ContradictionsReading order 77Bible context 1 min read
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.
Matthew 23:1-3
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Matthew 23
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.
Matthew 16:12
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
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