Christian Standard Bible
Matthew 23:24
24Blind guides! You strain out a gnat, but gulp down a camel!
Matthew 23:24 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
- New International Version (NIV)You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
- English Standard Version (ESV)You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
- New King James Version (NKJV)Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
Context of Matthew 23:24
22And the one who takes an oath by heaven takes an oath by God’s throne and by him who sits on it. 23“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, and yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These things should have been done without neglecting the others. Blind guides! You strain out a gnat, but gulp down a camel! 25“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside of it may also become clean.
Read all of Matthew 23Matthew 23:24 word by word
ὁδηγοὶ τυφλοί, οἱ διϋλίζοντες τὸν κώνωπα, τὴν δὲ κάμηλον καταπίνοντες.¶Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Matthew 23:24
- Matthew 7:4Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye?
- Matthew 15:2“Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat.”
- Matthew 19:24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
- Matthew 27:6The chief priests took the silver and said, “It’s not permitted to put it into the temple treasury, since it is blood money.”
- Luke 6:7The scribes and Pharisees were watching him closely, to see if he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they could find a charge against him.
- John 18:28Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They did not enter the headquarters themselves; otherwise they would be defiled and unable to eat the Passover.
Commentaries on Matthew 23:24
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 24Blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. - This clause should be thus translated: Ye strain out the gnat, but ye swallow down the camel. In the common translation, Ye strain At a gnat, conveys no sense. Indeed, it is likely to have been at first an error of the press, At for Out, which, on examination, I find escaped in the edition of 1611, and has been regularly continued since. There is now before me, "The Newe Testament, (both in…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 24Which strain at a gnat - This is a proverb. There is, however, a mistranslation or misprint here, which makes the verse unmeaning. “To strain” at a “gnat” conveys no sense. It should have been to strain out a gnat; and so it is printed in some of the earlier versions, and so it was undoubtedly rendered by the translators. The common reading is a “misprint,” and should be corrected. The Greek means to “strain” out by a cloth or sieve. A gnat - The gnat…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 13-33Verses 13-33 The scribes and Pharisees were enemies to the gospel of Christ, and therefore to the salvation of the souls of men. It is bad to keep away from Christ ourselves, but worse also to keep others from him. Yet it is no new thing for the show and form of godliness to be made a cloak to the greatest enormities. But dissembled piety will be reckoned double iniquity. They were very busy to turn souls to be of their party. Not for the glory of God and…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 24gnat … camel: In Aramaic, the language Jesus likely spoke, these two words sound similar (qalma … gamla). This makes a wordplay or pun. Jesus used the contrast between a tiny gnat and a huge camel to show the hypocrisy of focusing on small details while ignoring much greater issues.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2424. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat--The proper rendering--as in the older English translations, and perhaps our own as it came from the translators' hands--evidently is, "strain out." It was the custom, says Trench, of the stricter Jews to strain their wine, vinegar, and other potables through linen or gauze, lest unawares they should drink down some little unclean insect therein and thus transgress (Le 11:20, 23, 41, 42)--just as the Buddhists…Read the comment
Topics related to Matthew 23:24
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Matthew 23
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Catena Aurea
- Illustrated New Testament
- Burkitt’s Expository Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Family Bible Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- John Lightfoot Commentary
- Luther’s Commentary on Selected Bible Passages
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- The People’s New Testament
- Robertson’s Word Pictures
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- The Fourfold Gospel and Commentary on Acts
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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