Scripture Readings

Matthew 22:15-23:39 (Gospel, Matins)

15

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk.

16

And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men.

17

Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

18

But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?

19

Show Me the tax money.” So they brought Him a denarius.

20

And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”

21

They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

22

When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.

23

The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him,

24

saying: “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.

25

Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother.

26

Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh.

27

Last of all the woman died also.

28

Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.”

29

Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.

30

For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.

31

But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying,

32

’I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

33

And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

34

But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

35

Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,

36

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

37

Jesus said to him, “’You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

38

This is the first and great commandment.

39

And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

40

On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

41

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,

42

saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” They said to Him, “The Son of David.”

43

He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying:

44

‘The LORD said to my Lord, sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool’?

45

If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?”

46

And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.

1

Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples,

2

saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.

3

Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.

4

For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

5

But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments.

6

They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,

7

greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’

8

But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren.

9

Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.

10

And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ.

11

But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.

12

And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

13

But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

14

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

15

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

16

Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’

17

Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?

18

And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’

19

Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

20

Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it.

21

He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.

22

And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.

23

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.

24

Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

25

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.

26

Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

27

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.

28

Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

29

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,

30

and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’

31

Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.

32

Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt.

33

Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?

34

Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,

35

that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

36

Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

37

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

38

See! Your house is left to you desolate;

39

for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’”