Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing 2: Their Identity
The false prophets are really wolves, Matthew 7:15
“Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
Three Perspectives
In the first part of this series, I sketched the contours of Matthew 7:15-23, and highlighted some of the major themes which we need to be aware of. In this second post, I’ll consider the identity of the false prophets. What sort of people is Jesus warning us about?
Jesus presents these enemies of his kingdom from three perspectives: (1) with respect to their religious office or function, they are false prophets; (2) with respect to their inner nature, they are ravenous wolves; and (3) with respect to their outward appearance, they wear sheep’s clothing.
So what we have here are three distinct identifiers, with the latter two—both metaphors—functioning together to further elucidate who the false prophets are: False prophets (1), who are wolves (2), in sheep’s clothing (3).
We will look at these in turn, in light of important Old Testament background. Then we will consider how the compound metaphor of “wolves in sheep’s clothing” describes the false prophets in a way consistent with Jesus’ prior teaching in the Sermon.
Series Outline
Here’s a brief outline of the series, with this post highlighted:
Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing : Introduction
Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Their Identity
Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Their Activity
Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Their Paternity
Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Their Discovery Part 1
Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Their Discovery Part 2
Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Their Destiny
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The False Prophets are Phoney Prophets
The false prophets of Matthew 7:15 are phoney prophets
There’s a logic to popular expositions of this passage, whether from pulpits, or in print, that goes like this:
1) False prophet = False teacher
2) False teacher = Someone who teaches falsehood
Conclusion: False prophets teach falsehood
The second assumption is uncontroversial, but the first assumption on which it is built is not. Since false prophet ≠ false teacher, it is misleading to narrowly think of a false prophet as someone who teaches falsehood.
You cannot equate a false prophet with a false teacher, as if the role of a prophet in Israel neatly maps onto our understanding of a teacher, which it does not. A prophet was a covenant enforcer, denouncing sin and pronouncing judgment, casting a vision of future hope, and the spiritual and ethical obligations such a vision entailed. We’ll think a bit more about that in the next post.
But even before we consider a prophet’s role, we need to understand that the word itself, pseudoprophetes, “false prophet” (single word in Greek, v. 15) does not even, in the first instance, denote a “prophet who prophesies falsehood.” Pseudoprophetes “refers in the first instance to a person who makes a sham claim to being a prophet (e.g., Matt 7:15); but since such people proceed to preach what is not true, the name comes to be applied to anyone who brings a false message (1 John 4:1).” (NIDNTTE Vol 4:168)
Therefore, we need to ask, is Jesus warning us about prophets who are not truly prophets (original sense of the word), or about prophets who are not truthful prophets (derivative sense of the word)?
Given that Jesus immediately characterises the false prophets as wolves in sheep’s clothing—an image that highlights their counterfeit identity—it is more likely in Mt 7:15 that Jesus is warning us about those who falsely claim to be one of the Lord’s prophets, i.e. phoney prophets. Likewise, Leon Morris understands these false prophets to be “people who claimed falsely to speak in the name of God” and “falsely claim to set forth the way of God.” (The Gospel According to Matthew, Pillar, 176).
Once we recognise this, the whole of 7:15-23 locks into focus as an extended warning concerning false people, impostors, counterfeits. Jesus is saying, “Beware of phoney prophets.”
What is false about them in the first instance is their identity—they are not whom they appear to be. It is not that they don’t communicate what is false—they most certainly do—but in the first instance it is the prophet who is false. Who they claim to be is a lie, and that has a devastating impact on everything they do and say in their (usurped) role as prophets.
Think less “false teacher,” and more Cold War double agent.
The Phoney Prophets are Ravenous Wolves
The ravenous wolves in Matthew 7:15 are violent, destructive people
In the OT, wolves appear alongside lions as dangerous, apex predators (Isa 11:6; Isa 65:25; Jer 5:6; Ezek 22:25-27; Zeph 3:3). The metaphor of the wolf is used for men who are violent, cruel, fierce and destructive (Jer 5:6; Ezek 22:27; Hab 1:8; Zeph 3:3).
There are two passages in the OT with which Mt 7:15 shares a special affinity. In Ezek 22:25-28 and Zeph 3:3-4, not only are princes in Israel described as wolves who oppress and even kill the people, but they are joined in their wickedness by the priests and prophets.
In these OT passages, the wolves and prophets, though distinct characters, are united in their oppression and deception of the flock. The united conspiracy of the wolves and prophets in these passages is, I believe, a key background to the composite prophet-wolf character portrayed by Jesus.
