Luke 19:45-20:8

New American Standard Bible 1995

Traders Driven from the Temple

^45 (A)Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling, ⁴⁶ saying to them, “It is written, ‘^(B)And My house shall be a house of prayer,’ ^(C)but you have made it a robbers’ ^[a]den.”

⁴⁷ And ^(D)He was teaching daily in the temple; but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people ^(E)were trying to destroy Him, ⁴⁸ and they could not find ^[b]anything that they might do, for all the people were hanging on to ^[c]every word He said.

Jesus’ Authority Questioned

20 ^(F)On one of the days while ^(G)He was teaching the people in the temple and ^(H)preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders ^(I)confronted Him, ² and they spoke, saying to Him, “Tell us by what authority You are doing these things, or who is the one who gave You this authority?” ³ Jesus answered and said to them, “I will also ask you a ^[d]question, and you tell Me: ⁴ Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?” ⁵ They reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ ⁶ But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a ^(J)prophet.” ⁷ So they answered that they did not know where it came from. ⁸ And Jesus said to them, “Nor ^[e]will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”