<p>23:29&nbsp;<em>Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees. Hypocrites For you build the tombs of the prophets</em>-&nbsp;<em>Oikodomeo</em>&nbsp;means not only to build but carries the sense of &lsquo;to confirm&rsquo;, and is also translated in the NT in this sense. On one hand, building the tombs of the prophets was a sign of respect, but the Lord read it negatively, as if by doing so they were confirming the decision to murder them made by their forefathers. We have here an example of where the same action can be judged positively or negatively by the Lord; and this of itself disproves the mentality of salvation by works. Because it depends with what motive or background attitude the works are done, and this decides whether the work was an act of righteousness or a sin. And this is a further warning against the impossibility of judging another&rsquo;s works. For we fail to see those background, internal attitudes behind the work. See on 23:30&nbsp;<em>Our fathers</em>.</p><p><em>And garnish</em>- The same word is soon to be used of how the temple was &lsquo;garnished&rsquo; (Lk. 21:5), and the Lord predicted its utter destruction. In the Lord&rsquo;s teaching, it is the inner mind which must be &ldquo;garnished&rdquo; (12:44), the lamp of our own spirituality must likewise be &ldquo;trimmed&rdquo; (s.w.; 25:7). Again we see a tension between the Lord&rsquo;s focus upon the internal, and their attention to the external.</p><p><em>The tombs of the righteous</em>- The same word has just been used in :28, where the Lord observes that the Pharisees tried to &ldquo;appear righteous unto men&rdquo;. And they accordingly made a great show of tending the graves of &ldquo;the righteous&rdquo;. The implication is therefore that they saw righteousness in terms of imitating &lsquo;the righteous&rsquo; who had gone before them. The whole thrust of the New Testament is concerning imputed righteousness, not attaining righteousness in the eyes of others by our own imitations of men. The idea that righteousness involves modelling some past religious leader of our denomination is not at all dead in these days.</p>