessels was subjected, amongst the
Pharisees, to the most complicated laws (Mark vii. 4.)]

[Footnote 2: This epithet, often repeated (Matt. xxiii. 16, 17, 19,
24, 26), perhaps contains an allusion to the custom which certain
Pharisees had of walking with closed eyes in affectation of sanctity.]

[Footnote 3: Luke (xi. 37, and following) supposes, not without
reason, that this verse was uttered during a repast, in answer to the
vain scruples of the Pharisees.]

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; for ye are like unto
whited sepulchres,[1] which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are
within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye
also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of
hypocrisy and iniquity.

[Footnote 1: The tombs being impure, it was customary to whiten them
with lime, to warn persons not to approach them. See p. 315, note 3,
and Mishnah, _Maasar hensi_, v. 1; Talm. of Jerus., _Shekalim_, i. 1;
_Maasar sheni_, v. 1; _Moed katon_, i. 2; _Sota_, ix. 1; Talm. of
Bab., _Moed katon_, 5 _a_. Perh