BibleTrack Daily Reading - KJV · Pastor Wayne D. Turner

BibleTrack: May 13th - KJV

May 7, 2025·31 min·2 clips

Jesus unleashes a scathing critique, calling the Pharisees 'serpents' and 'whited sepulchres' full of dead men's bones.

1. BibleTrack host Wayne Turner reads and comments on parallel Gospel passages from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John set during the final week before Jesus' crucifixion in Jerusalem. 2. Turner is the solo host and developer of BibleTrack; no guests appear in this commentary episode. 3. The episode covers the climax of the week-long confrontation between Jesus and the Jewish leadership: Jesus silences all questioners with a paradox from Psalm 110, then delivers the harshest condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees recorded in the Gospels. 4. Jesus' question in Matthew 22:41-46 asks how the Messiah can be David's son if David in Psalm 110:1 calls him 'my Lord'; Turner explains that the answer is a supernatural act of God fulfilled in Jesus himself. 5. Turner notes that Christ is the Greek word for Messiah and that Jewish scholars based the Messianic lineage on 2 Samuel 7:13-14, Isaiah 11:1-10, and Jeremiah 23:5—though not all scholars in Jesus' day considered Psalm 110 to be Messianic. 6. The question silences the Pharisees permanently: Turner quotes Matthew 22:46 that 'no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.' 7. In Matthew 23:1-12, Jesus warns the crowd and disciples about the scribes and Pharisees who sit in Moses' seat, bind burdens on others they won't carry themselves, and perform their works 'to be seen of men.' 8. Turner explains that the phylacteries of Matthew 23:5 are tefillin—leather wallets worn on the arm and forehead containing the Shema passages from Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Deuteronomy 11:13-21, and Numbers 15:37-41—which ordinary Jews wore during prayer but the Pharisees wore constantly. 9. Turner identifies the 'borders of their garments' as the zit-zit fringe required by Numbers 15:37-41, still worn by Orthodox Jews today, and connects this directly to the two occasions where people touched the hem of Jesus' garment for healing in Matthew 9:20 and Matthew 14:36. 10. Turner lists all eight woes in Matthew 23: shutting the kingdom (v.13), devouring widows' houses (v.14), corrupting proselytes (v.15), abusing oaths (v.16), neglecting justice while tithing herbs (v.23), inward uncleanliness (v.25), being beautiful outside but full of dead men's bones (v.27), and honoring prophets while being heirs of those who killed them (v.29). 11. Turner notes that Jesus uses Abel from Genesis 4 and Zacharias from 2 Chronicles 24 as bookmarks spanning the entire Old Testament period of righteous people slain by the wicked, making the accusation comprehensive. 12. Jesus' final verdict in verse 33—'Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?'—is presented by Turner as unambiguous: not misguided men but people genuinely deserving condemnation. 13. Turner explains that Matthew 23:38 ('your house is left unto you desolate') draws on Jeremiah 22:5, which originally prophesied the fall of Judah to Babylon in 586 BC, and that Jesus is now applying the same desolation prophecy to the current temple. 14. Matthew 23:39's quotation of Psalm 118:26 ('Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord') is presented as a future conditional—Jesus will return when Israel receives him as Messiah, with the name of the Lord being Jehovah/Yahweh. 15. The widow's mite episode from Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21:1-4 receives brief commentary: Turner notes that two mites equal one farthing, and 64 farthings equal a Roman denarion (the standard day's wage in Matthew 20:2), making the widow's offering minute in monetary terms but enormous in proportional sacrifice. 16. In John 12:20-22, some Greeks approach Philip asking to see Jesus, which Turner presents as the prompt for Jesus' 'the hour has come' discourse on his upcoming death in verses 23-44. 17. Turner explains the voice from heaven in John 12:28-29—which some heard as thunder and others as an angel—as confirmation validating Jesus' announcement that 'the hour has come,' and notes Jesus says 'This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.' 18. Turner cites Isaiah 53:1 and Isaiah 6:9-13 as the two Isaiah passages fulfilled in the people's unbelief, noting that Isaiah 6's audience had hearts hardened by sin just as Jesus' audience did. 19. Turner highlights John 12:42 as 'very telling': many chief rulers believed in Jesus but refused to confess him publicly because they feared being expelled from the synagogue—'they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.' 20. This episode suits daily Gospel readers following a chronological reading plan who want commentary on the final Jerusalem confrontations and cross-references across all four Gospels and multiple Old Testament books.

As heard by us

Jesus' identity and the critique of religious display.

BibleTrack Daily Reading - KJV stays with Jesus in Jerusalem in the week before his crucifixion and keeps returning to the question of whose son the Christ is.

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You want Jesus' challenge to the Pharisees read straight, with the chapter-and-verse context kept clear.

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