| This handsome printer's device of Gregorio de Bonte illustrates the passage from Matthew chapter 23, verse 23. In the New Jerusalem Bible the passage reads as follows: "Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay your tithe of mint and dill and cummin and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law— justice, mercy, good faith! These you should have practiced, those not neglected." The central figure carries the scales of justice in her left hand, gives alms with her right, and stomps upon the devil, releasing the orb of the world from his grasp, and the inscription can be translated, "The weightier matters of the Law: mercy, faith, justice." The comma after the abbreviation "Mat" may indicate "twice 23," as 23 is both chapter and verse of the passage. |
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