God's New Bible

The Gospel According to St. Matthew

Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic

- Chapter 23 -

(Luke 11:37–54)
1
Then Jesus said to the crowd and to his disciples,
2
“The Pharisees and the men who teach our Jewish laws have made themselves the ones who interpret the laws that God had given Moses for the people of Israel.
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Consequently, you should do whatever they tell you that you must do. But do not do what they do, because they themselves do not do those things.
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They require you to obey many rules that are difficult to obey. But they themselves do not help anyone obey those rules. It is as if they were tying up very heavy loads and putting them on your shoulders for you to carry. But they will not even move one finger to help you carry them.
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Whatever they do, they do those things so that other people will see them and admire them. For example, they make extra wide the tiny boxes containing portions of scripture that they wear on their arms. They enlarge the tassels on their robes to make others think that they honor God.
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They want other people to honor them. For example, at dinners they sit in the seats where the most important people sit. In the synagogues they want to sit in the same kind of places.
7
They love for people to greet them with great honor in the markets, and for people to call them ‘Teacher.’
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But you, my disciples, should not allow people to call you ‘Teacher,’ as they do other Jewish teachers. I am the only one who is really your teacher. This means that you are all equal to each other, like brothers and sisters.
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Do not honor anyone on earth by addressing him as ‘Father,’ because God, your Father in heaven, is your only true father.
10
Do not allow people to call you ‘teacher,’ because the Messiah is your only teacher.
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Instead, everyone among you who wants God to consider them as important must serve others as servants do.
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God will humble those who try to make themselves important. Those who humble themselves, God will make them truly important.”
13
“You teachers of the law and you Pharisees, you are hypocrites! How terribly God will punish you, because you refuse to come under the rule of heaven and also keep others out.
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You yourselves do not want to go in, and you keep others from entering, too.”
15
“You are hypocrites, you teachers of the law and you Pharisees! How terribly God will punish you! You work hard to get even one person to believe what you teach. You even travel across seas and lands to distant places in order to do that. And as a result, when one person believes what you teach, you make that person deserve to go to hell much more than you yourselves do.”
16
“You Jewish leaders, how terribly God will punish you! You are like blind people who try to lead others. You say, ‘If someone asks the temple to confirm that he will do something as if the temple were a person, then if he does not do what he promised, it means nothing. But if he asks the gold in the temple to confirm that he will do something, then he must do it.’
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You are fools, and you are like people who are blind! The gold that is in the temple is important, but the temple is even more important, because it is the temple that makes the gold to be only for God.
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Also you say, ‘If someone asks the altar to confirm that he will do something as if the altar were a person, then if he does not do what he promised, it means nothing. But if he asks the gift that he has placed on the altar to confirm that he will do something, then he must do it.’
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You are like people who are blind. The gift that you put on the altar is important, but the altar is even more important because it is the altar that makes the gift only for God.
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So those who promise to do something and then ask the altar to confirm that they will do it, they are also asking everything on the altar to do the same thing.
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Yes, and those who promise to do something and then ask the temple to confirm that they will do it, they are also asking that God, to whom the temple belongs, will confirm the same thing.
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And those who promise to do something and then ask heaven to confirm that they will do it, they are asking the throne of God to confirm that they will do it, and they are also asking God, who sits on that throne, to confirm the same thing.”
23
“You teachers of the law and you Pharisees, how terribly God will punish you! You are hypocrites because, even though you give to God a tenth of the herbs you produce, such as mint, dill, and cummin, you do not obey God’s laws that are more important. For example, you do not act justly toward others, you do not act mercifully toward people, and you take things away from others using force. It is good to give a tenth of your herbs to God, but you should also obey these other more important laws.
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You leaders are like blind people who are trying to lead others. You are careful not to offend God by swallowing even the smallest insect when you drink water, but you act as badly as if you were swallowing a camel!
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“You hypocrites, you teachers of the law and you Pharisees, how terribly God will punish you! You make yourselves appear like good people to others. You try to make people think you are righteous, but in fact you sin against them by your greed and taking what belongs to others to delight your own pleasures. You are like dishes that are clean on the outside but are still dirty on the inside.
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You blind Pharisees! First you must stop doing evil things like stealing from others. Then you will be able to do what is righteous and will be like a dish that is clean both outside and inside.”
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“You hypocrites, you men who teach the laws and you Pharisees, how terribly God will punish you! You are like buildings over people’s graves, buildings that are painted white so that people can see them and avoid touching them. The outside of those tombs are beautiful, but inside they are full of dead people’s bones and filth.
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You are like those tombs. When people look at you, they think that you are righteous, but in your inner beings you are hypocrites, because you disobey God’s commands.”
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“You men who teach the Jewish laws and you Pharisees are hypocrites! How terribly God will punish you! You rebuild the tombs of the prophets whom others killed long ago. You decorate the monuments that honor righteous people.
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You say, ‘If we had lived when our ancestors lived, we would not have helped those who killed the prophets.’
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In this way you admit that you are the descendants of those murderers; so, you are like them!
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You also, go ahead and finish committing all the sins that your ancestors began committing.
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You people are so wicked! You are as dangerous as poisonous snakes! You foolishly think that you will escape from God punishing you in hell!
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Take note that this is why I will send prophets, wise men, and teachers. You will kill some of them by nailing them to crosses, and you will kill some in other ways. You will whip some of them in the places where you worship and you will chase them from city to city.
35
So God will consider that you and your ancestors are guilty for killing all the righteous people who ever lived on earth, including Adam’s son Abel, who was a righteous man, and Zechariah, the son of Barachiah, whom your ancestors killed in the holy place between the temple and the altar. You also killed all the prophets who lived between the times that those two men lived.
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Think about this: You people who have observed my ministry, it is you whom God will punish for killing all those prophets!”

