Pharisees heard these stories, they knew
that he was speaking about them, and they wished to seize him but were
afraid of the common people who regarded him as a prophet.

JESUS CONDEMNS THOSE WHO PRETEND TO BE GOOD

The common people were listening to Jesus eagerly. As he taught he said,
"Be on your guard against the scribes, who like to walk about in long
robes and to have the people bow to them in the market-places. They like
to sit in the front seats in the synagogue and in the best places at
feasts. These, who use up the property of widows and then to cover their
guilt make long prayers, will receive the greater condemnation."

He also said, "Woe to you scribes! For you load men with burdens heavy
to bear, which you yourselves do not touch with one of your fingers. Woe
to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut in men's faces the
door to the Kingdom of God; for you neither enter yourselves nor let
those enter who wish to come in.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you carefully pay to
the Temple the tenth part of what grows in your garden, but you do not
show justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Blind guides, who strain out the
gnat and swallow the camel!

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you make clean the
outside of the cup and the plate, and then fill them with your greed and
selfishness. Blind Pharisee! first make clean the inside of the cup,
that the outside as well may become clean.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like
whitewashed tombs, beautiful outside, but inside full of dead men's
bones and filth. So you yourselves appear upright, but inside you are
full of hypocrisy and sin."

JESUS WARNS HIS DISCIPLES

As Jesus went out of the Temple, one of his disciples said to him,
"Master, see what great stones and what a beautiful building!" Then
Jesus answered, "This Temple, made by man's hands, shall be destroyed.
But another will soon arise, made without hands." And as he sat on the
Mount of Olives opposite the Temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew
asked him privately, "Tell us, when shall these things happen, and what
is to be the sign to show when all these things are about to happen?"
Jesus said to them, "No one knows the day or the hour when this will
happen, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the
Father."

"The Kingdom of God shall be like ten maidens who took their torches and
went out to meet th