Structure in Matthew 23

Matthew 23:29-36 works out as a fairly neat chiasm:

A. Woe to scribes, build tombs of prophets and adorn monuments of righteous, v 29

B. Blood of the prophets, v. 30

C. You are sons of murderous fathers; fill their guilt, vv 31-32

D. Serpents, brood of vipers, v 33

C’. They will treat Jesus’ prophets and wise men as their fathers treated earlier prophets, v 34

B’. Blood, blood, blood, v 35

A’. Curse on “this generation,” v 36

A few comments: First, the charge that the scribes and Pharisees form a Satanic brood of vipers is at the center. They are like their father, who is a liar and murderer from the beginning (cf. John 8). Second, this structure helps make sense of the charge in verses 29-30 that the Pharisees’ and scribes’ devotion to the tombs of the prophets is evidence that they are sons of their fathers. Jesus’ charge rests in part on the Jewish leaders’ own admission that their “fathers” were responsible for killing prophets; Jesus implicitly urges them to renounce their patrimony. But the structure, by linking C and C’ shows that the real revelation that the scribes and Pharisees are “sons” of those who kill prophets will come when they kill all the scribes and wise men and prophets that Jesus will send. Proof of their sonship is coming later, and that will “fill up the measure of the fathers,” topping off the chalice of blood that Jerusalem will drink down. Third, the passage is a seven-fold structure, linking it to creation. Jesus is describing a decreation of sorts. And the sections correspond in some cases with the days of creation. D matches Day 4, the day of heavenly rulers, and indicates that Satan is the true father and lord of Israel. B’, in the Day 6 position, suggests that the martyrs are the true Adams, the true humanity. Day 7 is a day of Sabbath judgment, and Jesus appropriately concludes the section by saying that all things will come on this generation.