M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Warnings against scribes and Pharisees
23 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The scribes and Pharisees,” he said, “sit on the seat of Moses. 3 So you must do whatever they tell you, and keep it, but don’t do the things they do. You see, they talk but they don’t do. 4 They tie up heavy bundles which are difficult to carry, and they dump them on people’s shoulders—but they themselves aren’t prepared to lift a little finger to move them!
5 “Everything they do is for show, to be seen by people. Yes, they make their prayer-boxes large and their prayer-tassels long, 6 and they love the chief places at dinners, the main seats in the synagogues, 7 the greetings in the market-places, and having people call them ‘Rabbi.’
8 “You mustn’t be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have one teacher, and you are all one family. 9 And you shouldn’t call anyone ‘father’ on earth, because you have one father, in heaven. 10 Nor should you be called ‘teacher,’ because you have one teacher, the Messiah.
11 “The greatest among you should be your servant. 12 People who make themselves great will be humbled; and people who humble themselves will become great.”
Condemnation of scribes and Pharisees (1)
13 “Woe betide you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites!” Jesus continued. “You slam the door of heaven’s kingdom in people’s faces. You don’t go in yourselves, and when other people try to enter, you stop them.
15 “Woe betide you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You cross sea and land to make one single Gentile take up Jewish practices, and when that happens you make the convert twice as much a child of Gehenna as you are yourselves.
16 “Woe betide you, you blind guides! This is what you say: ‘If anyone swears by the Temple, it’s nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold in the Temple, the oath is valid.’ 17 How crazy and blind can you get! Which is greater, the gold, or the Temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it’s nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, the oath is valid.’ 19 How blind you are! Which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the Temple swears by it and by the one who lives in it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by the one who sits on it.”
Condemnation of scribes and Pharisees (2)
23 “Woe betide you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites!” Jesus went on. “You tithe mint and dill and cumin, and you omit the serious matters of the law like justice, mercy and loyalty. You should have done these, without neglecting the others. 24 You’re blind guides! You filter out a gnat, but you gulp down a camel!
25 “Woe betide you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You scrub the outside of the cup and the dish, but the inside is full of extortion and moral flabbiness. 26 You blind Pharisee, first make the inside of the cup clean, and then the outside will be clean as well.
27 “Woe betide you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You’re like whitewashed graves, which look fine on the outside, but inside they are full of dead people’s bones and uncleanness of every kind. 28 That’s like you: on the outside you appear to be virtuous and law-abiding, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 “Woe betide you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build the tombs of the prophets, and you decorate the memorials of the righteous, 30 and you say, ‘If we’d lived in the days of our ancestors, we wouldn’t have gone along with them in killing the prophets.’ 31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the children of the people who murdered the prophets! 32 Well then, go ahead: complete the work your ancestors began! 33 You snakes, you nest of vipers, how can you escape the judgment of Gehenna?”
Judgment on Jerusalem and its leaders
34 “Because of all this,” Jesus concluded, “I’m sending you prophets, wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify. Some of them you will whip in your synagogues. You’ll chase them from town to town. 35 That’s how all the righteous blood that’s been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah—you murdered him between sanctuary and altar—all that blood will come upon you. 36 I’m telling you the solemn truth: it will all come on this generation.
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often have I longed to gather up your children, the way a hen gathers up her brood under her wings, and you didn’t want me to! 38 Now, see here: your house has been abandoned by God; it’s a ruin. 39 Yes, I tell you: you won’t see me again from now on until you say, ‘God’s blessing on the coming one, the one who comes in the Lord’s own name!’ ”
Paul before the Sanhedrin
23 Paul looked hard at the Sanhedrin.
“My brothers,” he said. “I have conducted myself before God in a completely good conscience all my life up to this day.”
2 Ananias, the high priest, ordered the bystanders to strike Paul on the mouth.
3 “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall!” said Paul to Ananias. “You are sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet you order me to be struck in violation of the law?”
