Not the rock-tombs, belonging mostly to the rich, but the graves covered with plastered structures. In general, cemeteries were outside of cities; but any dead body found in the field was to be buried on the spot where it had been discovered. A pilgrim to the Passover, for instance, might easily come upon such a grave in his journey, and contract uncleanness by the contact (Numbers 19:16). It was therefore ordered that all sepulchres should be whitewashed a month before Passover, in order to make them conspicuous, so that travellers might avoid ceremonial defilement. The fact that this general whitewashing was going on at the time when Jesus administered this rebuke to the Pharisees gave point to the comparison. The word νιαμένοις (whitened, from κόνις, dust) carries the idea of whitening with a powder, as powdered lime.

By this name are called four monuments at the base of the Mount of Olives, in the valley of Jehoshaphat; called at present the tombs of Zechariah, Absalom, Jehoshaphat, and St. James. Two of them are monoliths cut out of the solid rock; the others are merely excavations, with ornamental portals. "They appear," says Dr. Thomson, "to be quite extensive, consisting of winding or semicircular galleries, passing under the mountain more than a hundred feet from east to west, and terminating in a rotunda about eighty feet from the entrance. There is no authority for the name which they commonly bear." Possibly they were in sight of our Lord when he spoke, and were pointed to by him. The reference would be all the more telling, if, as has been conjectured, the Pharisees were engaged in constructing the tombs of Zechariah and Absalom at the time that the Lord addressed them, and that the chambered sepulchres of James and Jehoshaphat, lying between those two, were the sepulchres which they were garnishing at their entrances.

Rev., rightly, sanctuary. See on Matthew 4:5. Zechariah was slain between the temple proper and the altar of burnt-offering, in the priests' court.

Generic: bird or fowl; but hen is used generically of the mother-bird of all species.

Rev., better: Went out from the temple and was going on his way. The temple, ἱεροῦ, not ναοῦ: the whole of the buildings connected with the temple, all of which, including the ναός, or sanctuary, and the porches and courts, constituted the ἱερόν. See on Matthew 4:5.

Originally, presence, from παρεῖναι, to be present. In this sense in Philippians 2:12; 2 Corinthians 10:10. Also arrival, as in 1 Corinthians 16:17; 2 Corinthians 7:6, 2 Corinthians 7:7; 2 Thessalonians 2:9; 2 Peter 3:12. Of the second coming of Christ: James 5:8; 1 John 2:28; 2 Peter 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:15.

Of the world (αἰῶνος)

Rather the existing, current age. They do not ask the signs of the Messiah's coming at the end of all time, to judge the world.

Lit., lead astray, as Rev.

Lit., on my name, i.e., on the strength of; resting their claims on the name Messiah.

Lit., shall be multiplied. See Acts 6:1, Acts 6:7; Acts 7:17; Acts 9:31; Hebrews 6:14.

Of many (τῶν πολλῶν)

The A. V. in omitting the definite article, misses the force of Christ's saying. It is not the love of many people only that shall be chilled, but of the many, the majority, the great body.

Wax cold (ψυγήσεται)

The verb means originally to breathe or blow; and the picture is that of spiritual energy blighted or chilled by a malign or poisonous wind.