John Calvin Commentary Matthew 23:29

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and garnish the tombs of the righteous," — Matthew 23:29 (ASV)

For you build the sepulchers of the prophets. An unfounded opinion is held by some that the scribes are here reproved for superstition, in foolishly honoring the deceased prophets with splendid sepulchers, as the Papists now transfer the honor of God to departed saints and even are so perverse as to adore their images. They had not yet reached such a level of blindness and madness, and therefore the design of Christ was different.

The scribes endeavored to gain the favor of the ignorant multitude, and indeed of all the Jews, by this additional hypocrisy: that they cherished with reverence the memory of the prophets. For while in this manner they pretended to maintain their doctrine, anyone would have supposed that they were faithful imitators of them and very keen zealots for the worship of God.

It was a proposal, therefore, which was likely to be highly acceptable, to erect monuments for the prophets, because in this way religion might be said to be drawn out of darkness, so that it might receive the honor it deserved. And yet nothing was further from their design than to restore doctrine, which might appear to have been extinguished by the death of the prophets. But though they were not only averse to the doctrine of the prophets, but most inveterate enemies to it, yet they honored them—when dead—with sepulchers, as if they had made common cause with them.

Indeed, it is customary for hypocrites to honor good teachers and holy ministers of God in this way after their death, whom they cannot endure while they are alive. Nor does this arise merely from the common fault, which Horace thus describes: “We hate virtue while it is in safety, but when it has been removed from our eyes, we seek it with envy”;¹⁰⁷ but as the ashes of the dead no longer cause annoyance by harsh and severe reproofs, those who are driven to madness by the living voices of those men are not unwilling to make an empty display of religion by adoring them. It is a hypocrisy that costs little to profess warm regard for those who are now silent.¹⁰⁸

Thus, each of the prophets, in his own age, was contemptuously rejected and wickedly tormented by the Jews, and, in many instances, cruelly put to death. Meanwhile, posterity, though not one bit better than their fathers, pretended to venerate their memory instead of embracing their doctrine, for they too were motivated by equal hostility towards their own teachers.¹⁰⁹ As the world—not venturing entirely to despise God, or at least to rise openly against Him—devises this stratagem of adoring the shadow of God instead of God, so a similar game is played in reference to the prophets.

A proof of this—far too striking—may be seen in Popery. Not satisfied with paying just veneration to Apostles and Martyrs, they render divine worship to them and think that they cannot go too far in the honors they heap upon them. Yet, by their rage against believers, they show what sort of respect they would have shown towards Apostles and Martyrs if they had still been alive to discharge the same office they formerly held.

For why are they inflamed with such rage against us, except because we desire that doctrine to be received and to be successful—the doctrine which the Apostles and Martyrs sealed with their blood? While the holy servants of God valued that doctrine more highly than their own lives, would their lives have been spared by those who so outrageously persecute the doctrine? Let them adorn the images of the saints as they may think fit, with perfumes, candles, flowers, and every sort of gaudy ornament. If Peter were now alive, they would tear him in pieces; they would stone Paul; and if Christ Himself were still in the world, they would burn Him with a slow fire.

Our Lord, perceiving that the scribes and priests of His age were eager to obtain the applause of the people on the ground of their being devout worshippers of the prophets, reproves them for deceit and mockery. He does this because they not only reject but even cruelly persecute the prophets who are now present¹¹⁰ and whom God has sent to them. But it is a display of base hypocrisy and shameful impudence to desire to be thought religious on account of worshipping the dead, while they endeavor to murder the living.

¹⁰⁷ Virtutem incolumm odimus, ,
Sublatam ex oculis quærimus invidi

¹⁰⁸ “Qui ne peuvent plus cier contre les vices;” — “who can no longer exclaim against vices.”;” — “who can no longer exclaim against vices.”

¹⁰⁹ “Car aussi ils ne traittoyent pas mieux ceux qui les enseignoient fidelement que leurs peres avoyent fait aux autres;” — “for they too acted no better towards those who taught them faithfully than their fathers had done to others.”;” — “for they too acted no better towards those who taught them faithfully than their fathers had done to others.”

¹¹⁰ “Et lesquels ils voyen devan leurs yeux tous les jours;” — “and whom they see before their eyes every day.”;” — “and whom they see before their eyes every day.”