Chapter 23

¹Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, ²Saying: The scribes and the Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses. ³All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not; for they say, and do not. ⁴For they bind heavy and insupportable burdens, and lay them on men's shoulders; but with a finger of their own they will not move them. ⁵And all their works they do for to be seen of men. For they make their phylacteries broad, and enlarge their fringes. ⁶And they love the first places at feasts, and the first chairs in the synagogues, ⁷And salutations in the market place, and to be called by men, Rabbi. ⁸But be not you called Rabbi. For one is your master; and all you are brethren. ⁹And call none your father upon earth; for one is your father, who is in heaven. ¹⁰Neither be ye called masters; for one is you master, Christ. ¹¹He that is the greatest among you shall be your servant. ¹²And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled: and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. ¹³But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men, for you yourselves do not enter in; and those that are going in, you suffer not to enter. ¹⁴Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: because you devour the houses of widows, praying long prayers. For this you shall receive the greater judgment. ¹⁵Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you go round about the sea and the land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, you make him the child of hell twofold more than yourselves. ¹⁶Woe to you blind guides, that say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but he that shall swear by the gold of the temple, is a debtor. ¹⁷Ye foolish and blind; for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? ¹⁸And whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gift that is upon it, is a debtor. ¹⁹Ye blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? ²⁰He therefore that sweareth by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things that are upon it: ²¹And whosoever shall swear by temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth in it: ²²And he that sweareth by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. ²³Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you tithe mint, and anise, and cummin, and have left the weightier things of the law; judgment, and mercy, and faith. These things you ought to have done, and not to leave those undone. ²⁴Blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel. ²⁵Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you make clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but within you are full of rapine and uncleanness. ²⁶Thou blind Pharisee, first make clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, that the outside may become clean. ²⁷Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness. ²⁸So you also outwardly indeed appear to men just; but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. ²⁹Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; that build the sepulchres of the prophets, and adorn the monuments of the just, ³⁰And say: If we had been in the days of our Fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. ³¹Wherefore you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are the sons of them that killed the prophets. ³²Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. ³³You serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of hell? ³⁴Therefore behold I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you will put to death and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city: ³⁵That upon you may come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar. ³⁶Amen I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation. ³⁷Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not? ³⁸Behold, you house shall be left to you, desolate. ³⁹For I say to you, you shall not see me henceforth till you say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.