But alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You turn the key of the Kingdom of Heaven in men's faces. For you do not go in yourselves, nor yet allow those who try to go in to do so.
On leaving that place, Jesus went into the district of Judea on the other side of the Jordan. Crowds gathered about him again; and again, as usual, he began teaching them.
But the Master said to him: "You Pharisees do, it is true, clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside you yourselves are filled with greed and wickedness.
The Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely, to see if he would work cures on the Sabbath, so that they might find a charge to bring against him.
Upon this the Chief Priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the High Council, and said: "What are we to do, now that this man is giving so many signs?
The Chief Priests and the Pharisees had already issued orders that, if any one learned where Jesus was, he should give information, so that they might arrest him.
Nor let us try the patience of the Lord too far, as some of them tried it, with the result that they 'were, one after another, destroyed by the snakes.'