4 “You are insulting the high priest?” asked the bystanders.
5 “My brothers,” replied Paul, “I didn’t know he was the high priest. Scripture says, of course, ‘You mustn’t speak evil of the ruler of your people.’ ”
6 Paul knew that some of the gathering were Sadducees, and the rest were Pharisees.
“My brothers,” he shouted to the Sanhedrin, “I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees. This trial is about the Hope, about the Resurrection of the Dead!”
7 At these words, an argument broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and they were split among themselves. 8 (The Sadducees deny that there is any resurrection, or any intermediate state of “angel” or “spirit,” but the Pharisees affirm them both.) 9 There was quite an uproar, with some of the scribes from the Pharisees’ party standing up and arguing angrily, “We find nothing wrong in this man! What if a spirit spoke to him, or an angel for that matter?”
10 Faced with another great riot, the tribune was worried that Paul was going to be pulled in pieces between them. He ordered the guard to go down and snatch him out of the midst of them and bring him back up into the barracks.
11 On the next night, the Lord stood by him.
“Cheer up!” he said. “You have given your testimony about me in Jerusalem. Now you have to do it in Rome.”
The oath and the plot
12 The next morning, the Jews made a plot together. They swore an oath, binding themselves not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. 13 There were more than forty of them who made this solemn vow with one another. 14 They went to the high priest and the elders.
“We have sworn a solemn and binding oath,” they said, “not to taste anything until we have killed Paul. 15 What you need to do is this: tell the tribune, with the Sanhedrin, to bring him down to you, as if you wanted to make a more careful examination of his case. And then, before he arrives, we’ll be ready to dispatch him.”
16 Paul’s nephew (his sister’s son) heard of the plot. He went off, entered the barracks, and told Paul about it. 17 Paul called one of the centurions.
“Take this young man to the tribune,” he said. “He’s got something to tell him.”
18 So he took him off and brought him to the tribune.
“Paul the prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you,” he said. “Apparently he’s got something to tell you.”
19 So the tribune took the young man by the hand, and led him off into a private room.
“What is it you have to tell me?” he asked.
20 “The Judaeans have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the Sanhedrin tomorrow,” he said. “It will look as if they’re wanting to make a more thorough investigation about him. 21 But don’t do what they want! There are more than forty men who are setting an ambush for him, and they’ve sworn a solemn oath not to eat or drink until they’ve killed him. They are ready right now, waiting for the word from you!”
22 So the tribune dismissed the lad.
“Don’t tell anyone at all that you’ve told me about this,” he said.
We have ways of keeping you safe
23 So the tribune summoned two of the centurions.
“Get ready a squad of two hundred,” he said. “They’re going to Caesarea. Also take seventy horsemen and two hundred light-armed guards. They leave at nine o’clock tonight. 24 Get horses ready for Paul to ride, and take him safely to Felix the governor.”
25 He wrote a letter which went like this:
26 “Claudius Lysias, to the most excellent governor Felix, greeting. 27 This man was seized by the Jews, who were going to kill him. When I learned that he was a Roman citizen I went with the guard and rescued him. 28 I wanted to know the charge on which they were accusing him, so I took him into their Sanhedrin. 29 There I discovered that he was being accused in relation to disputes about their law, but that he was not being charged with anything for which he would deserve to die or to be imprisoned. 30 I then received information that there was to be a plot against him. So I am sending him to you at once. I have told his accusers that they must inform you of their charges against him.”
31 So the soldiers did what they were told. They took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris, 32 and the next day they allowed the horsemen to go on with him while they returned to barracks. 33 The company arrived at Caesarea and handed over the letter to the governor, presenting Paul at the same time. 34 Felix read the letter, and asked which jurisdiction Paul was from. He found out that he was from Cilicia.
35 “I will hear your case,” he said, “when your accusers arrive.”
He ordered that he be kept under guard in Herod’s Praetorium.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.