The Authority of Jesus Challenged

20 ^(A)And it happened that on one of the days while ^(B)He was teaching the people in the temple and ^(C)proclaiming the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders ^(D)came up to 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 And Jesus answered and said to them, “I will also ask you a ^[a]question, and you tell Me: ⁴ Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?” ⁵ And 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 ^(E)prophet.” ⁷ So they answered that they did not know where it came from. ⁸ And Jesus said to them, “Neither ^[b]will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”