John Calvin Commentary Matthew 23:27

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men`s bones, and of all uncleanness." — Matthew 23:27 (ASV)

You are like whitened sepulchers. This is a different metaphor, but the meaning is the same. For He compares them to sepulchers, which worldly people ambitiously construct with great beauty and splendor.

Just as a painting or engraving on sepulchers draws people's eyes to them, while inwardly they contain stinking carcasses, so Christ says that hypocrites deceive by their outward appearance, because they are full of deceit and iniquity.

Luke's words are somewhat different, noting that they deceive people's eyes like sepulchers which are frequently not perceived by those who walk over them. However, this amounts to the same meaning: under the guise of pretended holiness, hidden filth, which they cherish in their hearts, lurks within them.

This condition is like a marble sepulcher, for it has the appearance of what is beautiful and lovely, but it covers a stinking carcass so as not to be offensive to those who pass by.

Therefore, we infer what I have said before: Christ, intending to benefit the simple and ignorant, tore off the deceitful mask that the scribes wore in their empty hypocrisy. For this warning was beneficial to simple people, so that they might quickly withdraw from the jaws of wolves.

Yet this passage contains a general doctrine: the children of God ought to desire to be pure rather than to appear so.