Take away the Book of Mormon and the [published] revelations, and where is our religion? We have none.
~ Joseph Smith, Jr.
In other words, if you took away all the printed revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants and The Book of Mormon, and just had the current Utah-based LDS First Presidency and Quorum of the 12, you would no longer have the original Mormon religion. The Standard Works trump blindly following the Prophet/President (aka, the Brethren). As this website puts it:
Is That Doctrine?
On: 2016/01/11
Is that doctrine? The Power of the Standard Works
Joseph Fielding Smith [said]:
It makes no difference what is written or what anyone has said, if what has been said is in conflict with what the Lord has revealed, we can set it aside. My words, and the teachings of any other member of the Church, high or low, if they do not square with the revelations, we need not accept them. Let us have this matter clear. We have accepted the four standard works as the measuring yardsticks, or balances, by which we measure every man’s doctrine. “You cannot accept the books written by the authorities of the Church as standards in doctrine, only in so far as they accord with the revealed word in the standard works. “Every man who writes is responsible, not the Church, for what he writes. If Joseph Fielding Smith writes something which is out of harmony with the revelations, then every member of the Church is duty bound to reject it. If he writes that which is in perfect harmony with the revealed word of the Lord, then it should be accepted” (Doctrines of Salvation, 3:203-4).
… President Harold B. Lee said:
“It is not to be thought that every word spoken by the General Authorities is inspired, or that they are moved upon by the Holy Ghost in everything they [speak] and write. Now you keep that in mind. I don’t care what his position is, if he writes something or speaks something that goes beyond anything that you can find in the standard church works, unless that one be the prophet, seer, and revelator—please note that one exception—you may immediately say, `Well, that is his own idea.’ And if he says something that contradicts what is found in the standard church works (I think that is why we call them `standard’—it is the standard measure of all that men teach), you may know by that same token that it is false, regardless of the position of the man who says it” (“Place of the Living Prophet, Seer and Revelator,” 14).(Joseph Fielding McConkie, Answers: Straightforward Answers to Tough Gospel Questions [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1998], 221.)
Source: https://www.ldsscriptureteachings.org/2016/01/11/is-that-doctrine/
In Anthony Sweat’s book Seekers Wanted, he presents the following diagram:
The diagram is meant to convey the reality that the primary source of authoritative doctrine and truth is the Standard Works. Sweat flat out admits that doctrine changes; and in fact the idea that doctrine means "permanent Truth" has changed, as it originally meant the teachings and lectures, etc.; as in the Lectures on Faith were the doctrine.
We already have the example of Jesus where he is spending nearly all his time challenging the man-made Traditions of his Religious Leaders, where they added ideas and policies not found in the Scriptures of Jesus’ day. Jesus spent a lot of his time opposing and criticizing the Tradition of the Israelite Elders. Those on the podcast Midnight Mormons are thus justified in pointing out that a modern Mormon has good grounds for challenging any man-made Traditions that conflict with LDS scripture as they posted the following in their podcasts titled below, referencing the quote above from Joseph Fielding Smith:
In other words, the highest standard is LDS Scripture.
In the video What was the Latter-day Saint Black priesthood ban? By the YouTube channel Saints Unscripted (Feb. 9, 2022), the LDS apologist documents the history of the priesthood ban pointing out that there was no original scripture or revelation that said that blacks could not receive the priesthood. The video points out that it was basically Brigham Young who made that policy decision. The video then quotes official letters from the First Presidency in the 1950s where they speculate as to why blacks could not yet receive the priesthood. The video then quotes Utah-based LDS Church leaders admitting there was no scriptural justification for the priesthood ban. The speaker in the video then gives his testimony that he thinks it was simply a policy mistake and was never a revelation.
He then deals with the question of if Brighamite Church leaders were wrong about the priesthood-temple ban, and how can I trust anything they say? By responding that basically just because there are errors in the system doesn't mean there is not good in the system; for example, scientists make mistakes but we don't throw out all of science. He then quotes Joseph Fielding Smith:
It makes no difference what is written or what anyone has said, if what has been said is in conflict with what the Lord has revealed, we can set it aside. My words, and the teaching of any other member of the Church, high or low, if they do not square with the revelations, we need not accept them. Let us have this matter clear. We have accepted the four standard works as the measuring yardsticks, or balances, by which we measure every man's doctrine. You cannot accept the books written by the authorities of the Church as standards in doctrine, [except] in so far as they accord with the revealed word in the standard works.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation (1956), 3:203.).
