Study Desk

As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, "^(u)This generation is a wicked generation; it ^(v)seeks for a ^[u]sign, and yet no ^[v]sign will be given to it but the ^[w]sign of Jonah.

For just as ^(w)Jonah became a ^[x]sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

The ^(x)Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because ^(y)they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

"^(z)No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light.

^(aa)The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is ^[y]clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is ^[z]bad, your body also is full of darkness.

Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness.

If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays."

Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee *asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table.

When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He had not first ^[aa](ab)ceremonially washed before the ^[ab]meal.

But ^(ac)the Lord said to him, "Now ^(ad)you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but ^[ac]inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness.

^(ae)You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also?

But ^(af)give that which is within as charity, and ^[ad]then all things are ^(ag)clean for you.

"^(ah)But woe to you Pharisees! For you ^(ai)pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

Woe to you Pharisees! For you ^(aj)love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places.

^(ak)Woe to you! For you are like ^[ae]concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it."

One of the ^[af](al)lawyers *said to Him in reply, "Teacher, when You say this, You insult us too."

But He said, "Woe to you ^(am)lawyers as well! For ^(an)you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, ^[ag]while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

^(ao)Woe to you! For you build the ^[ah]tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them.

So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs.

For this reason also ^(ap)the wisdom of God said, ‘^(aq)I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will ^[ai]persecute,

so that the blood of all the prophets, shed ^(ar)since the foundation of the world, may be ^[aj]charged against this generation,

from ^(as)the blood of Abel to ^(at)the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be ^[ak]charged against this generation.'

Woe to you ^[al](au)lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; ^(av)you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering."

When He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects,

^(aw)plotting against Him ^(ax)to catch ^[am]Him in something He might say.