Matthew 23

¹Then Jesus spake to the multitudes and to his Disciples,

²saying: Upon the chair of Moyses have sitten the Scribes and the Pharisees.

³All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe ye and do ye: but according to their works do ye not, for they say and do not.

⁴For they bind heavy burdens & importable: & put them upon men's shoulders: but with a finger of their own they will not move them.

⁵But they do all their works for to be seen of men. For they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge their fringes.

⁶And they love the first places at suppers, and the first chairs in the Synagogues,

⁷and salutations in the market-place, and to be called of men, Rabbi.

⁸But be not you called Rabbi. For one is your Master, and all you are brethren.

⁹And call none Father to yourself upon earth: for one is your Father, he that is in Heaven.

¹⁰Neither be ye called Masters: for one is your Master, Christ.

¹¹He that is the greater of you, shall be your servitor.

¹²And he that exalteth himself, shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted.

¹³But woe to you Scribes & Pharisees, hypocrites: because you shut the Kingdom of Heaven before men. For yourselves do not enter in: & those that are going in, you suffer not to enter.

¹⁴Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: because you devour widows' houses, praying long prayers. For this you shall receive the greater judgement.

¹⁵Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: because you go round about the sea and the land, to make one proselyte: and when he is made, you make him the child of hell double more than yourselves.

¹⁶Woe to you blind guides, that say, whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing: but he that shall swear by the gold of the temple, is bound.

¹⁷Ye foolish and blind; for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?

¹⁸And whosoever shall swear by the Altar, it is nothing: but whosoever shall swear by the gift that is upon it, is bound.

¹⁹Ye blind; for whether is greater, the gift, or the Altar that sanctifieth the gift?

²⁰He therefore that sweareth by the Altar, sweareth by it, and by all things that are upon it:

²¹And whosoever shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it and by him that dwelleth in it:

²²And he that sweareth by Heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.

²³Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: because you tithe mint, and anise, and cummin, and have left the weightier things of the law, judgement, and mercy, and faith. These things you ought to have done, & not to have omitted those.

²⁴Blind guides, that strain a gnat, and swallow a camel.

²⁵Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites: because you make clean that on the outside of the cup and dish, but within you are full of rapine and uncleanness.

²⁶Thou blind Pharisee, first make clean the inside of the cup and the dish that the outside may become clean.

²⁷Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites: because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear unto men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and all filthiness.

²⁸So you also outwardly indeed appear to men just; but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

²⁹Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites: because you build the Prophets' sepulchres, and garnish the monuments of just men,

³⁰and say: If we had been in our fathers' days, we had not been their fellows in the blood of the Prophets.

³¹Therefore you are a testimony to your own selves, that you are the sons of them that killed the Prophets.

³²And fill you up the measure of your fathers.

³³You serpents, viper's broods, how will you flee from the judgement of Hell?

³⁴Therefore behold I send unto you Prophets, and wise men, and Scribes, and of them you shall kill & crucify, and of them you shall scourge in your Synagogues, and persecute from city into city:

³⁵that upon you may come all the just blood that was shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you murdered between the temple & the altar.

³⁶Amen I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation.

³⁷Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the Prophets, and stonest them that were sent to thee, how often would I gather together thy children as the hen doth gather together her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not?

³⁸Behold, your house shall be left desert to you.

³⁹For I say to you, you shall not see me from hence forth till you say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of our Lord.