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Then Jesus said to the multitudes and to His disciples, The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat of authority. So observe and practice all they tell you; but do not do what they do, for they preach but do not practice. They tie up heavy loads, hard to bear. Then they place them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not lift a finger to help bear them. They do all their works to be seen of men for they make wide their phylacteries; their small cases enclosing certain Scripture passages worn during prayer on their left arm and forehead. They make long the fringes that are worn by all male Israelites according to the command. (Num. 15:38; Ex. 13:9; Deut. 6:8). They take pleasure in and thus love the place of honor at feasts, and the best seats in the synagogues. And they love to be greeted with honor in the market places, and to have people call them a rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi or teacher, for One is your Master, even Christ; and you are all brothers. And do not call any one in the church on earth father, for you have One Father, Who is in heaven. And you must not be called masters for you have one Master, your Leader the Christ. |
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He who is greatest among you shall be your servant. Whosoever exalts himself with haughtiness and empty pride shall be humbled and brought low. And whosoever humbles himself who has a modest opinion of himself and behaves accordingly shall be raised to honor. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders - hypocrites! because you shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves, nor do you allow those who are about to go in to do so. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you pretenders and hypocrites! For you swallow up widows’ houses and for a pretense to cover it up make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive the greater condemnation and the heavier sentence. Woe to you scribes and Phairsees for you travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him doubly as much a child of Ghenna as you are. Woe to you blind guides, who say, If any one swears by the sanctuary of the temple, that it is nothing. But if any one swears by the gold of the sanctuary, he is a debtor bound by his oath. You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the sanctuary of the temple that has made the gold sacred? (Ex 30:29) You say too, Whoever swears by the altar is not duty bound, but whoever swears by the offering on the altar, his oath is binding. You blind men! Which is greater, the gift or the altar which makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it. And he who swears by the sanctuary of the temple, swears by it and by Him Who dwells in it. (1Kings 8:13; Ps. 26:8) And whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it! |
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Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, for you give a tenth of your mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected and omitted the weightier and more important matters of the Law, right, justice, mercy and fidelity. These you ought particularly to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides filtering out a gnat and gulping down a camel! (Lev.27:30; Mic 6:8). Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, for you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion, prey, spoil, and plunder and grasps at self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, so that the outside may be clean also. |
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Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, for you are like tombs that have been white-washed, which look beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything impure. Just so, you also outwardly seem to people to be just and upright, but inside you are full of pretense and lawlessness and iniquity. (Ps. 5:9) Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, for you build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous. Saying, If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have aided them in shedding the blood of the prophets. Thus you are testifying against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your fathers’ sins to the brim so that nothing may be wanting to a full measure. You serpents! You spawn of vipers! How can you escape the penalty to be suffered in Gehenna? Because of this, take notice, I am sending you prophets and wise men, interpreters and teachers and scribes that are learned men in the Mosaic Law and the prophets. Some of them you will kill, even crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues, and pursue and persecute from town to town. So that upon your heads may come all the blood of the righteous, those who correspond to the divine standard of right, shed on earth from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, who you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar of burnt offering. (Gen. 4:8; 11Chron. 24:21.) Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation! |
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And at that very hour some Pharisees came up and said to Him, “Go away from here, for Herod is determined to kill you. And He said to them, “Go and tell that sly and crafty, skulking and cowardly fox that I said, Behold, I drive out demons and perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish completely my course! Nevertheless I must continue on My way today and tomorrow and the day after that, for it will never do for a prophet to be destroyed away from Jerusalem! |
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As He looked out over the city His heart wept in pain. Then He shouted these words to the spiritually blind and deaf of Jerusalem. “Oh Jerusalem! Jerusalem, you who continue to kill the prophets and to stone those who are sent to you! How often I have desired and yearned to gather your children together around Me, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken and abandoned, left to you destitute of God’s help! And I tell you, you will not see Me again until the time comes when you shall say, Blessed to be celebrated with praises is He Who comes in the name of the Lord! (Jer. 22:5; Ps 118:26). |
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