John Calvin Commentary Matthew 23:15

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is become so, ye make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves." — Matthew 23:15 (ASV)

For you compass sea and land. The scribes had also acquired renown by their zeal in working to bring foreigners and the uncircumcised into the Jewish religion. And so, if they had won anyone over by their deceptive appearances, or by any other scheme, they boasted greatly about it as an increase of the Church. For this reason, they also received great praise from the common people, because by their diligence and skill they brought foreigners into the Church of God.

Christ declares, on the contrary, that this zeal is so far from deserving praise that they increasingly provoke God's vengeance, because they bring greater condemnation upon those who devote themselves to their sect.

We should observe how corrupt their condition was at that time, and what confusion existed in religion. For just as it was a holy and excellent work to gain disciples for God, so to entice the Gentiles to the Jewish worship—which was at that time degenerate, and even full of wicked profanation—was nothing less than to hurry them from Scylla to Charybdis.⁹⁸ Besides, by a sacrilegious abuse of God's name, they brought a heavier condemnation upon themselves, because their religion allowed them more flagrant lawlessness.

An instance of the same kind may be seen today among the monks. For they are diligent in gathering proselytes from every quarter, but these proselytes, from being lascivious and debauched persons, they turn into complete devils. For such is the filthiness of those cesspools in which they carry on their revelry that it would corrupt even the heavenly angels.⁹⁹ Yet the monk’s habit is a very suitable cloak for concealing enormities of every description.

⁹⁸ “Ce n’estoit autre chose que de les oster d’un danger, pour les precipiter en un plus grand;” — “it was nothing else than to rescue them from one danger to plunge them into a greater.” The allusion in the text is to Scylla a rocky promontory on the Italian side of the Strait of Messina, and to Charybdis, a whirlpool opposite to it, on the coast of Sicily. Either of them singly would have rendered the navigation formidable, but their vicinity to ly aggravated the danger; for the very exertions which kept the mariner at a distance from the one unavoidably brought him nearer to the other. This appalling scene meets us frequently in the ancient mythology, in the allusions of poets and orators, and on many other occasions. He who, by avoiding one evil, fell into one still greater, was proverbially said to have avoided Scylla and fallen into Charybdis. — ;” — “it was nothing else than to rescue them from one danger to plunge them into a greater.” The allusion in the text is to Scylla a rocky promontory on the Italian side of the Strait of Messina, and to Charybdis, a whirlpool opposite to it, on the coast of Sicily. Either of them singly would have rendered the navigation formidable, but their vicinity to ly aggravated the danger; for the very exertions which kept the mariner at a distance from the one unavoidably brought him nearer to the other. This appalling scene meets us frequently in the ancient mythology, in the allusions of poets and orators, and on many other occasions. He who, by avoiding one evil, fell into one still greater, was proverbially said to have avoided Scylla and fallen into Charybdis. — Ed.

⁹⁹ “Les anges de Paradis;” — “the angels of Paradise.”;” — “the angels of Paradise.”