44 Bible Verses about pharisees

Now the Pharisees who were fond of money heard all this, and they sneered at him.

They sent him their disciples with the Herodians, who said, "Teacher, we know you are sincere and that you teach the Way of God honestly and fearlessly; you do not court human favour.

Meanwhile as the crowd was gathering in its thousands till they trod on one another, he proceeded to say to his disciples first of all, "Be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy,

When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they look woebegone to let men see they are fasting; I tell you truly, they do get their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that your fast may be seen not by men but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is secret will reward you.

Listen to another parable. There was a householder who planted a vineyard, put a fence round it, dug a wine-vat inside it, and built a watchtower: then he leased it to vinedressers and went abroad. When the fruit-season was near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers to collect his fruit; but the vinedressers took his servants and flogged one, killed another, and stoned a third. read more.
Once more he sent some other servants, more than he had sent at first, and they did the same to them. Afterwards he sent them his son; 'They will respect my son,' he said. But when the vinedressers saw his son they said to themselves, 'Here is the heir; come on, let us kill him and seize his inheritance!' So they took and threw him outside the vineyard and killed him. Now, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to these vinedressers?" They replied, "He will utterly destroy the wretches and lease the vineyard to other vinedressers who will give him the fruits in their season." Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures, The stone that the builders rejected is the chief stone now of the corner: this is the doing of the Lord, and a wonder to our eyes? I tell you therefore that the Realm of God will be taken from you and given to a nation that bears the fruits of the Realm. [Everyone who falls on this stone will be shattered, and whoever it falls upon will be crushed.]" When the high priests and Pharisees heard these parables they knew he was speaking about them; they tried to get hold of him, but they were afraid of the crowds, as the crowds held him to be a prophet.

When you give alms, make no flourish of trumpets like the hypocrites in the synagogues and the streets, so as to win applause from men; I tell you truly, they do get their reward. When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so as to keep your alms secret; then your Father who sees what is secret will reward you openly. read more.
Also, when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they like to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street-corners, so as to be seen by men; I tell you truly, they do get their reward. When you pray, go into your room and shut the door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is secret will reward you. Do not pray by idle rote like pagans, for they suppose they will be heard the more they say; you must not copy them; your Father knows your needs before you ask him.

Then Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, "Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they take their food." He replied, "And why do you transgress the command of God with your traditions? read more.
God enjoined, Honour your father and mother, and, He who curses his father or mother is to suffer death. But you say, whoever tells his father or mother, 'This money might have been at your service but it is dedicated to God,' need not honour his father or mother. So you have repealed the law of God to suit your own tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah made a grand prophecy about you when he said, This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me: vain is their worship of me, for the doctrines they teach are but human precepts."

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, "Teacher, we would like to have some Sign from you." He replied to them, "It is an evil and disloyal generation that craves a Sign, but no Sign will be given to it except the Sign of the prophet Jonah;

Then the disciples came up and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees have taken offence at what they hear you say?"

Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him?

"I am a Jew, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel in all the strictness of our ancestral Law, ardent for God as you all are to-day.

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who belonged to the Jewish authorities;

But some of the believers who belonged to the Pharisaic party got up and said, "Gentiles must be circumcised and told to observe the law of Moses."

Then Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, "Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they take their food." He replied, "And why do you transgress the command of God with your traditions?

Now the Pharisees gathered to meet him, with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem. They noticed that some of his disciples ate their food with 'common' (that is, unwashed) hands. (The Pharisees and all the Jews decline to eat till they wash their hands up to the wrist, in obedience to the tradition of the elders; read more.
they decline to eat what comes from the market till they have washed it; and they have a number of other traditions to keep about washing cups and jugs and basins [and beds].) Then the Pharisees and scribes put this question to him, "Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders? Why do they take their food with 'common' hands?" He said to them, "Isaiah made a grand prophecy about you hypocrites ??as it is written, This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me: vain is their worship of me, for the doctrines they teach are but human precepts. You drop what God commands and hold to human tradition. Yes, forsooth," he added, "you set aside what God commands, so as to maintain your own tradition. Thus, Moses said, Honour your father and mother, and, He who curses his father or mother is to suffer death. But you say that if a man tells his father or mother, 'This money might have been at your service, but it is Korban' (that is, dedicated to God), he is exempt, so you hold, from doing anything for his father or mother. That is repealing the word of God in the interests of the tradition which you keep up. And you do many things like that." Then he called the crowd to him again and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand this: nothing outside a man can defile him by entering him; it is what comes from him that defiles him.

Now when he entered the house of a ruler who belonged to the Pharisees to take a meal, they watched him closely.

