Jesus Berates the Scribes and Pharisees
THEN spoke Jesus to the crowds, and to His disciples,
2 Saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit upon Moses’ seat:
3 Therefore, all whatsoever they bid you to observe: that observe and do; but do not according to their works: for they say and do not.
4 For they bind heavy and hard to be borne burdens, and lay them upon men’s shoulders: but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
5 But all their works they do, to be seen of men: and they broaden their phylacteries, and enlarge the hems of their garments;
6 And love the place of honour at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues;
7 And greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men: ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’
8 But you, be not called Rabbi: for one is your Master: the Christ; and you are all brothers.
9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, whom is in heaven.
10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master: the Christ.
11 But he that is greatest among you, shall be your servant.
12 And whosoever shall exalt himself, shall be humbled; and he that shall humble himself, shall be exalted.”
Jesus Condemns the Scribes and Pharisees
13 ¶ “But woe to you: scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you shut up the kingdom of heaven before men: for you neither go in yourselves, nor let those that are entering, to go in.
14 Woe to you: scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: therefore you shall receive the greater condemnation.
15 Woe to you: scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you travel about sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twice a son of Hell than yourselves.
16 Woe to you, blind guides, which say: ‘Whosoever shall swear by the temple: it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple: he is under obligation!’
17 You blind fools: for what is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold holy?
18 And, whosoever shall swear by the altar: it is nothing; but whosoever swears by the gift that is upon it: he under obligation.
19 You blind fools: for what is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift holy?
20 Therefore, whoso shall swear by the altar, swears by it, and by all things thereon!
21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, swears by it, and by Him that dwells therein.
22 And he that shall swear by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by Him that sits thereon.
23 Woe to you: scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith: these you ought to have done, and not to left the other undone.
24 You blind guides: which strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel.
25 Woe to you: scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26 You blind Pharisee: cleanse first that which is within the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 Woe to you: scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like white washed tombs; which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but within are full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Thus you also, outwardly appear righteous to men: but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 Woe to you: scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you build the tombs of the prophets, and adorn the tombs of the righteous,
30 And say: ‘If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
31 So then you are witnesses to yourselves, that you are the children of those which killed the prophets.
32 Fill up then, the measure of your fathers.
33 You serpents, you offspring of vipers: how can you escape the condemnation of Hell?”
34 ¶ “Therefore, behold: I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall you flog in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
35 That upon you, may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar.
36 Truly I say to you: All these things shall come upon this generation.”
Jesus Laments Over Jerusalem
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets, and stone those which are sent to you; how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings: and you would not!
38 Behold, your house is left to you desolate.
39 For I say to you: You shall not see me henceforth, until you say: ‘Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord.'”