{"id":14814,"date":"2011-03-22T21:21:27","date_gmt":"2011-03-23T02:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=14814"},"modified":"2011-03-22T21:29:06","modified_gmt":"2011-03-23T02:29:06","slug":"hypocrites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2011\/03\/hypocrites\/","title":{"rendered":"Hypocrites"},"content":{"rendered":"

As every tween knows, a hypocrite is someone who says one thing but does another. So on the subject of, for example, prayer, a hypocrite would be someone who preaches about the importance of prayer but then does not pray. Which makes Matthew 6:5 somewhat surprising:
\n
\nAnd when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. <\/em><\/p>\n

That doesn’t fit the modern definition of a hypocrite, does it?<\/p>\n

The Greek word hupokritai<\/em> refers to those who are playing in a role–in other words, actors. That definition makes sense in the context of Matthew 6:5 and it would be interesting to translate it as:<\/p>\n

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the playactors are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. <\/em><\/p>\n

I think this distinction matters. An actor (1) is pretending to be someone s\/he is not (2) for the benefit of other people. In Matthew 6:5, it presents a much higher bar than the modern definition of hypocrite.<\/p>\n

I do a lot of foolish, sinful things, but I generally have the common sense to refrain from preaching to other people about the importance of those things. I do not, in other words, meet the modern definition of a hypocrite very often. (Not because I avoid sin, mind you, but because I avoid encouraging others to avoid my favorite sins.) But I can’t claim that I’ve never considered the social ramifications of (making public) a particular action or belief of mine. What’s particularly interesting to me about Matthew 6:5 is that the play actor is engaging in what is fundamentally a righteous action (=prayer), but only doing it for public display.<\/p>\n

I’m far more likely to be counted among the hupokritai<\/em> than I am to be a hypocrite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As every tween knows, a hypocrite is someone who says one thing but does another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14814"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14819,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14814\/revisions\/14819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}