These passages are worth carefully noting:
“25 The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. 26 Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. 27 Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain. 28 And her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD has not spoken.”
“1 Woe to the city that is rebellious and defiled,
the oppressive city!
2 She has not obeyed;
she has not accepted discipline.
She has not trusted in the LORD;
she has not drawn near to her God.
3 The princes within her are roaring lions;
her judges are wolves of the night,
which leave nothing for the morning.
4 Her prophets are reckless— treacherous men.
Her priests profane the sanctuary;
they do violence to instruction.”
Notice the focus throughout these passages on the type of people these wicked leaders are, regardless of their particular office; how they are faithless, unholy, and destructive, dishonouring God and destroying people. Not only the princes and the priests, but also the prophets are evil at heart: they are “treacherous” (Zeph 3:4), and lion-like in their ferocity (Ezek 22:25).
The particular mark of the wolves (and lions, who are similar), is ruthless violence against others in the service of personal gain. They devour others to get what they want.
When Jesus warns us about prophets who are inwardly ravenous wolves, it is very unlikely that he is departing from this unvarying OT metaphorical meaning of “wolves,” especially given the extent to which the OT forms the backdrop to so much of the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus is warning us about men who, though claiming to be the Lord’s prophets, are actually by nature (“inwardly”) violent and destructive (“wolves”), driven by their appetites (“ravenous”). As such, his warning is very much in continuity with the denunciations of Ezekiel and Zephaniah.
However, Jesus takes things further, in creating a ghastly prophet-wolf composite figure. If you are familiar with the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, you’ll know that continuity with the OT, with extension beyond it, is typical of how Jesus fulfils the law and the prophets (Mt. 5:17-20).
The Phoney Prophets Wear Sheep’s Clothing
The wolves in Matthew 7:15 blend into the flock by wearing sheep’s clothing
Notice that the false prophets of these OT passages are characterised in two ways. First, they share in the conspiratorial violence and treachery of the other leaders. Second, within this context of evil, they function as cover-up artists. They “smear whitewash” over the evil (Ezek 22:28; see Mt 23:27-28) to maintain the illusion of religious health.
The priests make no distinction between the holy and unholy (Ezek 22:26; Zeph 3:4), creating an environment of moral amnesia within which the wolves’ and lions’ oppression can thrive. And then the prophets come along to whitewash the violence after the fact. In Ezekiel 13:10-11, the whitewashing is combined with the prophets’ assurance that there is “peace, peace.” The lions and wolves are left to abuse the poor and vulnerable for their own gain (Ezek 22:25, 27).
Again, if we turn to Jeremiah, notice that his depiction of false prophets also follows a similar pattern. “Both prophet and priest are ungodly” (Jer 23:11), sharing in the nation’s evil course (23:10). “They commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil” (23:14). In other words, they promote evil by themselves living lives of deceit and wickedness. And, additionally, “They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’” (23:17)
Again, the false prophets are (1) ungodly, and (2) cover-up artists who whitewash evil, assuring people that all will be well, which is an implicit denial of God’s holy character and justice.
The prophet-wolves of Matthew 7:15 are similarly both wicked, and skilled at cover up. But—and Jesus now moves beyond the OT depictions— they have a yet more illusive way of duping the flock. They cover for themselves by means of their persona, the role they play. The wolves wear sheep’s clothing, a metaphor for how they present themselves before others.
So whereas in Ezekiel and Zephaniah the wolves and prophets work in unison, with the prophets predominantly covering for the wolves, in Jesus’ warning they are one and the same—ministers of violence (wolves) who are also false prophets, masters of masquerade who cover over evil. But they now take the art of cover up to another level, by covering for themselves by wearing sheep’s clothing. The sheep’s clothing functions as an extension of the figure of the OT false prophet as someone who whitewashes evil.
At a basic level a sheep is the polar opposite of a wolf, i.e. with connotations of being harmless and defenceless. However, it also brings to mind one of the common ways in which God’s people are described in the OT—as God’s flock, an image that reappears several times later in Matthew’s Gospel (9:36; 10:6, 16; 12:11; 15:24; 18:12; 25:32; 26:31), making this second level of metaphorical association even more likely.
