The custom of cleaning the cups and plates was for religious as well as for sanitary reasons. But that can’t really be included in the translation. Cleanse should be translated as simply “wash” or “clean.” Something of the irony of Jesus’ accusation may be captured with a phrase like “for you are so careful to wash (or, clean) the outside of your cups and plates” or “for you clean so carefully.”

Full of extortion and rapacity (New International Version “full of greed and self-indulgence”) may leave the wrong impression with the reader. In Greek the preposition of is literally “from,” which here has the meaning “resulting from” or “gotten from.” The meaning is accurately expressed by Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch: “But what you eat and drink out of it you have acquired by your greed.” Good News Translation has “full of what you have gotten by violence and selfishness.” Even clearer renderings are “but the food and drink that are in them you got by means of violence and selfishness” and “but you fill them with food and drink that you got through force and greed.”

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 .