Scriptures about the Pharisees

[Kosonen]

When reading about the scribes and Pharisees, it is impossible not to find common with the elders and the JWs' organization. Take a look please:

 

Matthew 23:2  “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the seat of Moses. 3  Therefore, all the things they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds, for they say but they do not practice what they say. 4  They bind up heavy loads and put them on the shoulders of men, but they themselves are not willing to budge them with their finger…..9  Moreover, do not call anyone your father on earth, for one is your Father, the heavenly One. 10 Neither be called leaders, for your Leader is one, the Christ…...13  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut up the Kingdom of the heavens before men; for you yourselves do not go in, neither do you permit those on their way in to go in…..15  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you travel over sea and dry land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him a subject for Ge·henʹna twice as much so as yourselves…...23...but you have disregarded the weightier matters of the Law, namely, justice and mercy and faithfulness…..28 In the same way, on the outside you appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness…..34  For this reason, I am sending to you prophets and wise men and public instructors. Some of them you will kill and execute on stakes, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,.....38  Look! Your house is abandoned to you.

 

Mark 5:20  For I say to you that if your righteousness does not surpass that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will by no means enter into the Kingdom of the heavens.

 

Matthew 12:23  Well, all the crowds were astounded and began to say: “May this not perhaps be the Son of David?” 24  At hearing this, the Pharisees said: “This fellow does not expel the demons except by means of Be·elʹze·bub, the ruler of the demons.” 31  “For this reason I say to you, every sort of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven.

 

Matthew 15:6....So you have made the word of God invalid because of your tradition. 7  You hypocrites, Isaiah aptly prophesied about you when he said: 8  ‘This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far removed from me. 9  It is in vain that they keep worshipping me, for they teach commands of men as doctrines.’” 10  With that he called the crowd near and said to them: “Listen and get the sense of it: 11  It is not what enters into a man’s mouth that defiles him, but it is what comes out of his mouth that defiles him.” 12  Then the disciples came and said to him: “Do you know that the Pharisees were stumbled at hearing what you said?” 13 In reply he said: “Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted. 14  Let them be. Blind guides is what they are. If, then, a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

 

Matthew 16:11  How is it you do not discern that I did not speak to you about bread? But watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12  Then they grasped that he said to watch out, not for the leaven of bread, but for the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

 

Mark 10:31  But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

 

Luke 16:25  But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you had your fill of good things in your lifetime, but Lazʹa·rus for his part received bad things. Now, however, he is being comforted here, but you are in anguish.

 

John 4:37 For in this respect the saying is true: One is the sower and another the reaper. 38  I sent you to reap what you did not labor on. Others have labored, and you have entered into the benefit of their labor.”

 

John 15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. 23  Whoever hates me also hates my Father. 24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have both seen me and hated me as well as my Father.

 

Luke 13:14  But in response the presiding officer of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus did the cure on the Sabbath, said to the crowd: “There are six days on which work ought to be done; so come and be cured on those days, and not on the Sabbath day.”

 

Luke 11:44 Then he said: “Woe also to you who are versed in the Law, because you load men down with loads hard to carry, but you yourselves do not touch the loads with one of your fingers!

 

Luke 11:52  “Woe to you who are versed in the Law, because you took away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not go in, and you hinder those going in!”

 

Luke 16:15  So he said to them: “You are those who declare yourselves righteous before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is considered exalted by men is a disgusting thing in God’s sight.

 

Mark 7:6  He said to them: “Isaiah aptly prophesied about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far removed from me. 7  It is in vain that they keep worshipping me, for they teach commands of men as doctrines.’ 8  You let go of the commandment of God and cling to the tradition of men.” 9  Further, he said to them: “You skillfully disregard the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.

 

Mark 12:38  And in his teaching he went on to say: “Beware of the scribes who want to walk around in robes and want greetings in the marketplaces 39  and front seats in the synagogues and the most prominent places at evening meals. 40 They devour the houses of the widows, and for show they make long prayers. These will receive a more severe judgment.”

 

Matthew 12:9  After departing from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10  and look! there was a man with a withered hand! So they asked him, “Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath?” so that they might accuse him.