Matthew 3:7

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Summary

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

The pharisees

O generation

Flee

Revelation 6:16

General references

Proverbs 27:12

Bible References

The pharisees

For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

But when the Pharisees heard this they said, "He does not cast out demons except by the power of Beelzebul, the ruler of demons!"

Then the disciples came to him and said, "Do you know that when the Pharisees heard this saying they were offended?"

"Watch out," Jesus said to them, "beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

Then the Pharisees went out and planned together to entrap him with his own words.

"But woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven! For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in.

(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they perform a ritual washing, holding fast to the tradition of the elders.

And Jesus ordered them, "Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod!"

Then they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to trap him with his own words.

However, the Pharisees and the experts in religious law rejected God's purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.)

But the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.

The Pharisees (who loved money) heard all this and ridiculed him.

The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: extortionists, unrighteous people, adulterers -- or even like this tax collector.

(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.)

Then the officers returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why didn't you bring him back with you?"

Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and asked him, "We are not blind too, are we?"

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests and the commander of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them,

Now the high priest rose up, and all those with him (that is, the religious party of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy.

But some from the religious party of the Pharisees who had believed stood up and said, "It is necessary to circumcise the Gentiles and to order them to observe the law of Moses."

Then when Paul noticed that part of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, he shouted out in the council, "Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead!"

They know, because they have known me from time past, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee.

O generation

Offspring of vipers! How are you able to say anything good, since you are evil? For the mouth speaks from what fills the heart.

You snakes, you offspring of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

And I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; her offspring will attack your head, and you will attack her offspring's heel."

The wicked turn aside from birth; liars go astray as soon as they are born.

But approach, you sons of omen readers, you offspring of adulteresses and prostitutes!

They hatch the eggs of a poisonous snake and spin a spider's web. Whoever eats their eggs will die, a poisonous snake is hatched.

So John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, "You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

You people are from your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.

By this the children of God and the children of the devil are revealed: Everyone who does not practice righteousness -- the one who does not love his fellow Christian -- is not of God.

So that huge dragon -- the ancient serpent, the one called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world -- was thrown down to the earth, and his angels along with him.

Flee

Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God's wrath.

and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath.

They will undergo the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength,

so that we who have found refuge in him may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible for God to lie.

They said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb,

General references

A shrewd person sees danger and hides himself, but the naive keep right on going and suffer for it.