100 Bible Verses about Pharisees

Matthew 23:1-39 ESV / 253 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, ...

Matthew 23:23 ESV / 240 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

Matthew 23:15 ESV / 237 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

Matthew 5:20 ESV / 212 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 3:7 ESV / 185 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Matthew 23:25 ESV / 170 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

Matthew 16:6 ESV / 170 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

Luke 12:1 ESV / 161 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Matthew 23:13 ESV / 157 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

Acts 23:8 ESV / 152 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.

Acts 23:6 ESV / 146 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”

Matthew 9:11 ESV / 145 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Acts 15:5 ESV / 144 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”

Matthew 16:12 ESV / 140 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Matthew 9:14 ESV / 140 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

Matthew 12:14 ESV / 139 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.

Matthew 16:1 ESV / 120 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.

Matthew 23:27 ESV / 116 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.

Matthew 6:2 ESV / 112 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

Luke 11:39 ESV / 107 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.

Matthew 23:14 ESV / 107 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 23:5 ESV / 107 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long,

Luke 7:36-50 ESV / 105 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.” ...

Matthew 19:3 ESV / 104 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?”

Luke 18:9-14 ESV / 99 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ ...

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 98 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

Matthew 23:2 ESV / 97 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat,

Mark 10:2 ESV / 96 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

Matthew 15:12 ESV / 96 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”

Matthew 7:21-23 ESV / 96 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Mark 8:15 ESV / 95 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”

Matthew 16:11 ESV / 92 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

Matthew 12:2 ESV / 90 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”

Luke 20:46-47 ESV / 88 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

Mark 2:16 ESV / 87 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

John 7:48 ESV / 83 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?

Matthew 22:15 ESV / 83 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words.

Luke 18:10-14 ESV / 82 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Luke 13:31 ESV / 81 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.”

Matthew 23:29 ESV / 81 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous,

Luke 7:36 ESV / 80 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table.

Matthew 21:45 ESV / 80 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them.

John 3:1 ESV / 78 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

Romans 14:1-23 ESV / 77 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. ...

Matthew 3:7-10 ESV / 75 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Luke 14:1 ESV / 74 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.

Luke 11:43 ESV / 74 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.

Mark 10:2-12 ESV / 73 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ...

Matthew 21:31-32 ESV / 73 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

Matthew 6:1 ESV / 73 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 12:38 ESV / 72 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”

Romans 10:1-3 ESV / 71 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.

Leviticus 19:18 ESV / 71 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Mark 7:5 ESV / 69 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

Mark 2:18 ESV / 69 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

Matthew 27:62 ESV / 69 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate

Matthew 6:5 ESV / 68 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

Matthew 16:11-12 ESV / 67 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Matthew 4:4 ESV / 67 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

John 18:3 ESV / 66 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons.

Mark 7:1 ESV / 66 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem,

Matthew 23:6 ESV / 66 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues

Luke 11:42 ESV / 65 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 64 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Mark 3:6 ESV / 64 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Matthew 15:1-9 ESV / 64 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” ...

Matthew 15:1 ESV / 63 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,

1 Corinthians 5:7 ESV / 62 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

Matthew 12:24 ESV / 62 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.”

Matthew 9:34 ESV / 61 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.”

Luke 19:39 ESV / 60 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”

John 11:47 ESV / 59 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs.

Mark 12:31 ESV / 59 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Matthew 16:5 ESV / 59 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread.

Hebrews 13:8 ESV / 58 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Matthew 22:23 ESV / 58 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question,

John 7:47 ESV / 57 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived?

John 7:32 ESV / 57 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.

Matthew 22:34 ESV / 57 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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

Matthew 6:16 ESV / 57 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

John 14:15 ESV / 56 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Acts 26:5 ESV / 55 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee.

John 3:16 ESV / 55 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 8:13 ESV / 54 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.”

Luke 17:20 ESV / 54 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed,

Luke 5:33 ESV / 54 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.”

Mark 7:6 ESV / 54 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;

Matthew 23:27-28 ESV / 54 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

2 Timothy 1:7 ESV / 53 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Luke 5:17 ESV / 53 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal.

Matthew 23:8 ESV / 53 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.

Acts 5:17 ESV / 51 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy

Matthew 7:1-5 ESV / 51 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Acts 23:7 ESV / 50 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

Luke 7:30 ESV / 50 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.)

Matthew 23:26 ESV / 50 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

Luke 5:30 ESV / 48 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

Luke 6:2 ESV / 47 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”

Matthew 23:33 ESV / 47 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?

Matthew 23:16 ESV / 47 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’