Book of Common Prayer
The woman and the dragon
12 Then a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was expecting a child, and she cried out in pain, in the agony of giving birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: a great fiery-red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. On its heads were seven coronets, 4 and its tail swept a third of the stars out of heaven and threw them down to the earth. The dragon stood opposite the woman who was about to give birth, so that he could devour her child when it was born. 5 She gave birth to a male child, who is going to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. The child was snatched away to God and to his throne; 6 the woman, meanwhile, fled into the desert, where a place has been prepared for her by God, so that she could be looked after there for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
37 While he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to have dinner at his house. So he went in and sat down. 38 The Pharisee, watching him, was surprised that he didn’t first wash before dinner.
39 “Now, you Pharisees,” said the master to him, “you clean the outside of the plate and the cup, but your insides are full of violent robbery and wickedness. 40 That’s stupid! Didn’t the one who made the outside make the inside as well? 41 You should give for alms what’s inside the bowl, and then everything will be clean for you.”
Woes against the Pharisees
42 “But woe betide you Pharisees!” Jesus continued. “You tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds; and you have sidestepped justice and the love of God. You should have done these, without missing out the others.
43 “Woe betide you Pharisees! You love the chief seats in the synagogues and greetings in the market-places.
44 “Woe betide you! You are like hidden tombs, and people walk over them without knowing it.”
45 At this, one of the legal experts spoke up. “Teacher,” he said, “when you say this you’re insulting us too!”
46 “Woe betide you lawyers, too!” replied Jesus. “You give people heavy loads to carry which they can hardly bear, and you yourselves don’t lift a finger to help!
47 “Woe betide you! You build the tombs of the prophets, and your ancestors killed them. 48 So you bear witness that you approve of what your ancestors did: they killed them, and you build their tombs.
49 “For all this, God’s Wisdom says, ‘I’m sending you prophets and ambassadors; some of them you will kill and persecute,’ 50 so that the blood of all the prophets shed ever since the beginning of the world may be required from this generation— 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias, who died between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, let me tell you, it will all be required from this generation.
52 “Woe betide you lawyers! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You didn’t go in yourselves, and when people were trying to get in you stopped them.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.