But woe unto you, Pharisees! for you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over justice and the love of God: these ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
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Cyril of Alexandria
AD 444
Those who desire to be greeted by everyone in the marketplace and anxiously consider it a great matter to have the foremost seats in the synagogue do not differ in any way from graves that do not appear as graves. On the outside, they are beautifully decorated but are full of all impurity. See here, I pray that hypocrisy is utterly blamed. It is a hateful malady toward God and humanity. The hypocrite is not whatever he seems to be and is thought to be. He borrows the reputation of goodness and conceals his real shame. He will not practice the very thing that he praises and admires. It is impossible for you to hide your hypocrisy for long. Just as the figures painted in pictures fall off as time dries up the colors, so also hypocrisies, after escaping observation for a very little time, are soon convicted of being really nothing. Commentary on Luke, Homily