The two levels on which the metaphor works should caution us against too narrowly restricting its application. Every community of the Lord’s people today, like any other human association, develops a culture within which words, symbols, dress, and practices mark out members of that community. Such communal cultural identifiers are both diverse and distinct, and can be appropriated by outsiders, whether by missionaries, who wish to belong to bring blessing, or by wolves, who wish to belong to satiate their ungodly appetites.
When Jesus talks of “sheep’s clothing,” he is referring to the appropriation of an outward persona that appears benign, innocuous, and entirely harmless, leading to the presumption that the “sheep” is a member of God’s flock.
The Phoney Prophets are Hypocrites
The false prophets in Matthew 7:15 are hypocrites like the Pharisees
I’ll summarise where we’ve got to so far:
Jesus combines the OT figures of wolves and false prophets, warning about phoney prophets (“false prophets”) who are in fact dangerous, destructive people (“wolves”), using and abusing others in pursuit of their own gain (“ravenous”). Additionally, Jesus extends the OT idea of a false prophet as a cover-up artist, since the prophet-wolves now cover for themselves by projecting a persona of safety and harmlessness (“sheep’s clothing”), thereby blending into the flock on which they feed.
(As a side note—preempting a later post in this series—it should by now be apparent that a doctrinal test is insufficient to identify such people. Nevertheless, many proceed as if Jesus says “you will know them by their teachings,” rather than “you will know them by their fruit.” Jesus is warning us about double agents. You can’t unmask a double agent just by measuring what they say against a doctrinal standard. Part of the problem here is that we too readily conflate what Jesus says about wolves in Matthew 7 with what Paul says about them in Acts 20. Both are important, but there are distinct differences. We’ll look further at that in the next post.)
Finally, we need to note how the image of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, with its stark disconnect between the inner and outer person, continues Jesus’ concern in the Sermon with duplicity or hypocrisy. The false prophets are hypocrites, meaning that what they appear to be is not who they really are (see 6:2, 5, 16; 7:5). As with the hypocrites of Matthew 6, their outward appearance is an act, performed “before people” (6:1), “to be seen” by them (6:1, 5, 16).
The centrality of hypocrisy to the Sermon is, incidentally, another reason for understanding “false prophet” to mean “phoney prophet,” since hypocrisy concerns the very same idea of pretending to be what one’s not, the putting on a persona.
The righteousness of the kingdom of heaven, which Jesus is seeking to instil within his disciples, goes beyond external piety (5:20). It takes root in the heart of a person (“poor in spirit,” “meek,” “hungering for righteousness,” “merciful” etc, 5:1-12), and is displayed in a commitment to the heart of the law, which goes much deeper and further than adherence to a carefully curated external code of practice (5:17-48).
Wolves in sheep’s clothing are, in this light, the antitype of kingdom righteousness, since their piety is skin deep. They hide their true nature as wolves under a carefully cultivated exterior, all the while oppressing the sheep, using them to satisfy their ungodly, ravenous appetites. They represent the broad, easy way of external religion by embodying it.
What makes the prophets of 7:15 false is not so much that they teach lies, but that they embody a lie. They are false prophets not because they fail to conform to theological orthodoxy, but because even their theological orthodoxy, should they have it—as the Pharisees certainly did in various respects—fails to lead themselves or others in the way of righteousness that leads to life. There are ways of being apparently true to the Scriptures, while still allowing the inner wolf to roam free (see Mt 23:16-24 for how the Pharisees did this). We’ll develop this idea further in the next post.
Conclusion
Jesus warns us about enemies of his kingdom—there are “many” such who do great works in his name (7:22)—who rather than being captivated by the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness, co-opt the kingdom to serve their voracious appetite, whether it be for money, power, prestige, control, or sex.
At the same time, they ape a facsimile of kingdom behavioural norms, designed to enable them to go about their business undetected. Frighteningly, the difference between such prophet-wolves and the true prophet-sheep of Jesus is not immediately obvious.
You can claim a position of spiritual authority, cultivate an image of respectability, safety, and harmless affability, but be a violent, voracious oppressor of the sheep. You can be a minister of a particular denomination, but also a minister of violence. You can be a master of theology, but also a master of deceit. And—hence Jesus’ warning—you can follow such people, and be duped into thinking that you are following the servants of the Lord.
“You will know them by their fruit.” (Mt 7:16)
In the next post in this series, we will build on this character description by looking more closely at the type of behaviour characteristic of the prophet-wolves. Given who they are, what do they actually do? We have begun to form an answer to that question in outline form, but we need to explore it further in part 3 of this series.
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