S3 127: Six or Seven?
The Seven Woes [28:31]
Episode Length: 28:31
Published Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2019 01:00:00 -0700
Session 3
About this episode:
Marty Solomon and Brent Billings dive into the list of woes Jesus gives to the Pharisees and ask what kind of person Jesus is describing.
The Last Week by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan
Notes
*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.
BEMA Episode 127: Six or Seven? - Study Notes
Title & Source Summary
Episode: 127 - Six or Seven?
Hosts: Marty Solomon and Brent Billings
Focus: Matthew 23 - Jesus’s Seven Woes to the Pharisees
This episode examines Jesus’s confrontation with the Pharisees during the final week of his life, analyzing the seven woes he pronounces against them in Matthew 23. The discussion explores how Jesus deliberately adds a seventh woe to the traditional six-woe structure found in Isaiah 5, transforming a condemnation of greed into a more devastating critique of self-righteousness. The episode reveals how Jesus affirms the Pharisees’ devotion to Scripture while condemning their performance-based righteousness and hypocrisy.
Key Takeaways
- Jesus affirms the Pharisees’ teaching authority and devotion to Scripture while condemning their behavior and interpretation (“Do what they say, but don’t do what they do”)
- The biblical concept of “hypocrite” (Greek: hupocritos) means “actor” - someone performing for an audience, not necessarily someone who is two-faced
- You can live exactly according to what you teach and still be a hypocrite if your motivation is performance and approval rather than authentic faith
- Jesus deliberately structures seven woes instead of the traditional six found in Isaiah 5, using Jewish numerology to indicate “perfected sin”
- Isaiah’s six woes describe a greedy person; Jesus’s seven woes describe a self-righteous person
- Self-righteousness is worse than greed because people recognize greed when they see it, but self-righteousness presents a counterfeit version of God
- Modern progressive Christians must be careful not to “perfect the sin” of their fundamentalist forefathers by replacing greed with self-righteousness
Main Concepts & Theories
Moses’ Seat and Teaching Authority
The episode clarifies that when Jesus says the Pharisees “sit in Moses’ seat,” he is referencing a physical element of the synagogue where Scripture readers sat. This is one of the seven elements of synagogue worship. Jesus affirms their authority when they read and teach Scripture itself, but condemns their halakhah (the way they walk out and interpret the Text in daily life).
The distinction is crucial: “Listen to their teaching because they teach on the Text, they are devoted to the Text, they read the Text, but do not interpret the Text with your life in the same way that they are interpreting the Text with their life.”
Hupocritos: Rethinking Hypocrisy
The Greek word hupocritos literally means “actor.” In modern English, we understand hypocrisy as being two-faced - saying one thing and doing another. However, the biblical concept is fundamentally different. A hupocritos is someone who performs righteous actions to be seen by others, regardless of whether their actions match their words.
This means:
- You can say something and do exactly what you say and still be a hypocrite
- You can give 11% of your income as a tithe and be a hupocritos the entire time
- The issue is not consistency between words and deeds, but the motivation behind the deeds
- Everything done “for people to see” qualifies as hupocritos
The Pharisees were actually extremely consistent with their teachings and their halakhah. Jesus’s critique is not about inconsistency but about performance.
The Seven Woes: Structure and Meaning
Jesus’s woes address specific Pharisaical failures:
- Shutting the Kingdom’s door - Making it harder for people to enter, not entering themselves
- Corrupt converts - Working hard to make converts who become “twice as much a child of hell”
- Blind guides on oaths - Creating loophole systems for vows using gold vs. temple, gift vs. altar
- Straining gnats, swallowing camels - Tithing mint, dill, and cumin while neglecting justice, mercy, and faithfulness
- Clean outside, dirty inside - Like cleaning only the outside of a cup while leaving the inside filthy
- Whitewashed tombs - Beautiful on the outside but full of death and uncleanness inside
- Building prophets’ tombs - Honoring dead prophets while embodying the same mentality that killed them
Six vs. Seven: Jewish Numerology
The episode highlights a crucial rabbinical technique. Isaiah 5 contains six woes describing greedy people. In Jewish numerology:
- Six is the number of sinful humanity
- Seven is the number of completion or perfection
By adding a seventh woe, Jesus makes a devastating statement: “You have perfected the art of evil and sin. You have completed what your ancestors started.” This is followed immediately by Jesus’s explicit command: “Go ahead then and complete what your ancestors started.”
