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Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Matthew 23:27-28
In the Old Testament and in Jesus’ day contact with a dead body rendered a person ceremonially unclean (Numbers 19:16). For that reason, graves and tombs were often whitewashed to keep people from accidentally coming in contact with them. Bright and white on the outside but unclean on the inside.
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