“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’
Ambition feeds hypocrisy, and superstition gains ground only when rulers confirm it, when priests themselves fawn upon errors because they profit by them. The Jews reversed all reason: they held the gold of the temple more sacred than the temple itself, though the gold's holiness flows from the temple and is merely accessory to it. This twisted doctrine came from the scribes and priests, a scheme fit for collecting prey.
AI summary
These men argue so ridiculously that their sophistry is transparent to all; their minds must be stupidly blinded by avarice. But their own logic condemns them: which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? The temple, plainly, the seat of God's majesty. So to swear by the gold and make it binding while swearing by the temple means nothing is extravagantly foolish.
AI summary
They taught that swearing by the temple amounts to nothing, not binding at all. But swearing by the gold of the temple, the sacred vessels, the treasure, binds a man completely. Why they regarded the gold as far more sacred than the temple itself is unclear, yet this distinction governed their whole system of oaths.
AI summary