Knox Bible

1

After this, Jesus addressed himself to the multitudes, and to his disciples;

2

The scribes and Pharisees, he said, have established themselves in the place from which Moses used to teach;

3

do what they tell you, then, continue to observe what they tell you, but do not imitate their actions, for they tell you one thing and do another.

4

They fasten up packs too heavy to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; they themselves will not stir a finger to lift them.

5

They act, always, so as to be a mark for men’s eyes. Boldly written are the texts they carry, and deep is the hem of their garments;

6

their heart is set on taking the chief places at table and the first seats in the synagogue,

7

and having their hands kissed in the market-place, and being called Rabbi among their fellow men.

8

You are not to claim the title of Rabbi; you have but one Master, and you are all brethren alike.

9

Nor are you to call any man on earth your father; you have but one Father, and he is in heaven.

10

Nor are you to be called teachers; you have one teacher, Christ.

11

Among you, the greatest of all is to be the servant of all;

12

the man who exalts himself will be humbled, and the man who humbles himself will be exalted.

13

Woe upon you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites that shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces; you will neither enter yourselves, nor let others enter when they would.

14

Woe upon you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites that swallow up the property of widows, under cover of your long prayers; your sentence will be all the heavier for that.

15

Woe upon you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites that encompass sea and land to gain a single proselyte, and then make the proselyte twice as worthy of damnation as yourselves.

16

Woe upon you, blind leaders, who say, If a man swears by the temple, it goes for nothing; if he swears by the gold in the temple, his oath stands.

17

Blind fools, which is greater, the gold, or the temple that consecrates the gold?

18

And again, If a man swears by the altar it goes for nothing; if he swears by the gift on the altar, his oath stands.

19

Blind fools, which is greater, the gift, or the altar that consecrates the gift?

20

The man who swears by the altar swears at the same time by all that is on it.

21

The man who swears by the temple swears at the same time by him who has made it his dwelling-place.

22

And the man who swears by heaven swears not only by God’s throne, but by him who sits upon it.

23

Woe upon you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites that will award to God his tithe, though it be of mint or dill or cummin, and have forgotten the weightier commandments of the law, justice, mercy, and honour; you did ill to forget one duty while you performed the other;

24

you blind leaders, that have a strainer for the gnat, and then swallow the camel!

25

Woe upon you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites that scour the outward part of cup and dish, while all within is running with avarice and incontinence.

26

Scour the inside of cup and dish first, thou blind Pharisee, that so the outside, too, may become clean.

27

Woe upon you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites that are like whitened sepulchres, fair in outward show, when they are full of dead men’s bones and all manner of corruption within;

28

you too seem exact over your duties, outwardly, to men’s eyes, while there is nothing within but hypocrisy and iniquity.

29

Woe upon you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites that build up the tombs of the prophets and engrave the monuments of the just;

30

If we had lived in our fathers’ times, you say, we would not have taken part in murdering the prophets.

31

Why then, you bear witness of your own ancestry; it was your fathers who slaughtered the prophets;

32

it is for you to complete your fathers’ reckoning.✻

33

Serpents that you are, brood of vipers, how should you escape from the award of hell?

34

And now, behold, I am sending prophets and wise men and men of learning to preach to you; some of them you will put to death and crucify, some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city;

35

so that you will make yourselves answerable for all the blood of just men that is shed on the earth, from the blood of the just Abel to the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar.✻

36

Believe me, this generation shall be held answerable for all of it.✻

37

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, still murdering the prophets, and stoning the messengers that are sent to thee, how often have I been ready to gather thy children together, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings; and thou didst refuse it!

38

Behold, your house is left to you, a house uninhabited.

39

Believe me, you shall see nothing of me henceforward, until the time when you will be saying, Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.✻