Albert Barnes Commentary Matthew 23:6

"and love the chief place at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues," — Matthew 23:6 (ASV)

The uppermost rooms at feasts. The word rooms, here, does not at all express the meaning of the original. It would be more accurately translated as the uppermost places or couches at feasts. To understand this, it is necessary to note that the custom among the Jews was not to eat sitting, as we do, but reclining on couches.

The table was constructed from three tables, raised like ours, and placed to form a square, with a clear space in the middle and one end completely open. On their sides were placed cushions, capable of holding three or more persons. On these cushions, the guests reclined, leaning on their left side with their feet extended away from the table, so that the head of one person naturally reclined on the bosom of another.

To recline near another person in this manner signified intimacy and was what was meant by lying in the bosom of another (John 13:23; Luke 16:22–23). Since the feet were extended from the table, and because they reclined instead of sitting, it was easy to approach their feet from behind, even unnoticed.

Thus, in Luke 7:37-38, while Jesus reclined in this manner, a woman who had been a sinner came to his feet behind him, washed them with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. She stood on the outside of the couches. In the same way, our Savior washed the feet of his disciples as they reclined on a couch in this manner (John 13:4–12).

Whenever we read in the New Testament of sitting at meals, it always means reclining in this manner, and never sitting as we do. The chief seat, or the uppermost one, was the middle couch at the upper end of the table. This seat the Pharisees loved as a post of honor or distinction. The accompanying illustration will fully illustrate this custom.

Chief seats in the synagogues. These were the seats usually occupied by the elders of the synagogue, near the pulpit. They love a place of distinction. (See Barnes on Matthew 4:23).