Do As The Pharisees Say?!
Matthew 23:2-3

by Avram Yehoshua

(Endnotes in red.)

‘The Scribes and Pharisees have seated themselves in the Seat of Moses. Therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds for they say things and do not do them.’ 

There are some in the Messianic Jewish Community that tell us that we must adhere to the doctrines of the Rabbis. They think that Yeshua Himself commanded this in Mt. 23:2-3. Their reasoning is not correct because their interpretation of the passage is faulty. Yeshua wasn’t telling us to walk out our faith in Him by rabbinical teachings but rather to obey the authorities of the land (the Scribes, Pharisees and Rabbis; vv. 3, 5, 7, etc.), in their judicial and legislative capacities. 

The Seat of Moses was a judicial position from which judgments between two or more people were issued. In Yeshua’s day, the Pharisees and Scribes had seated themselves in the Seat of Moses (Mt. 23:2). This understanding is brought out by both the Greek text and in some Bibles like the NASB. In other words, God hadn’t put them there but they had placed themselves there. This phenomenon is not unusual. It’s conceptually seen in the days of Hosea when the prophet says of Israel : 

‘They made kings, but not through Me. They set up princes, but I did not acknowledge it’ (Hos. 8:4a). 

To ‘seat oneself’ as the Pharisees did, was to usurp God’s authority. Yeshua was saying that since the Scribes and Pharisees were there, obey them in their judicial rulings (and by extension, their legislative rulings). This is what we would call today, civil authority. The Seat of Moses is a term taken from the days when Moses would sit and judge the people:

‘And it came about the next day that Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood about Moses from the morning until the evening’ (Ex. 18:13 ).

The Judgment Seat of Messiah (2nd Cor. 5:10 ), as well as the Judgment Seat of Caesar (Acts 25:6, 10, 17 KJV; 18:12 , 16-17), also confirm that the Seat of Moses was a seat of judgment. Yeshua spoke of following the Rabbis, Sadducees (for they had Temple authority and were mostly of the priestly line), Pharisees and Scribes in their judicial capacity as judges (and legislators), not teachers of the Law.

The Scribes, Pharisees and Rabbis, etc., had authority to adjudicate, or to judge legal matters in the bet din, the courts of Israel . They could also act as legislators and enact laws for the community. It’s these positions of authority that Yeshua was speaking of for His followers to obey (adjudicative and legislative), not their doctrines. 

When a judge-rabbi issued a court ruling involving a believer, or a city made a legislative ruling that effected a community, the believer was to obey it. The believer was not to say that it didn’t effect him because he believed in Yeshua. He was not to say that the judges or legislators had no authority ‘to tell him what to do’, because he only recognized Yeshua as his authority. In other words, he was to keep the laws of the land, just as believers do in the United States , Bolivia , Canada , etc., today. They keep the laws of their respective countries (that don’t hinder their walk with Messiah; Acts 4:19 -20; 5:27 -42, esp. v. 29). In this, Yeshua was following the Law of Moses which states that all Israel was to obey the decisions of the priests (Sadducees) and judges:

“If a judicial decision is too difficult for you to make between one kind of bloodshed and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another—any such matters of dispute in your towns—then you shall immediately go up to the place that the Lord your God will choose, where you shall consult with the Levitical Priests and the judge who is in office in those days; they shall announce to you the decision in the case. Carry out exactly the decision that they announce to you from the place that the Lord will choose, diligently observing everything they instruct you. You must carry out fully the law that they interpret for you or the ruling that they announce to you. Do not turn aside from the decision that they announce to you, either to the right or to the left. As for anyone who presumes to disobey the priest appointed to minister there to the Lord your God, or the judge, that person shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel . All the people will hear and be afraid, and will not act presumptuously again.” (Deut. 17:8-13, NRSV)

With Moses and Joshua, this law and punishment stood as a powerful incentive for godly obedience. But in the days of Yeshua, the position of the judges had been usurped. In spite of this, Yeshua was telling His followers to obey their legal decisions. Yeshua was not saying that we should do everything that the Rabbis or Pharisees teach about Moses. Yeshua was addressing two of the three ‘keys’ that were given to rabbis (and others of learning such as the priests), upon ordination: the ability to teach authoritatively, to legislate and to sit as a judge. Yeshua addressed their civil authority. Paul conceptually says the same thing when he says in Rom. 13:1-2:

‘Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities.’ ‘Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.’

