⁵² “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”^(A)

Seven Woes on the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees

¹³ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!^(A) You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.^(B)

⁷ “For the lips of a priest^(A) ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger^(B) of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth.^(C)

¹⁷ But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.”

¹⁸ Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.^(A)

⁴⁵ One of the experts in the law^(A) answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.”

⁴⁶ Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.^(B)

²⁴ A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,”^(A) they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”^(B)

²⁵ He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

²⁶ Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

²⁷ He answered, “I have told you already^(C) and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”

²⁸ Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses!^{(D) 29} We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”^(E)

³⁰ The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. ³¹ We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.^{(F) 32} Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. ³³ If this man were not from God,^(G) he could do nothing.”

³⁴ To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth;^(H) how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.^(I)

⁴⁷ “You mean he has deceived you also?”^(A) the Pharisees retorted. ⁴⁸ “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?^{(B) 49} No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

⁵⁰ Nicodemus,^(C) who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ⁵¹ “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

⁵² They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”^(D)

⁴⁰ His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged.^(A) Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

³⁹ Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”^(A)

⁴⁰ “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”^(B)