To read the texts click on the texts: 1 Thess 2:1-8; Mt 23:23-26
The fourth (23,23-24) and fifth (23,25-26) woes against the Pharisees
are about focussing on the insignificant matters and externals while forgetting
what is significant and internal.
The Pharisees were extremely particular about
tithing and to ensure that they did not err in this regard, tithed even small
garden vegetables used for seasoning which Matthew mentions here as mint, dill
and cumin and probably in order to correspond with justice and mercy and faith.
Gnat and Camel, which the Matthean Jesus contrasts in 23:24, were the smallest
and largest living things in ordinary experience.
The Matthean Jesus does
not state that what the Pharisees are doing is wrong. His critique is that
while focussing so much on these insignificant items, they lose sight of the
larger picture.
Too much focus on the external can also lead to forgetting the
internal. What is on the outside is merely a reflection of what is within.
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