One of the Pharisees asked him to dinner, and entering the house of the Pharisee he reclined at table.

When he finished speaking, a Pharisee asked him to take a meal in his house; so he went in and lay down at table.

Then the disciples of John came up to him and said, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast a great deal, and your disciples do not fast?"

Twice a week I fast; on all my income I pay tithes.'

Then the Pharisees came up to tempt him. They asked, "Is it right to divorce one's wife for any reason?"

Then the Pharisees went and plotted to trap him in talk. They sent him their disciples with the Herodians, who said, "Teacher, we know you are sincere and that you teach the Way of God honestly and fearlessly; you do not court human favour. Tell us, then, what you think about this. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" read more.
But Jesus detected their malice. He said, "Why do you tempt me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for taxes." So they brought him a shilling. Then Jesus said to them, "Whose likeness, whose inscription is this?" "Caesar's," they said. Then he told them, "Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give God what belongs to God." When they heard that they marvelled; then they left him and went away.

Then, finding half the Sanhedrin were Sadducees and the other half Pharisees, Paul shouted to them, "I am a Pharisee, brothers, the son of Pharisees! It is for the hope of the resurrection from the dead that I am on trial!"

They know me of old. They know, if they chose to admit it, that as a Pharisee I lived by the principles of the strictest party in our religion.

So when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with taxgatherers and sinners?" When Jesus heard it he said, "Those who are strong have no need of a doctor, but those who are ill. Go and learn the meaning of this word, I care for mercy not for sacrifice. For I have not come to call just men but sinners."

God enjoined, Honour your father and mother, and, He who curses his father or mother is to suffer death. But you say, whoever tells his father or mother, 'This money might have been at your service but it is dedicated to God,' need not honour his father or mother. So you have repealed the law of God to suit your own tradition. read more.
You hypocrites! Isaiah made a grand prophecy about you when he said, This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me: vain is their worship of me, for the doctrines they teach are but human precepts."

When the Pharisees noticed it, they said to him, "Look at your disciples, they are doing what is not allowed on the sabbath." He replied, "Have you not read what David did when he and his men were hungry, how he went into the house of God, and there they ate the loaves of the Presence which neither he nor his men were allowed to eat, but only the priests? read more.
Have you not read in the Law that the priests in the temple are not guilty when they desecrate the sabbath? I tell you, One is here who is greater than the temple. Besides, if you had known what this meant, I care for mercy not for sacrifice, you would not have condemned men who are not guilty. For the Son of man is Lord of the sabbath."

But when he noticed a number of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who told you to flee from the coming Wrath? Now, produce fruit that answers to your repentance, instead of presuming to say to yourselves, 'We have a father in Abraham.' I tell you, God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! read more.
The axe is lying all ready at the root of the trees; any tree that is not producing good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Then, finding half the Sanhedrin were Sadducees and the other half Pharisees, Paul shouted to them, "I am a Pharisee, brothers, the son of Pharisees! It is for the hope of the resurrection from the dead that I am on trial!"

For while the Sadducees declare there is no such thing as resurrection, angels, or spirits, the Pharisees affirm them all.

but the Pharisees and jurists, who had refused his baptism, frustrated God's purpose for themselves.)

vain is their worship of me, for the doctrines they teach are but human precepts."

But some of the believers who belonged to the Pharisaic party got up and said, "Gentiles must be circumcised and told to observe the law of Moses."

they tried to get hold of him, but they were afraid of the crowds, as the crowds held him to be a prophet.

So the Pharisees withdrew and plotted against him, to destroy him;

whereupon the high priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. "Whatever is to be done?" they said. "The fellow is performing a number of Signs.

So from that day their plan was to kill him.

(The high priests and the Pharisees had given orders that they were to be informed, if anyone found out where he was, so that they might arrest him.)

Then the Pharisees came up to tempt him. They asked, "Is it right to divorce one's wife for any reason?"

and one of them, a jurist, put a question in order to tempt him.

Then the Pharisees went and plotted to trap him in talk. They sent him their disciples with the Herodians, who said, "Teacher, we know you are sincere and that you teach the Way of God honestly and fearlessly; you do not court human favour.

Now the Pharisees who were fond of money heard all this, and they sneered at him.

When the high priests and Pharisees heard these parables they knew he was speaking about them;

Then the disciples came up and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees have taken offence at what they hear you say?"

(The Pharisees and all the Jews decline to eat till they wash their hands up to the wrist, in obedience to the tradition of the elders;

and how I outstripped many of my own age and race in my special ardour for the ancestral traditions of my house.

