Matthew 23:6

6. And love the uppermost Our Lord here explains the motive of all this display of external holiness and ultra Judaism. They desired to establish and enjoy the privileges of a religious caste or hierarchy. It was not the holiness of the people, or their salvation, or benefit they sought; but a self-exaltation into power. Uppermost rooms at feasts It must never be forgotten that at their meals the ancients used not chairs, nor seats, but couches, and that they did not sit but recline. Three tables were so placed as to form the three sides of a square, with the fourth open for entrance. Upon the side opposite the open entrance was the master’s place; in the middle room of the couch occupied by himself, and the positions nearest him, were the places of honour. The uppermost room does not, therefore, signify a high room in the house, but the most noble reclining place, and this was the uppermost room, to which their ambition aspired.

Chief seats in the synagogues Seats in the front of the congregation and facing it. See note on Matthew 4:23. The passage might be more strictly rendered, they “love the uppermost reclining-places at feasts and the foreseats in the synagogues.” The ancients reclined at feasts but sat in synagogues.