Greed vs. Self-Righteousness
A careful comparison reveals two different types of sinful people:
Isaiah’s Six Woes (Greed):
- Adding house to house and field to field
- Rising early to run after strong drink
- Living lives of privilege and wealth
- Calling evil good to justify economic practices
- Champions at drinking wine and throwing parties
- Building empires on the backs of the marginalized
Jesus’s Seven Woes (Self-Righteousness):
- Making righteousness a performance
- Focusing on external appearance while neglecting internal reality
- Mastering minor legal details while missing weightier matters
- Creating systems that burden others
- Performing acts of devotion for human approval
- Presenting a counterfeit version of God to the world
The episode argues that self-righteousness is actually worse than greed because “at least people know greed when they see it.” Self-righteous people claim to speak for God while putting a completely counterfeit version of God on display, actually destroying the work of God.
Contemporary Application
Marty offers a powerful contemporary warning: Modern progressive Christians who have rightly rejected the greed, waste, and oppression of previous generations must be careful not to replace one sin with another. The danger is moving from the greed of fundamentalism to the self-righteousness of progressive activism.
“We must work to hear the words of Jesus warning us to make sure that we see all people, help and serve all people, and pursue humility in our walk after God.”
The episode warns against “perfecting the art of sin” by completing what our spiritual ancestors started - replacing their greed with our pride, their materialism with our self-righteousness.
Examples & Applications
The Catholic “Father” Debate
Brent shares how he used Matthew 23:9 (“Call no man father”) to step away from Catholic faith, interpreting it as a condemnation of calling priests “Father.” The episode clarifies that Jesus’s point is not about titles themselves but about how we use them and whether they create hierarchies that serve the title-holder rather than the community.
The discussion acknowledges that most Catholic priests don’t angle for position or title, but some do. The traditional infrastructure of titles like “Father” serves a helpful purpose (identifying who can administer sacraments), but any title can be abused when it distinguishes rather than serves.
Evangelical Pharisaism
The episode identifies how modern evangelicalism can be “full of Pharisaical hypocrites” - people who have their theology “tied up in a nice little bow,” can “run circles in Bible study,” live exactly according to what they preach, yet do “everything for a show.” The motivation is displaying piety, education, and righteousness rather than authentic devotion.
Marty confesses, “I can struggle with this so easily in my life.”
The Loophole System
Jesus condemns the Pharisaical practice of creating oath loopholes. The Torah said that if you make a vow, you must keep it. The Pharisees asked, “But what if I make a mistake? How can I get out of that vow?” They developed a complicated hierarchy: swearing by the altar vs. the temple vs. the gold of the temple. This allowed them to break a lesser vow if a more important party came along.
This mirrors modern Christian tendencies to find loopholes in ethical requirements - technically following the letter while violating the spirit.
Cleaning Cups Inside-Out
Jesus references Jewish teaching (possibly from the Talmud) that “if you actually start by cleaning the inside, you will clean the outside in the process, but if you just try to clean the outside and never clean the inside, you will very easily not clean the part of the cup that matters.”
This applies to any religious practice focused on external appearance rather than internal transformation.
Social Justice and Self-Righteousness
The warning to Marty’s generation is particularly poignant. Those committed to “restoring justice to the world” who “cringe at the idea of greed and oppression of the weak” face a specific danger: becoming self-righteous about their righteousness. Being repentant of the greed of previous generations while missing “the pride that lurks just under the surface of our self-righteousness.”