Then the Pharisees and scribes put this question to him, "Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders? Why do they take their food with 'common' hands?" He said to them, "Isaiah made a grand prophecy about you hypocrites ??as it is written, This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me: vain is their worship of me, for the doctrines they teach are but human precepts. read more.
You drop what God commands and hold to human tradition.

When his host the Pharisee noticed this, he said to himself, "If he was a prophet he would know what sort of a woman this is who is touching him; for she is a sinner."

So when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with taxgatherers and sinners?"

Now the tax gatherers and sinners were all approaching him to listen to him, but the Pharisees and the scribes complained, "He welcomes sinners and eats along with them!"

Jesus said to them, "See and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

Why do you not see that I was not speaking to you about bread? No, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Then they realized that what he told them to beware of was not leaven but the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

But a Pharisee in the Sanhedrin called Gamaliel, a doctor of the Law who was highly respected by all the people, got up and ordered the apostles to be removed for a few moments.

Thus a loud clamour broke out. Some of the scribes who belonged to the Pharisaic party got up and contended, "We find nothing wrong about this man. What if some spirit or angel has spoken to him?"

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who belonged to the Jewish authorities;

The Pharisee stood up and prayed by himself as follows; 'I thank thee, O God, I am not like the rest of men, thieves, rogues, and immoral, or even like yon taxgatherer.

I was circumcised on the eighth day after birth; I belonged to the race of Israel, to the tribe of Benjamin; I was the Hebrew son of Hebrew parents, a Pharisee as regards the Law, in point of ardour a persecutor of the church, immaculate by the standard of legal righteousness.

Blind guides that you are, filtering away the gnat and swallowing the camel!

You are senseless and blind! for which is the greater, the gold or the sanctuary that makes the gold sacred?

Now the Pharisees and Sadducees came up and, in order to tempt him, asked him to show them a Sign from heaven.

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, "Teacher, we would like to have some Sign from you."

[vs omitted but shown in footnote] But the Pharisees said, "He casts out daemons by the prince of daemons."

But when the Pharisees heard of it they said, "This fellow only casts out daemons by Beelzebul the prince of daemons."

I was circumcised on the eighth day after birth; I belonged to the race of Israel, to the tribe of Benjamin; I was the Hebrew son of Hebrew parents, a Pharisee as regards the Law,

But some of the believers who belonged to the Pharisaic party got up and said, "Gentiles must be circumcised and told to observe the law of Moses."

Now the Pharisees who were fond of money heard all this, and they sneered at him.

??-

They said to him, "The disciples of John fast frequently and offer prayers, as do the disciples of the Pharisees; but your adherents eat and drink."

Twice a week I fast; on all my income I pay tithes.'

He also told the following parable to certain persons who were sure of their own goodness and looked down upon everybody else.

So he told them, "You are the people who get men to think you are good, but God knows what your hearts are! What is lofty in the view of man is loathsome in the eyes of God.

One of the Pharisees asked him to dinner, and entering the house of the Pharisee he reclined at table.

When he finished speaking, a Pharisee asked him to take a meal in his house; so he went in and lay down at table.

The Pharisees heard the people discussing Jesus in this way, so the high priests and the Pharisees despatched attendants to arrest him.

Then the attendants went back to the high priests and Pharisees, who asked them, "Why have you not brought him with you?"

Now here is John's testimony. When the Jews of Jerusalem despatched priests and Levites to ask him, "Who are you?"

Now it was some of the Pharisees who had been sent to him;

"I am a Jew, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel in all the strictness of our ancestral Law, ardent for God as you all are to-day.

They said to him, "The disciples of John fast frequently and offer prayers, as do the disciples of the Pharisees; but your adherents eat and drink."

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. read more.
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?

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; read more.
nor must you be called 'leaders,' for One is your leader, even the Christ.

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.

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.

He replied to them, "It is an evil and disloyal generation that craves a Sign, but no Sign will be given to it except the Sign of the prophet Jonah;

You serpents! you brood of vipers! how can you escape being sentenced to Gehenna?

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.

they like to be saluted in the marketplaces and to be called 'rabbi' by men.

they are fond of the best places at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues;

They make up heavy loads and lay them on men's shoulders, but they will not stir a finger to remove them.

For I tell you, unless your goodness excels that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the Realm of heaven.

Besides, all they do is done to catch the notice of men; they make their phylacteries broad, they wear large tassels,

But when he noticed a number of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who told you to flee from the coming Wrath?

Meanwhile Saul still breathed threats of murder against the disciples of the Lord. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus empowering him to put any man or woman in chains whom he could find belonging to the Way, and bring them to Jerusalem.

Now when the Lord learned that the Pharisees had heard of Jesus gaining and baptizing more disciples than John (though Jesus himself did not baptize, it was his disciples), he left Judaea and went back to Galilee.

