Catholic Public Domain Version

Matthew 23:2-17 Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV)

2. saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees have sat down in the chair of Moses.

3. Therefore, all things whatsoever that they shall say to you, observe and do. Yet truly, do not choose to act according to their works. For they say, but they do not do.

4. For they bind up heavy and unbearable burdens, and they impose them on men's shoulders. But they are not willing to move them with even a finger of their own.

5. Truly, they do all their works so that they may be seen by men. For they enlarge their phylacteries and glorify their hems.

6. And they love the first places at feasts, and the first chairs in the synagogues,

7. and greetings in the marketplace, and to be called Master by men.

8. But you must not be called Master. For One is your Master, and you are all brothers.

9. And do not choose to call anyone on earth your father. For One is your Father, who is in heaven.

10. Neither should you be called teachers. For One is your Teacher, the Christ.

11. Whoever is greater among you shall be your minister.

12. But whoever has exalted himself, shall be humbled. And whoever has humbled himself, shall be exalted.

13. So then: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you close the kingdom of heaven before men. For you yourselves do not enter, and those who are entering, you would not permit to enter.

14. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you consume the houses of widows, praying long prayers. Because of this, you shall receive the greater judgment.

15. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and by land, in order to make one convert. And when he has been converted, you make him twice the son of Hell that you are yourselves.

16. Woe to you, blind guides, who say: 'Whoever will have sworn by the temple, it is nothing. But whoever will have sworn by the gold of the temple is obligated.'

17. You are foolish and blind! For which is greater: the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?