Should we do what the Pharisees say to do?
Matthew commands observance of the Pharisees' instructions while elsewhere identifying their teaching as something to guard against.
- Textual conflict
- Interpretive tension
- The passages pull in different directions, but the conflict depends on how their wording, scope, or narrative context is read.
- Importance
- Major
- A major event or claim with wider implications.
Obedience to everything the Pharisees teach conflicts with warning against their doctrine; distinguishing approved words from bad conduct does not address both texts.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Jesus commands obedience to everything the Pharisees instruct
Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
Jesus warns against the Pharisees' doctrine
Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Understanding the contradiction
Matthew 23:1-3 grounds the scribes' and Pharisees' authority in Moses' seat and tells listeners to observe everything they prescribe. It distinguishes their instruction from their hypocritical behavior, which should not be copied. The passage's own distinction makes teaching the object of obedience.
Matthew 16:12 identifies the Pharisees' and Sadducees' doctrine as the leaven against which Jesus warns. That warning concerns their teaching, not merely conduct. The conflict therefore cannot be removed simply by saying Jesus approves their words but rejects their actions, since the second passage targets words and doctrine too. The supplied verses do not delimit which teachings belong under universal obedience and which require avoidance.