Woe to you! you are like unsuspected tombs; men walk over them unawares."

They know me of old. They know, if they chose to admit it, that as a Pharisee I lived by the principles of the strictest party in our religion.

Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him?

but the Pharisees and jurists, who had refused his baptism, frustrated God's purpose for themselves.)

For while the Sadducees declare there is no such thing as resurrection, angels, or spirits, the Pharisees affirm them all.

Then, finding half the Sanhedrin were Sadducees and the other half Pharisees, Paul shouted to them, "I am a Pharisee, brothers, the son of Pharisees! It is for the hope of the resurrection from the dead that I am on trial!"

and the scribes and Pharisees watched to see if he would heal on the sabbath, so as to discover some charge against him.

Now the Pharisees who were fond of money heard all this, and they sneered at him.

"Two men went up to pray in the temple; one was a Pharisee and the other was a taxgatherer.

Now the Pharisees and Sadducees came up and, in order to tempt him, asked him to show them a Sign from heaven.

Then the Pharisees came up to tempt him. They asked, "Is it right to divorce one's wife for any reason?"

but the Pharisees and jurists, who had refused his baptism, frustrated God's purpose for themselves.)

Then, finding half the Sanhedrin were Sadducees and the other half Pharisees, Paul shouted to them, "I am a Pharisee, brothers, the son of Pharisees! It is for the hope of the resurrection from the dead that I am on trial!"

No one lights a lamp to put it in a cellar or under a bowl, but on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. Your eye is the lamp of the body: when your eye is sound, then the whole of your body has light, but if your eye is diseased, then your body is darkened. (Look! perhaps your very light is dark.) read more.
So if your whole body has light, without any corner of it in darkness, it will be lit up entirely, as when a lamp lights you with its rays." When he finished speaking, a Pharisee asked him to take a meal in his house; so he went in and lay down at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he had not washed before the meal, 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. 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.

"We are Abraham's offspring," they retorted, "we have never been slaves to anybody. What do you mean by saying, 'You will be free'?" Jesus replied, "Truly, truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave. Now the slave does not remain in the household for all time; the son of the house does. read more.
So, if the Son sets you free, you will be really free. I know you are Abraham's offspring! Yet you want to kill me, since my word makes no headway among you! I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you act as you have learned from your father." They answered him, "Abraham is our father." "If you are Abraham's children," said Jesus, "then do as Abraham did; but now you want to kill me ??to kill a man who has told you the truth, the truth I have learned from God. Abraham did not do that. You do the deeds of your father." They said to him, "We are no bastards: we have one father, even God." Said Jesus, "If God were your father, you would love me, for I came here from God; I did not come of my own accord, I was sent by him. Why do you not understand my speech? Because you are unable to listen to what I am saying. You belong to your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires; he was a slayer of men from the very beginning, and he has no place in the truth because there is no truth in him: when he tells a lie, he is expressing his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. It is because I tell the truth, that you do not believe me. Which of you can convict me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? He who belongs to God listens to the words of God; you do not listen to them, because you do not belong to God." The Jews retorted, "Are we not right in saying you are a Samaritan, you are mad?" Jesus replied, "I am not mad: I honour my Father and you dishonour me. However, I do not aim at my own credit; there is One who cares for my credit, and he is judge. Truly, truly I tell you, if anyone holds to what I say, he will never see death." The Jews said to him, "Now we are sure you are mad. Abraham is dead, and so are all the prophets; and you declare, 'If anyone holds to what I say, he will never taste death'! Are you greater than our father Abraham? He is dead, and the prophets are dead. Who do you claim to be?" Jesus replied, "Were I to glorify myself, my glory would be nothing; it is my Father who glorifies me; you say 'He is our God,' but you do not understand him. I know him. Were I to say, 'I do not know him,' I would be a liar like yourselves; but I do know him and I hold to his word. Your father Abraham exulted that he was to see my Day: he did see it and he rejoiced." Then said the Jews to him, "You are not fifty years old, and Abraham has seen you?" "Truly, truly I tell you," said Jesus, "I have existed before Abraham was born." At this they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus concealed himself and made his way out of the temple.

Then they stormed at him: "You are his disciple, we are disciples of Moses! We know God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this fellow comes from." The man replied to them, "Well, this is astonishing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he has opened my eyes! read more.
God, we know, does not listen to sinners; he listens to anyone who is devout and who obeys his will. It is unheard of, since the world began, that anyone should open a blind man's eyes. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." They retorted, "And so you would teach us ??you, born in utter depravity!" Then they expelled him.