Woe unto you lawyers
Who are particularly addressed again in distinction from the
Pharisees, though much the same things are said to them both in (
Matthew
23:13 )
for ye have taken away the key of knowledge;
of the Scriptures, of the law, and the prophets, and the true
interpretation of them, and especially of such places as refer to
the Messiah, and the Gospel dispensation, called the kingdom of
heaven, ( Matthew
23:13 ) they had not only arrogated the knowledge of these to
themselves, setting up for the only interpreters of the sacred
writings; but they had took away from the people the true
knowledge and sense of them, by their false glosses upon them, so
that they were destroyed for lack of knowledge: and hence came
that famine of hearing the word, which they say F3 should
be before the coming of the King Messiah, and now was. The Syriac
and Arabic versions read, "the keys of knowledge"; and the
Ethiopic version, "the key of righteousness". The Jews sometimes
speak of "the keys of the law", and represent the oral law as the
root and key of the written law F4: but, alas! it was by the
oral law, or traditions of the elders, that they took away the
key, or obscured the true sense of the written law. Some think,
that here is an allusion to the custom of delivering a key to any
one, when he was ordained or promoted to the dignity of a doctor:
it is said of R. Samuel F5, that
``when he died they put, (wxtpm) , "his key", and his writing book into his coffin, because he was not worthy of a son''to succeed him:
ye entered not in yourselves;
into the kingdom of heaven, the Gospel dispensation, neither
receiving doctrines, nor submitting to its ordinances:
and them that were entering in ye hindered;
by reproaching the miracles and ministry of Christ; by
threatenings and excommunications; (See Gill on Matthew
23:13).