Religious leaders of Jesus’ day

…A condensed description by Jesus

In Matthew 23  Jesus called out the spiritual leaders of His day, calling them all kinds of evil: 

hypocrites, self-righteous, blind guides, fools, blind men, spiritually blind men, full of extortion, full of robbery, full of self-indulgence (unrestrained greed), full of everything unclean.

Here, quoted excerpts of actual verses:   Matthew 23   Amplified Bible (AMP)

“Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, ² saying:

“The scribes and Pharisees have seated themselves in Moses’ chair [of authority as teachers….

“do not do as they do; for they preach [things], but do not practice them.

“tie up ^[a]heavy loads [that are hard to bear] and place them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not lift a finger [to make them lighter]

“⁵ They do all their deeds to be seen by men

“⁶ They love the place of distinction and honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues [those on the platform near the scrolls of the Law, facing the congregation], ⁷ and to be greeted [with respect] in the market places and public forums, and to have people call them Rabbi.

“you shut off the kingdom of heaven in front of people; for you do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow those who are [in the process of] entering to do so.

“you swallow up widows’ houses, and to cover it up you make long prayers

“you travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte (convert to Judaism), and when he becomes a convert, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

“you, [self-righteous] scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

“Woe to you, blind guides

¹⁷ “You fools and blind men!

¹⁹ “You [spiritually] blind men

“you give a tenth (tithe) of your mint and dill and cumin [focusing on minor matters], and have neglected the weightier [more important moral and spiritual] provisions of the Law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the [primary] things you ought to have done without neglecting the others.

²⁴ “You [spiritually] blind guides, who strain out a gnat [consuming yourselves with miniscule matters] and swallow a camel [ignoring and violating God’s precepts]!

“inside they are full of extortion and robbery and self-indulgence (unrestrained greed)

“inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean”

FOR MORE:

False teachings of today

Calling out false teaching  – August 19, 2018 

Needing something more than Jesus   – July 11, 2018

An unguarded life