When, however, John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to receive his baptism, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who has prompted you to seek refuge from the coming judgment?

Indeed I tell you that, unless your religion is above that of the Teachers of the Law, and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples: "Why does your Teacher eat in the company of tax-gatherers and outcasts?"

Then John's disciples came to Jesus, and asked: "Why do we and the Pharisees fast while your disciples do not?"

But the Pharisees said: "He drives out the demons by the help of the chief of the demons."

But, when the Pharisees saw this, they said: "Look! your disciples are doing what it is not allowable to do on a Sabbath!"

On coming out, the Pharisees plotted against Jesus, to put him to death.

But the Pharisees heard of it and said: "He drives out demons only by the help of Baal-zebub the chief of the demons."

At this point, some Teachers of the Law and Pharisees interposed. "Teacher," they said, " we want to see some sign from you."

Then some Pharisees and Teachers of the Law came to Jesus, and said:

On this his disciples came up to him, and said: "Do you know that the Pharisees were shocked on hearing what you said?"

Here the Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and, to test Jesus, requested him to show them some sign from the heavens.

Presently Jesus said to them: "Take care and be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

How is it that you do not see that I was not speaking about bread? Be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

Then they understood that he had told them to be on their guard, not against the leaven of bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Presently some Pharisees came up to him, and, to test him, said: "Has a man the right to divorce his wife for every cause?"

After listening to these parables, the Chief Priests and the Pharisees saw that it was about them that he was speaking;

Then the Pharisees went away and conferred together as to how they might lay a snare for Jesus in the course of conversation.

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they collected together.

Before the Pharisees separated, Jesus put this question to them--

"The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees now occupy the chair of Moses.

But alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You turn the key of the Kingdom of Heaven in men's faces. For you do not go in yourselves, nor yet allow those who try to go in to do so.

Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You destroy widow's houses, even while pretending to make long prayers; therefore you shall receive greater condemnation.

Alas for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You scour land and sea to make a single convert, and, when he is gained, you make him twice as deserving of the Pit as you are yourselves.

Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You pay tithes on mint, fennel, and caraway seed, and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law--justice, mercy, and good faith. These last you ought to have put into practice, without neglecting the first.

Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are filled with the results of greed and self-indulgence.

You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the dish, so that the outside may become clean as well.

Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed look fair outside, while inside they are filled with dead men's bones and all kinds of filth.

Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You build the tombs of the Prophets, and decorate the monuments of religious men,

The next day--that is, the day following the Preparation-Day- -the Chief Priests and Pharisees came in a body to Pilate, and said:

When the Teachers of the Law belonging to the party of the Pharisees saw that he was eating in the company of such people, they said to his disciples: "He is eating in the company of tax- gatherers and outcasts!"

Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were keeping a fast, and people came and asked Jesus: "Why is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, while yours do not?"

"Look!" the Pharisees said to him, "why are they doing what is not allowed on the Sabbath?"

Immediately on leaving the Synagogue, the Pharisees and the Herodians united in laying a plot against Jesus, to put him to death.

One day the Pharisees and some of the Teachers of the Law who had come from Jerusalem gathered round Jesus.

(For the Pharisees, and indeed all strict Jews, will not eat without first scrupulously washing their hands, holding in this to the traditions of their ancestors.

So the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law asked Jesus this question--"How is it that your disciples do not follow the traditions of our ancestors, but eat their food with defiled hands?"

Here the Pharisees came out, and began to argue with Jesus, asking him for some sign from the heavens, to test him.

So Jesus gave them this warning. "Take care," he said, "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."

Presently some Pharisees came up and, to test him, asked: "Has a husband the right to divorce his wife?"

Afterwards they sent to Jesus some of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to set a trap for him in the course of conversation.

On one of those days, when Jesus was teaching, some Pharisees and Doctors of the Law were sitting near by. (They had come from all the villages in Galilee and Judea, and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was upon Jesus, so that he could work cures.)

The Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began debating about this. "Who is this man who speaks so blasphemously?" they asked. "Who can forgive sins except God?"

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law belonging to their party complained of this to the disciples of Jesus."

"John's disciples," they said to Jesus, "Often fast and say prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, while yours are eating and drinking!"

"Why are you doing what it is not allowable to do on the Sabbath?" asked some of the Pharisees.

The Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely, to see if he would work cures on the Sabbath, so that they might find a charge to bring against him.

But the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees were goaded to madness, and consulted together what they could do to Jesus.

But the Pharisees and the Students of the Law, having rejected John's baptism, frustrated God's purpose in regard to them.)

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to dine with him, so Jesus went to his house and took his place at table.