The Apostle Paul also teaches that each congregation should have its own judges to discipline their people when he rebukes the Corinthians for taking one another to court before the pagan judges (1st Cor. 6:3, 5). He says, ‘Isn’t there any among you who can judge these matters?’ He didn’t say they should go to the Rabbis in their cities for a ruling between two believers. 

Likewise, the Apostles in Jerusalem didn’t run to the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, Rabbis, or the anti-Yeshua High Priest for advice and counsel when they didn’t know what to do concerning the theology of what the Gentile needed to do in order to be saved (Acts 15:1-7). They called their own council and with the help of the Holy Spirit, they determined the will of the Lord (Acts 15:1-21). They made a decree that all their communities followed (Acts 16:4). But Jewish believers were also to obey rabbinic judges and legislation in the days of the Apostles that effected them also. 

CONFRONTATION OVER DOCTRINE

Another perspective that shows us that Yeshua didn’t mean for us to walk in the teachings of the Rabbis are the many confrontations Yeshua has with them. The Gospels and Acts are filled with accounts of clashes over the very issue of proper interpretation of Scripture between the Scribes and the Pharisees, even the Pharisees that would come to believe (Matt. 15:1-20; 23:1-39; Acts 15:5, etc.). In Mt. 15, Yeshua sternly rebukes the Pharisees for both their teachings and their hearts: 

‘And He answered and said to them, “And why do you yourselves transgress the Commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.’ “But you say, ‘Whoever shall say to his father or mother, “Anything of mine you might have been helped by has been given to God,” he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And thus you invalidated the Word of God for the sake of your tradition! “You hypocrites! Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,  ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. For in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men’” (Mt. 15:3-9).

It’s not just the Commandment that Yeshua cited that should concern us for He goes on to say that their doctrines are ‘the precepts of men.’ These words of our Messiah form a powerful barrier against any believer seeking the teachings of the Rabbis. For even though this was spoken to the Pharisees, everyone knows that the Rabbis are the spiritual descendents of the Pharisees. 

There are other admonitions of Yeshua that follow along this same line of thinking, concerning their doctrines and their stance against Messiah, that still stand today:

‘Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees’ (Mt. 16:11 ; see also Mk. 8:15 ; Lk. 12:1). 

‘But woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut off the Kingdom of Heaven from people! You do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in’ (Matt. 23:13 ).

We must be very careful what we ‘take in.’ The teachings of the Rabbis can seem very sweet and profitable, as I’m sure they did back then to many people. But are the teachings of the Rabbis any better than their spiritual Fathers? Are the Rabbis leading their flocks into the Kingdom of Heaven today any more than the Pharisees and Scribes did back then? So how could Yeshua be commanding us to place ourselves under the Rabbis or their teachings? But some believers don’t understand Mt. 23:2-3, and tell us that we are to do everything that the Rabbis say (except for maybe renouncing Yeshua?). With 2,000 years of history and carnality behind the Rabbis, there are far too many perverse, magical, anti-Yeshua and anti-Torah teachings that pervade Judaism. For those who desire to listen to the words of Yeshua, it would be good to stay far away from rabbinical teachings and the Rabbis.

PRACTICAL RAMIFICATIONS

Is there any believer today who must follow the Rabbis as judges and legislators? No, for even in Israel in 2006, the Rabbis don’t wield the kind of civil authority over the general population as they did in the days of Yeshua. They are bound by the democratic nature of the State of Israel. Their authority is confined to their own sect, except in cases of marriage, divorce and burial where they have political sway in the Knesset (Congress or Parliament), of Israel . But even in Judah and Galilee in the days of Messiah, the Rabbis didn’t legislate their brand of theology. In other words, only Pharisees kept the Pharisaic teaching and way, and only Sadducees kept their way, and only the Essenes kept their way, etc. 

