“Hypocrites”
Matthew 6:2
Foreign wordSettledJesus
…as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. (Matthew 6:2 BSB)
* Greek: hypokrites, a stage actor speaking from behind a mask.
What it sounds like today
A generic word for insincere people.
The cultural key
Hypokritēs was the Greek word for a stage actor, a performer who spoke behind a mask. Jesus imported theater vocabulary into religious critique; Sepphoris, being rebuilt with Greek amenities an hour's walk from Nazareth, made stage culture a familiar sight in Galilee.
Recovered meaning
'Actors': people playing the role of the righteous for an audience, piety as performance. Every use of the word carries the mask.