This led the Pharisees and Scribes of their party to expostulate with His disciples and ask, »Why are you eating and drinking with these tax-gatherers and notorious sinners?«
But when the Scribes of the Pharisee sect saw Him eating with the sinners and the tax-gatherers, they said to His disciples, »He is eating and drinking with the tax-gatherers and sinners!«
(For the Pharisees and all the Jews– being, as they are, zealous for the traditions of the Elders– never eat without first carefully washing their hands,
The Pharisee, standing erect, prayed as follows by himself: »`O God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people–I am not a thief nor a cheat nor an adulterer, nor do I even resemble this tax-gatherer.
One day He was teaching, and there were Pharisees and teachers of the Law sitting there who had come from every village in Galilee and Judaea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present for Him to cure people.
The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, `Look, there is a man who is overfond of eating and drinking–he is a friend of tax-gatherers and notorious sinners!'
Noticing this, the Pharisee, His host, said to himself, »This man, if he were really a Prophet, would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching him–and would know that she is an immoral woman.«
So there arose a great uproar; and some of the Scribes belonging to the sect of the Pharisees sprang to their feet and fiercely contended, saying, »We find no harm in the man. What if a spirit has spoken to him, or an angel–!«