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So also Luke 2: 35; 9: 46, 47; 24: 38; and James 2: 4. The word "evil" is poneros:--
"Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts" (Matt. 9: 4).
"O generation of vipers, how can ye (Pharisees, see verse 24), being evil speak good
things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. . . . An evil and
adulterous generation" (Matt. 12: 34, 39).
It seems fairly clear that the Lord had the Pharisees and Scribes in view when He
uttered the words in the parable concerning evil thoughts.
MURDERS (phonos).--The word occurs in connection with Barabbas in Mark 15: 7
and Luke 23: 19, 25. "Destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city"
(Matt. 22: 7). Refer back to the related parable in Matt. 21: 38, 39 for the full force of
this passage: note verses 45 and 46, and 22: 15, and see how the Pharisees realize that
the Lord meant to indicate them under this awful title. Matt. 5: 21 has already made it
clear how "murder" may be charged against these plotting enemies of the Lord. The
Pharisees and Scribes are again charged with this foul crime in Matt. 23: 31-39.
ADULTERERS (moicheia).--"The Scribes and Pharisees brought unto Him a woman
taken in adultery" (John 8: 3). These hypocrites were not concerned about the evil of
the act (for they were guilty themselves, see verse 9), they simply desired to catch the
Lord and involve Him in His words (verse 6). The exceeding looseness with which many
of the Pharisees held the marriage tie involved them in the sin of adultery before God (see
Matt. 5: 31, 32, and 19: 3-9). As with murder, so with adultery, the desire of the heart
constituted guilt (see Matt. 5: 27, 28). On several occasions the Lord denounced these
evil men as "a wicked and adulterous generaton" (see Matt. 12: 39 and 16: 4).
FORNICATIONS (porneia).--It is remarkable fact that this plague figures more
conspicuously in the Epistles and in the Revelation than in the Gospels. Once the
enemies of the Lord use it (John 8: 41), an insult which His holy nature must have felt
keenly, but how gracious and calm was His reply! Although specific instances of this sin
are not given in the Gospels, we know the Lord sufficiently to imagine that He would not
use a word so foul, unless He knew only too well that the charge was actually true. Its
prominence in the Apocalypse, and the practical absence of adultery, throw a vivid light
on the character of the last days.
THEFTS (klope).--This word occurs nowhere else except in the parallel passage of
Mark. The cognate word kleptes ("thief") is used in John 10: 1, 8, 10, and includes the
Scribes and Pharisees, as the context shows. The devouring of widows' houses
(Matt. 23: 14; Mark 12: 40; and Luke 20: 47), the traditions (Matt. 15: 5, 6), and the
turning of the House of Prayer into a den of thieves (Matt. 21: 13), involve the Pharisees
in this sin.
FALSE WITNESS.--This word in all its hideous nakedness is written against the
"chief priests, and elders, and all the council" (Matt. 26: 59) in relation to the deep-laid
plot against the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the more significant when we