Here too we can better understand Yeshua’s words in Mt. 23:2-3. The Sadducees weren’t put in jail because they didn’t follow the Pharisaic doctrine or way. The Essenes weren’t jailed because they didn’t keep the way of the Sadducees, etc. There were more than twenty different religious sects of Jews within Judah at the time of Messiah. Each Jewish person was free to practice his way of faith. Consequently, each Jewish believer was also free to walk out his faith as he was led by his community (Acts 2:40 -47; 5:33 -42; 6:1, etc.), when there wasn’t persecution for it (Acts 8:1-4, etc.). The Jewish believer could live out his faith without breaking any laws of the land. There was no law that said that everyone had to believe and act like a Pharisee, or ‘do as they’ said, in terms of religious matters. This is how the believer could be free to believe, but constrained to obey ‘all they tell you, do,’ as the authorities in judicial and legislative matters. 

Yeshua also wanted His followers to work out those civil differences, or problems with others, beforehand, so that they wouldn’t go to prison for things that didn’t pertain to the Kingdom. Because in prison they would stay until they ‘paid the last shekel’ (Lk. 12:57 -59). This refers to the judgement of the bet din (‘house of judgment’ or courts). Listen to what the Master says and note his speaking of the judge:

“Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.” (Matt. 5:25-26, NRSV)

Yeshua was concerned about us becoming entangled in the affairs of this world, to the detriment of the affairs of the Kingdom. He was giving His followers wise counsel that speaks to us today: don’t get caught up in things that are not of His Kingdom. It only wastes our time and energy. There are many ‘good causes’ out there, and many things unrighteous things that need to be made righteous, but we are to follow Him and do those things that He shows us to do. 

Authority to adjudicate and legislate was taken away from the Pharisees, Scribes, and Rabbis, etc., with the fall of Jerusalem and never regained by them in any of the lands where the Lord dispersed His people (except among the Jewish communities). Even in Israel today, the Rabbis only hold a certain amount of civil authority. To illustrate their lack of civil authority in terms of religious matters, the breaking of Shabat (the Sabbath), is not a crime in the eyes of the State of Israel, even though biblically, it’s a sin of great magnitude (Ex. 31:15; 35:2, etc.). Of course, the Rabbis would love to see the Sabbath observed by all Israelis, and enforced, as would I, but they don’t have the civil authority to enforce it. And this is a Commandment of tremendous importance. They have absolutely no authority to enforce their religious ways or teachings upon any Israeli, believer or not. How much less a believer in another land?

The Rabbis have no authority to imprison anyone for breaking the Sabbath, or not eating kosher food, or not celebrating the Holy Days, etc. The people of Israel do not go to their courts (unless they are their followers), but even then, the secular courts of Israel can overrule and nullify the rabbinical courts. They have no power to legislate or enact laws or ordinances for the entire population of Israel . But it’s here in Israel , where their authority is much greater than anywhere else. Why would any believer voluntarily place themselves under rabbinic authority to a rabbi who does not know the Messiah of Israel?

The Rabbis were never meant to teach us. They didn’t teach Yeshua. They didn’t teach the Apostles. Why should they teach us now? This is another reason why their teachings are not binding on us, and why we are not under their authority. And they would agree with me on this. For what rabbi would accept a Jew who believes in Yeshua? And what bet din would want to have anything to do with such a Jew, let alone not be biased against him?

Another major problem with someone not understanding ‘all that they tell you, do,’ and trying to follow the teachings of the Rabbis is that Judaism doesn’t speak ‘with one voice’ (one teaching on all the subjects). It never has. Even in the generation before Yeshua, there were two very famous schools that fundamentally differed from one another, like day and night (the Schools of Hillel and Shamai). And the scriptural and halahic (how to walk out the Scriptures) controversies that separated their students are legendary. Today there are many sects within the Orthodox and Hasidic communities, etc., and each has their own rabbis that disagree with the other rabbis. So which sect or rabbi should a believer go to, if they were to misinterpret Yeshua’s words of Mt. 23:2-3? 