Potential Areas for Further Exploration
- Jewish Numerology - Deeper study of how numbers function symbolically in Jewish thought and how Jesus uses this rabbinical technique throughout his teaching
- Isaiah 5 Context - Full study of Isaiah 5, particularly the vineyard parable that precedes the six woes and how it connects to Jesus’s vineyard teaching
- The Jesus Seminar - Understanding textual criticism approaches, the work of scholars like Borg and Crossan, and how to engage critical scholarship while maintaining faith commitments
- Halakhah vs. Torah - The distinction between Scripture itself and the tradition of interpretation, and how different Jewish groups in the Second Temple period approached this relationship
- Seven Elements of Synagogue - Full study of synagogue worship structure in the first century, including the physical layout and liturgical practices
- Matthew 23 in Context - How this confrontation fits into the larger narrative of Holy Week and Jesus’s escalating conflict with religious authorities
- Whitewashed Tombs - Cultural background on Jewish purity laws regarding corpse uncleanness and why this metaphor would be so devastating
- “Blessed is He Who Comes” - The significance of Jesus’s final statement referencing Psalm 118 and what it means that they won’t see him until they say this
- Modern Pharisaism - Identifying specific ways contemporary Christian communities fall into performance-based righteousness
- Humility as Antidote - Practical spiritual disciplines for cultivating authentic humility vs. performed humility
Comprehension Questions
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What is the difference between how we typically understand the word “hypocrite” in modern English and what the Greek word hupocritos actually means in biblical context? Why does this distinction matter for understanding Jesus’s critique?
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Explain the significance of Jesus adding a seventh woe to his list when Isaiah’s traditional list contained only six. What is Jesus communicating through this rabbinical technique?
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How does Jesus affirm the Pharisees’ authority while simultaneously condemning their practice? What does “Do what they say, but don’t do what they do” actually mean in context?
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What is the primary character flaw being condemned in Isaiah’s six woes versus the primary flaw being condemned in Jesus’s seven woes? Why does the episode argue that one is worse than the other?
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What warning does Marty offer to contemporary progressive Christians who have rightly rejected the greed and materialism of previous generations? How might they “perfect the sin” of their spiritual ancestors?
Personal Summary
This episode offers a penetrating examination of one of Jesus’s most confrontational moments, revealing layers of meaning that challenge both ancient and modern religious communities. The distinction between greed and self-righteousness proves especially convicting - while we easily recognize and condemn material greed, self-righteous performance is harder to detect, particularly in ourselves.
The redefinition of hypocrisy as performance rather than inconsistency fundamentally shifts how we evaluate religious practice. It is entirely possible to be theologically correct, behaviorally consistent, and spiritually bankrupt if our motivation is approval rather than authentic devotion. The Pharisees were not failures because they were inconsistent; they failed because they were actors performing righteousness for an audience.
Jesus’s use of seven woes instead of six demonstrates his rabbinical sophistication while making a devastating point: these religious leaders have not just sinned, they have perfected sin. They have taken the greed condemned by Isaiah and elevated it to something worse - a self-righteous system that shuts people out of the Kingdom while claiming to speak for God.
The contemporary application cuts both ways. Fundamentalist communities that emphasize external compliance can easily fall into Pharisaical performance. But progressive communities that rightly condemn greed, oppression, and materialism face an equally dangerous temptation: replacing one form of perfected sin with another. The antidote to both is the humility Jesus models - service rather than performance, internal transformation rather than external show, authentic devotion rather than religious theater.
The episode’s most sobering moment comes when Marty acknowledges his own susceptibility to this sin: “I can struggle with this so easily in my life.” This vulnerability models the very humility being prescribed. None of us are immune to the temptation to perform our righteousness, to clean only the outside of the cup, to perfect the sins of our spiritual ancestors. The warning applies universally: pursue humility, serve all people, and refuse to complete what your fathers started.
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