Jesus’ Authority Questioned

27 And they *came again to Jerusalem. (A)And as He was walking in the temple area, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders *came to Him, 28 and began saying to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?” 29 But Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me.” 31 And they began considering the implications among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ 32 But should we say, ‘From men’?”—they were afraid of the [a]people, for they all considered John to have been a real prophet. 33 Answering Jesus, they *said, “We do not know.” And Jesus *said to them, “Neither am I telling you by what authority I do these things.”

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Footnotes

  1. Mark 11:32 Lit crowd

The Authority of Jesus Challenged

27 They(A) came again to Jerusalem.(B) As he was walking in the temple,(C) the chief priests, the scribes,(D) and the elders(E) came 28 and asked him, “By what authority(F) are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do these things?”

29 Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question;(G) then answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 Was John’s baptism(H) from heaven or of human origin? Answer me.”

31 They discussed it among themselves: “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why didn’t you believe(I) him?’ 32 But if we say, ‘Of human origin’”—they were afraid of the crowd, because everyone thought that John was truly a prophet.(J) 33 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

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