Although it is quite possible that Jesus uses the cup and plate (verse 26) to speak figuratively of the Pharisees themselves, it is only in this verse that the application is made explicit.

The whitewashed tombs of which Jesus speaks reflects the annual practice of whitewashing the tombs in the city of Jerusalem so that none of the visitors coming there would accidentally touch one and become ceremonially unclean. Jesus’ accusation against the Pharisees is that they, like the tombs, may appear clean and beautiful on the outside, but inwardly they are filthy and defiled. A Palestinian tomb could have been located in a variety of places: in a pit, a cave, an unused cistern, or, in the case of the wealthy, a chamber carved out of the rock. “Whitewash” is quite widely known, but if it is not, then whitewashed tombs may be “tombs that are painted white.”

These tombs that appear beautiful on the outside are on the inside full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness, a concept that can be expressed by “full of the bones of the dead and all kinds of rottenness (or, rotting matter).”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .