Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Priests Ask, By What Authority Do You Do This? From Where Was John’s Authority?

²⁷ And they come again into Jerusalem. And while He is walking around in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders come to Him. ²⁸ And they were saying to Him, “By what-kind-of ^[a] authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority that you may be doing these things?” ²⁹ And Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one thing, and you answer Me, and I will tell you by what kind of authority I am doing these things: ³⁰ Was the baptism of John from heaven or from humans? Answer Me!” ³¹ And they were discussing it with themselves, saying, “If we say ‘From heaven’, He will say ‘Then for what reason did you not believe him?’ ³² But should we say ‘From humans’?” They were fearing the crowd, for they all were holding as to John that he really was a prophet. ³³ And having responded to Jesus, they say “We do not know”. And Jesus says to them, “Nor am I telling you by what kind of authority I am doing these things”.