Hypocrite

Hypocrite lands here as Jesus's defining verdict on the Pharisees' lifestyle — people whose public religious presentation bears no resemblance to their private reality, all stage, no substance.

The Hypocrites appear here completing their third cameo in the chapter, this time disfiguring their faces while fasting to signal piety — Jesus uses them as the definitive example of religion done for the wrong audience.

Hypocrite is used in the context of the mocker — someone whose presence poisons a community, and whose removal immediately restores peace and honest conversation.

Hypocrisy is the central subject of verses 23–28, where Solomon describes someone whose outward warmth and smooth words are a deliberate mask over a heart full of hatred and destructive intent.

The false prophet is described here as someone who tells people what they want to hear instead of the truth — God explicitly equates their guilt with the guilt of those who go shopping for comfortable words rather than genuine divine counsel.

Hypocrisy is the charge Paul levels at Peter — acting one way with Gentile believers when alone, then reversing course under social pressure from Jewish traditionalists.