Lament over Jerusalem

(Luke 13:31–35)
37
“O people of Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets who lived long ago, and you who killed with stones others whom God had sent to you. Many, many times I wanted to gather you together to protect you, like a hen gathers her young chicks under her wings. But you did not want me to do that.
38
So listen to this: Your city will become an uninhabited place.
39
Keep this in mind: You will see me again only when I return, when you say about me, ‘God is truly pleased with this man who comes with God’s authority.’”
(Luke 11:37–54)
1
Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples,
2
saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat.
3
All things therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do, but don’t do their works; for they say, and don’t do.
4
For they bind heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help them.
5
But they do all their works to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries (a) broad and enlarge the fringes (b) of their garments,
6
and love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,
7
the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi, Rabbi’ (c) by men.
8
But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi’, for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of you are brothers.
9
Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven.
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Neither be called masters, for one is your master, the Christ.
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But he who is greatest among you will be your servant.
12
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
13
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
14
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don’t enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter. (d)
15
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of Gehenna (e) as yourselves.
16
“Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’
17
You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?
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And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated.’
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You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?
20
He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it.
21
He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who has been living (f) in it.
22
He who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it.
23
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, (g) and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.
24
You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!
25
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness. (h)
26
You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also.
27
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness.
28
Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the tombs of the righteous,
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and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn’t have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’
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Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets.
32
Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
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You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna? (i)
34
Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,
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that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.
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Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Lament over Jerusalem

(Luke 13:31–35)
37
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
38
Behold, your house is left to you desolate.
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For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (j)

Footnotes

(a)23:5 phylacteries (tefillin in Hebrew) are small leather pouches that some Jewish men wear on their forehead and arm in prayer. They are used to carry a small scroll with some Scripture in it. See Deuteronomy 6:8 .
(b)23:5 or, tassels
(c)23:7 NU omits the second “Rabbi”.
(d)23:14 Some Greek texts reverse the order of verses 13 and 14, and some omit verse 13, numbering verse 14 as 13. NU omits verse 14.
(e)23:15 or, Hell
(f)23:21 NU reads “lives”
(g)23:23 cumin is an aromatic seed from Cuminum cyminum, resembling caraway in flavor and appearance. It is used as a spice.
(h)23:25 TR reads “self-indulgence” instead of “unrighteousness”
(i)23:33 or, Hell
(j)23:39 ℘ Psalms 118:26