Just then a woman, who was an outcast in the town, having ascertained that Jesus was at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster jar of perfume,

When the Pharisee who had invited Jesus saw this, he said to himself: "Had this man been 'The Prophet,' he would have known who, and what sort of woman, this is who is touching him, and that she is an outcast."

As Jesus finished speaking, a Pharisee asked him to breakfast with him, and Jesus went in and took his place at table.

The Pharisee noticed, to his astonishment, that Jesus omitted the ceremonial washing before breakfast.

But the Master said to him: "You Pharisees do, it is true, clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside you yourselves are filled with greed and wickedness.

But alas for you Pharisees! You pay tithes on mint, rue, and herbs of all kinds, and pass over justice and love to God. These last you ought to have put into practice without neglecting the first.

Alas for you Pharisees! You delight to have the front seat in the Synagogues, and to be greeted in the markets with respect.

When Jesus left the house, the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees began to press him hard and question him closely upon many subjects,

Meanwhile the people had gathered in thousands, so that they trod upon one another, when Jesus, addressing himself to his disciples, began by saying to them: "Be on your guard against the leaven--that is, the hypocrisy--of the Pharisees.

Just then some Pharisees came up to Jesus and said: "Go away and leave this place, for Herod wants to kill you."

On one occasion, as Jesus was going, on a Sabbath into the house of one of the leading Pharisees to dine, they were watching him closely.

"Is it allowable," said Jesus, addressing the Students of the Law and the Pharisees, "to work a cure on the Sabbath, or is it not?"

But the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law found fault. "This man always welcomes outcasts, and takes meals with them!" they complained.

All this was said within hearing of the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, and they began to sneer at Jesus.

Being once asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God was to come, Jesus answered: "The Kingdom of God does not come in a way that admits of observation,

"Two men went up into the Temple Courts to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax-gatherer.

The Pharisee stood forward and began praying to himself in this way--'O God, I thank thee that I am not like other men-- thieves, rogues, adulterers--or even like this tax-gatherer.

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him: "Teacher, reprove your disciples."

These men had been sent from the Pharisees;

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who was a leading man among the Jews.

Now, when the Master heard that the Pharisees had been told that he was making and baptizing more disciples than John

The Pharisees heard the people whispering about him in this way, and so the Chief Priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him;

When the officers returned to the Chief Priests and Pharisees, they were asked: "Why have you not brought him?"

"What! Have you been led astray too?" the Pharisees replied.

"Have any of our leading men believed in him, or any of the Pharisees?

"You are bearing testimony to yourself!" exclaimed the Pharisees, "your testimony is not trustworthy."

They took the man, who had been blind, to the Pharisees.

So the Pharisees also questioned the man as to how he had gained his sight. "He put clay on my eyes," he answered, "and I washed them, and I can see."

"The man cannot be from God," said some of the Pharisees, "for he does not keep the Sabbath." "How is it possible," retorted others, "for a bad man to give signs like this?"

Hearing this, some of the Pharisees who were with him said: "Then are we blind too?"

Some of them, however, went to the Pharisees, and told them what he had done.

Upon this the Chief Priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the High Council, and said: "What are we to do, now that this man is giving so many signs?

The Chief Priests and the Pharisees had already issued orders that, if any one learned where Jesus was, he should give information, so that they might arrest him.

So the Pharisees said to one another: "You see that you are gaining nothing! Why, all the world has run after him!"

Yet for all this, even among the leading men there were many who came to believe in Jesus; but, on account of the Pharisees, they did not acknowledge it, for fear that they should be expelled from their Synagogues;

So Judas, who had obtained the soldiers of the Roman garrison, and some police-officers from the Chief Priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.

But Gamaliel, a Pharisee, who was a Doctor of the Law and who was held in universal respect, rose in the Council, and directed that the men should be taken out of court for a little while.

Some of the Pharisees' party, however, who had become believers in Christ, came forward and declared that they were bound to circumcise converts and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.

Noticing that some of those present were Sadducees and others Pharisees, Paul called out in the Council: "Brothers, I am a Pharisee and a son of Pharisees. It is on the question of hope for the dead and of their resurrection that I am on my trial."

As soon as he said this, a dispute arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees; and there was a sharp division of opinion among those present.

(For Sadducees say there is no such thing as a resurrection, and that there is neither angel nor spirit, while Pharisees believe in both.)

So a great uproar ensued, and some of the Teaches of the Law belonging to the Pharisees' party stood up and hotly protested: "We find nothing whatever wrong in this man. Suppose a spirit did speak to him, or an angel--"

And they have always known--if they choose to give evidence- -that, in accordance with the very strictest form of our religion, I lived a true Pharisee.

I was circumcised when eight days old; I am an Israelite by race, and of the tribe of Benjamin; I am a Hebrew, and the child of Hebrews. As to the Law, I was a Pharisee;