Thematic Bible


Thematic Bible







Jesus noted his intelligent answer and said to him, "You are not far off the Realm of God." After that no one ventured to put any more questions to him. Verse ConceptsNot Asking OthersAnsweringGod's Blessings Are NearLosing CourageQuestioning GodSchoolanswers

When the Pharisees heard he had silenced the Sadducees, they mustered their forces, and one of them, a jurist, put a question in order to tempt him. "Teacher," he said, "what is the greatest command in the Law?" read more.
He replied, "You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, and with your whole mind. This is the greatest and chief command. There is a second like it: you must love your neighbour as yourself. The whole Law and the prophets hang upon these two commands."

Then a scribe came up, who had listened to the discussion. Knowing Jesus had given them an apt answer, he put this question to him, "What is the chief of all the commands?" Jesus replied, "The chief one is: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, with your whole mind, and with your whole strength. read more.
The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other command greater than these." The scribe said to him, "Right, teacher! You have truly said, He is One, and there is none else but Him. Also, to love him with the whole heart, with the whole understanding, and with the whole strength, and to love one's neighbour as oneself ??that is far more than all holocausts and sacrifices." Jesus noted his intelligent answer and said to him, "You are not far off the Realm of God." After that no one ventured to put any more questions to him.

The scribe said to him, "Right, teacher! You have truly said, He is One, and there is none else but Him. Also, to love him with the whole heart, with the whole understanding, and with the whole strength, and to love one's neighbour as oneself ??that is far more than all holocausts and sacrifices." Jesus noted his intelligent answer and said to him, "You are not far off the Realm of God." After that no one ventured to put any more questions to him.

"The scribes and Pharisees sit on the seat of Moses; so do whatever they tell you, obey them, but do not do as they do. They talk but they do not act. They make up heavy loads and lay them on men's shoulders, but they will not stir a finger to remove them. read more.
Besides, all they do is done to catch the notice of men; they make their phylacteries broad, they wear large tassels, they are fond of the best places at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues; they like to be saluted in the marketplaces and to be called 'rabbi' by men. But you are not to be called 'rabbi,' for One is your teacher, and you are all brothers; you are not to call anyone 'father' on earth, for One is your heavenly Father; nor must you be called 'leaders,' for One is your leader, even the Christ. He who is greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever uplifts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be uplifted. Woe to you, you impious scribes and Pharisees! you shut the Realm of heaven in men's faces; you neither enter yourselves, nor will you let those enter who are on the point of entering. ??- Woe to you, you impious scribes and Pharisees! you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when you succeed you make him a son of Gehenna twice as bad as yourselves. Woe to you, blind guides that you are! you say, 'Swear by the sanctuary, and it means nothing; but swear by the gold of the sanctuary, and the oath is binding.' You are senseless and blind! for which is the greater, the gold or the sanctuary that makes the gold sacred? You say again, 'Swear by the altar, and it means nothing; but swear by the gift upon it, and the oath is binding.' You are blind! for which is the greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? He who swears by the altar swears by it and by all that lies on it; he who swears by the sanctuary swears by it and by Him who inhabits it; he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it. Woe to you, you impious scribes and Pharisees! you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and omit the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness; these latter you ought to have practised ??without omit ting the former. Blind guides that you are, filtering away the gnat and swallowing the camel! Woe to you, you irreligious scribes and Pharisees! you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are filled with your rapacity and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! first clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside may be clean as well. Woe to you, you irreligious scribes and Pharisees! you are like tombs white-washed; they look comely on the outside, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all manner of impurity. So to men you seem just, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe to you, you irreligious scribes and Pharisees! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the tombs of the just, and you say 'If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have joined them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' So you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are sons of those who killed the prophets! And you will fill up the measure that your fathers filled. You serpents! you brood of vipers! how can you escape being sentenced to Gehenna?

But they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to him for the purpose of catching him with a question. They came up and said to him, "Teacher, we know you are sincere and fearless; you do not court human favour, you teach the Way of God honestly. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Are we to pay, or are we not to pay?" But he saw their trick and said to them, "Why tempt me? Bring me a shilling. Let me see it." read more.
So they brought one. He said, "Whose likeness, whose inscription is this?" "Caesar's," they said. Jesus said to them, "Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give God what belongs to God." He astonished them. Sadducees, men who hold there is no resurrection, also came up and put a question to him. "Teacher," they said, "Moses has written this law for us, that if a man's brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother is to take the woman and raise offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first married a wife and died leaving no offspring: the second took her and died without leaving any offspring: so did the third: none of the seven left any offspring. Last of all the woman died too. At the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be? She was wife to the seven of them." Jesus said to them, "Is this not where you go wrong? ??you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God. When people rise from the dead they neither marry nor are married, they are like the angels in heaven. As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, at the passage on the Bush, how God said to him, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of dead people but of living. You are far wrong." Then a scribe came up, who had listened to the discussion. Knowing Jesus had given them an apt answer, he put this question to him, "What is the chief of all the commands?" Jesus replied, "The chief one is: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, with your whole mind, and with your whole strength. The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other command greater than these." The scribe said to him, "Right, teacher! You have truly said, He is One, and there is none else but Him. Also, to love him with the whole heart, with the whole understanding, and with the whole strength, and to love one's neighbour as oneself ??that is far more than all holocausts and sacrifices." Jesus noted his intelligent answer and said to him, "You are not far off the Realm of God." After that no one ventured to put any more questions to him. And as Jesus taught in the temple he asked, "How can the scribes say that the Christ is David's son? David himself said in the holy Spirit, The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.' David here calls him Lord. Then how can he be his son?" Now the mass of the people listened with delight to him. And in the course of his teaching he said, "Beware of the scribes! They like to walk about in long robes, to get saluted in the marketplaces, to secure the front seats in the synagogues and the best places at banquets; they prey upon the property of widows and offer long unreal prayers. All the heavier will their sentence be!"

but the Lord said to him, "You Pharisees do clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but your inner life is filled with rapacity and malice. Foolish men! did not He who made the outside make the inside of things too? Better cleanse what is within; then nothing will be unclean for you. read more.
But woe to you Pharisees! you tithe mint and rue and every vegetable, but justice and the love of God you disregard; these latter you ought to have practised ??without omitting the former. Woe to you Pharisees! you love the front bench in the synagogues and salutations in the marketplaces. Woe to you! you are like unsuspected tombs; men walk over them unawares." One of the jurists said to him, "Teacher, when you say this you are insulting us as well." He said, "And woe to you jurists! you load men with irksome burdens, and you will not put a single finger to their burdens. Woe to you! you build tombs for the prophets whom your own fathers killed: thus you testify and consent to what your fathers did, for they killed and you build. This is why the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some they will kill and some they will persecute'; it was that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world might be charged upon this generation, from the blood of Abel down to the blood of Zechariah who was slain between the altar and the House of God ??yes, I tell you, it will all be charged upon this generation. Woe to you jurists! you have taken the key that unlocks the door of knowledge; you have not entered yourselves, and you have stopped those who were entering." After he had gone away, the scribes and Pharisees commenced to follow him up closely and cross-question him on many points, lying in ambush to catch a word from his lips.