The Children of Hell
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte (convert), and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.”- Matthew 23:15
The root of a myriad of Biblical misinterpretations can be attributed to Supercessionist, or "Replacement theology" - which is the result of centuries of decontextualized readings of the New Testament. Often unwittingly, adherents to these traditions presume the Gospels and epistles to depict the polemic battles between Christianity as it emerged distinct and separate from Judaism.
When combined with a broad misapprehension of Rabbinic discourse, many readers reinforce these ideas, citing the harsh language used by Jesus, Paul, and the Apostles when arguing with the Sadducees, Scribes, and Pharisees.
We should recognize both this language and type of discourse as commonplace, intra-Jewish scriptural disputation. As Christianity did not exist yet, these disputes did not traverse outside the bounds of the diverse Judaism(s) of the first century.
In a separate article, we have laid the groundwork for some of these ideas. In this article, we will look at a particular phrase spoken by Jesus in regard to a particular group of leaders in his time.
Jesus in Judea
Having entered Judea in chapter 21 of Matthew, the following chapters record various teachings of Jesus as he interacts with crowds of Jewish people. Answering questions, discussing mussar (ethics), and teaching various parables - this section contains many references to Jewish oral tradition and midrash. Virtually all that he teaches can be paired with some parable or idea from Rabbinic literature.
