Matthew 23:1-36 ▼

1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples,

2 saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sat down on Moses’ seat.

3 Therefore do and observe all things, whatsoever they might tell you?. But do not do according to their works, for they speak and do not do.

4 And they tie up burdens heavy and hard to bear, and they lay them on the shoulders of men; but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

5 And they do all their works in order to be seen by men. For they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.

6 And they love the chief place at the suppers, and the first seats in the synagogues,

7 and the greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by men.

8 But you? shall not be called ‘Rabbi,’ for your? Teacher is One, and you? are all brothers.

9 And you? shall call no one your? father on the earth, for One is your? Father who is in heaven.

10 Neither shall you? be called instructors, because One is your? Instructor, the Christ.

11 But the greatest among you? will be your? servant.

12 And whoever will exalt himself will be humbled, and whoever will humble himself will be exalted.

13 But woe to you?, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you? shut up the kingdom of the heavens before men. For you? do not enter, nor even do you? allow those who are entering to enter.

14

15 Woe to you?, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you? traverse the sea and the dry land to make one convert, and when he might become one, you? make him twofold more a son of Gehenna than yourselves.

16 Woe to you?, blind guides, those saying, ‘Whoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever shall swear by the gold of the temple is bound by his oath.’

17 Foolish and blind ones! For which is greater: the gold, or the temple having sanctified the gold?

18 And you say, ‘Whoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever shall swear by the gift that is upon it is bound by his oath.’

19 Blind ones! For which is greater: the gift, or the altar sanctifying the gift?

20 Therefore the one having sworn by the altar swears by it and by all things that are upon it.

21 And the one having sworn by the temple swears by it and by the One dwelling in it.

22 And the one having sworn by heaven swears by the throne of God and by the One sitting upon it.

23 Woe to you?, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you? pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin, and you? left aside the weightier things of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. And it was necessary to do these, and those not to leave aside.

24 Blind guides—those straining out the gnat and swallowing up the camel!

25 Woe to you?, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you? cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of plundering and self-indulgence.

26 Blind Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that its outside might become clean also.

27 Woe to you?, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you? are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed on the outside appear beautiful, but on the inside they are full of bones of the dead and of all uncleanness.

28 Thus also on the outside you? indeed appear righteous to men, but on the inside you? are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

29 Woe to you?, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you? build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous.

30 And you? 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 Thus you? bear witness to yourselves that you? are sons of those having murdered the prophets.

32 And you?, fill up the measure of your? fathers.

33 Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How shall you? escape from the judgment of Gehenna?

34 Because of this, behold, I send to you? prophets and wise men and scribes. Some of them you? will kill and crucify, and some of them you? will flog in your? synagogues and will persecute from city to city,

35 so that upon you? shall come all the righteous blood being poured out upon the earth, from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you? murdered between the temple and the altar.

36 Truly I say to you?, all these things will come upon this generation.