Today within Judaism there are the Satmars and the Bretzlavs. There’s also the Lubavitchers who proclaim the late Rabbi Schneerson as the Messiah. And these are only three different sects within what is known as Hasidic Judaism. Then there’s Orthodox Judaism with its Neo-Orthodoxy and other various shades of ‘Orthodoxy.’ There’s also Conservative and Reform Judaism, as well as the Karaites.⁽¹⁾

Let’s say that an Orthodox rabbi is chosen by a believer to learn from. First of all, most likely the rabbi wouldn’t want to have anything to do with someone who believed in Yeshua, let alone teach him anything. So how can a Jewish believer even consider this, from a natural point of view? And what would happen if a rabbi consented (in the hopes of winning the Jewish believer ‘back to the fold’)? When one voluntarily places themself under a traditional, anti-Messiah rabbi, they put their spiritual life with Yeshua in tremendous jeopardy. I have known a number of people who have done this and within a short time, have renounced Yeshua to walk in Orthodox Judaism. Spiritual authority is nothing to play around with. You can begin to see the horrific consequences of ‘all that they tell you, do’, misinterpreted. 

We can glean much from two thousand years of rabbinic thought but we also must be aware of the tremendous anti-Messiah spirit that dwells within the Rabbis and their teachings. We must also be able to discern the religious spirits that have led them to embrace Kabbalah, which is a demonic substitute for the Spirit of the Living God, as well as the Talmud and Gematria, for these ways have truly warped many of the teachings of Moses. But just from a practical point of view, it would be next to impossible to determine which form of Judaism was ‘the right one’ that Yeshua would have wanted His followers to follow, if Mt. 23:2-3 is misinterpreted. 

CONCLUSION

The Seat of Moses was a term used to denote judgment. In Mt. 23:2-3, Messiah Yeshua admonishes His followers to obey the Pharisees and Scribes, etc., in their authoritative roles as judges and legislators, not as teachers of Torah. They had civil authority to judge and so could place anyone in jail who didn’t obey them in those areas that dealt with the community issues. 

Another point we saw against obeying the Rabbis and their teachings had to do with the many confrontations with the Pharisees and Scribes, etc., that Yeshua had, over their interpretation of Scripture. Also, His words against them (Mk. 8:15 , etc.), is a powerful incentive for us concerning anything rabbinical, let alone placing oneself under their teaching authority. 

Rabbinic authority today, even in Israel , is not as great as it was in the days of Yeshua, but even in His day, most Jews didn’t follow the Pharisees and Scribes. There’s no reason from an authoritative perspective then, to place ourselves under their authority to teach us. Yet even if we wanted to, what rabbi would we follow today? Judaism is very fragmented. ⁽²⁾

Those that say that believers should obey the teachings of the Rabbis misunderstand Yeshua’s admonition, not realizing that the Seat of Moses meant legislative and judicial authority, not theological. There is absolutely nothing in Scripture to substantiate, or to act as a second witness (Dt. 17:6; 19:15 ; Mt. 18:16 ; 2nd Cor. 13:1, etc.), to the poor interpretation of Mt. 23:2-3, that we should follow the Rabbis. None of the Apostles ever placed themselves under rabbinic authority or sought their teaching. Why should we? There is only one Rabbi that we are to follow and to learn from; Messiah Yeshua (Mt. 23:8, 26:25; Mk. 9:5; 11:21; Jn. 1:49; 6:25; 11:8, etc.). For only He is able to give us the true understanding of the Word of God, and the ability to walk in it. 

Endnotes:

1. Nehemiah Gordon, a Karaite Jew who comes against Yeshua as the Messiah, presents a fanciful teaching that twists Yeshua’s words into saying, obey Moses but don’t obey the Pharisees and Scribes. This he gets from a Medieval Hebrew manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew called Shem Tov that he tells us is an authentic copy of what Matthew originally wrote. But it’s not an authentic copy and it’s known by textual critics to be extremely faulty and anti-Jesus: ‘The Hebrew Matthews have been known and reviewed by scholars and others for centuries. The supposed ‘original’ Hebrew Matthews, which are not in agreement with each other, are from the 1400-1500 range CE.’ ‘The reality is that the sources for Shem Tov or Hebrew Matthew anti-Christian writings included the infamous Toledoth Jeshu as noted by Dr. William Petersen. It also appears that the Shem Tov may also use the Talmud as a guideline for some of the alterations that appear in the text.’ The Hebrew Matthew ‘is known for abbreviations, verse omissions and changes, similarities to the gnostic Gospel of Thomas, and sourcing Dutch, Latin and other writings, Dr. Petersen noted’. It’s not anywhere close to an ‘original’ copy of Matthew’s Hebrew Gospel. On the contrary, it’s been falsified by a Jewish man that was anti-Messiah. ‘Hebrew versions of the Gospel of Matthew have been known to and used by New Testament scholars for centuries. Often referred to in scholarship as the ‘Old Hebrew Matthew,’ Sebastian Münster produced the first edition of such a manuscript in 1537’. ‘In 1555 Jean du Tillet edited a different but similar Hebrew Matthew manuscript’. ‘However, in addition to these two, at least five other Hebrew Matthews (mostly fragmentary) are known...a Hebrew Matthew contained in the twelfth’ ‘book of the Even Bohan (The Touchstone), a Jewish polemical treatise directed against Christians (Howard 1995: 160-161).’ ‘The Even Bohan was composed in Spain’ ‘by a Castilian-born Jew named Shem-Tob ben-Isaac ben-Shaprut in 1380 (ibid: xi). He revised his work at least three times: in 1385, around 1400, and once again, still later (ibid.)’. This Shem Tov Hebrew Matthew is where Mr. Gordon takes his unique translation from. (Quotes taken from www.seekgod.ca/roodnewsflash2.htm. See also www.seekgod.ca/roodkaraite.htm where Mr. Gordon and Mr. Michael Rood, collaborators, are discussed in relation to their questionable scholarship and entrepreneurship.) Also interesting to realize is that only two of the nine Shem Tov Matthews contain the word that can sometimes be translated as ‘he’ (http://www.ancientpaths.org/APRNnote1.html and see note 7). It’s from one of those two that Mr. Gordon takes his Hebrew word. With this word he interprets the meaning of the phrase to be that Yeshua is directing His followers to obey Moses. The other seven Shem Tovs line up with the Greek text which has Jesus commanding us to obey the Scribes and Pharisees (when they are judges and legislators, not teachers of the Word). Mr. Gordon has an agenda with his interpretation of Mt. 23:3. His teaching on this verse serves a dual purpose. One, it delegitimizes the Rabbis, which is a central teaching of the Karaites by saying that Yeshua’s followers didn’t have to obey them. The Karaites vehemently oppose the Rabbis and their Talmudic authority. And two, by casting doubt upon a Greek New Testament text from an alleged ‘original Hebrew copy’ of Matthew written in the 14th century, he tries to undermine the Greek New Testament, with subsequent undermining of Yeshua as the Messiah, another Karaite trait. Mr. Gordon’s rendition of a pitifully corrupt, anti-Yeshua manuscript shows us that he lacks biblical integrity, has no idea Who Yeshua is nor what Yeshua was saying (1st Cor. 2:14-16).

Mt. 23:13: Hypocrites!

Mt. 23:14: Hypocrites!

Mt. 23:15: Hypocrites!

Mt. 23:16: Blind guides!

Mt. 23:17: Fools and blind!

Mt. 23:19: Fools and blind!

Mt. 23:23: Hypocrites!

Mt. 23:24: Blind guides!

Mt. 23:25: Hypocrites!

Mt. 23:26: Blind Pharisee!

Mt. 23:27: Hypocrites!

Mt. 23:29: Hypocrites!

Mt. 23:33: Serpents! Brood of vipers!

Now go and read why Messiah says that about them, in chapter 23 of Matthew. Messiah’s denunciation of the religious leaders of His day should be a powerful incentive for us not to tamper with the perverse teachings of the Rabbis. It doesn’t seem Yeshua was too pleased with the religious leaders 2,000 years ago. It hasn’t gotten any better. (See also Luke’s rendition in 11:39-54; 12:1-4.)