The speaker in the video goes on to quote The Book of Mormon, Mormon 9:31, where Moroni writes:
Condemn me not because of mine imperfection, neither my father, because of his imperfection, neither them who have written before him; but rather give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been.
In other words, the church leaders in their imperfection were simply wrong about what they said about blacks and the priesthood and we should move on to learn to be more wise than they were. Part of this wisdom is in knowing that they were not speaking in accordance with the written revelations (Scripture).
This would mean that the ultimate Authority is really the members themselves and their interpretation of the Standard Works, which are based on common consent (the members voting on what is Scripture), and whether or not the church leader's decisions accord with Scripture. Then there is this screenshot from an LDS Talk:
Jesus & The Tradition of the Elders
We actually have precedence for this through the example of Jesus Christ himself. See Jesus And The Traditions Of The Elders (Matthew 15:1-20) by Allen Ross. Also this article here. To understand what it meant for Jesus to oppose the religious leaders of his day (the Tradition of the Elders), see this video The Hebrew Yeshua vs. the Greek Jesus - NehemiasWall.com. In this video, Dr. Nehemiah Gordon explains that there were basically the Torah (the Scripture of Jesus’ day) and the later added traditions by the Jewish Leaders. Just like the written revelations in the Torah was considered the actual words of God to Moses, in Mormonism “the word of God” and “thus saith the Lord” is only in the published revelations dictated by Joseph Smith and few others, which were published as Scripture after being voted on by common consent. The Torah for Jesus is for the Mormon the Standard Works. Since the time of Joseph Smith, the Brighamite Church’s leaders have added their own traditions, like married couples should not to engage in oral sex, garments must be worn all the time (this can’t found in Scripture), and the Word of Wisdom was changed to being a “commandment” and a “constraint” on the membership (the exact opposite of the original wording). So while previous revelatory scripture is misinterpreted, the original doctrine of the church, The Lectures on Faith were removed from the Scriptural Canon, despite them being considered Doctrine and voted on by the church. I would argue that similar to the Tradition of the Elders and the Talmud, the Utah-based church’s Church Handbook of Instructions and other pamphlets and manuals printed by the Brighamite Church are ultimately the same thing as the tradition of the elders.
In Matthew 23:2 (KJV), Jesus speaks of “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.”
(Source)
The following website’s explanation explains what this means about Moses’ seat (words in brackets are my own):
On the face of it, it appears to be supporting the authority of the Scribes and Pharisees to teach orally to the people. The Scribes, who were educated in reading and writing, presented themselves as the great authorities on interpreting scripture, while the Pharisees were the spokesmen for the unwritten oral law or tradition. Let's take a closer look at what this passage is saying in context-
Mat 23:1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
Mat 23:2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:
What is this referring to? In a symbolic sense, sitting in Moses' seat means teaching from the books of Moses, the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible:
Exo 18:13 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening.
Exo 18:14 And when Moses' father in law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even?
Exo 18:15 And Moses said unto his father in law, Because the people come unto me to inquire of God:
Exo 18:16 When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.
So while the phrase need not indicate a literal chair, archeologists have confirmed that a stone chair has been found in ancient synagogues (in Hamath, Chorazin, En-Gedi and Delos) next to where the law was kept. When reading from scripture, the reader would apparently sit in that chair and read the law to the congregation in judgment.
Mat 23:3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
[Here is how the verse reads in Matthew 23:3 (EXB):
3 So you should ·obey [do; practice] and ·follow [keep; observe] whatever they tell you, but ·their lives are not good examples for you to follow [L do not follow their actions]. ·They tell you to do things, but they themselves don’t do them [L For they say but do not do].
The reader (in this case a scribe or Pharisee) would exhort the people to be keepers of the law of Moses, obviously. Jesus here is saying that whatever scripture (Moses' seat) they read from and bid the people to observe, that the people should observe. … Catholics would have you believe that being in "Moses' seat" gave one the authority to proclaim anything at all, scriptural or not, and the people would have to obey the one in Moses' seat as though God Himself had spoken every word. But note that the scribes and Pharisees themselves are branded here as nothing more than hypocrites [religious fakers]. They piously read from the scriptures, but did not observe and carry out what the scriptures said, and Jesus tells the people not to follow their example. [Hence, Jesus was rejecting Moses’ seat as a vacant podium where anyone could claim to speak for God. Jesus goes on to say ….]
Matthew 23:4-7 (EXB):
4 They ·make strict rules [L tie up heavy loads/burdens that are hard to carry] and ·try to force people to obey them [L put them on people’s shoulders], but they are unwilling to ·help those who struggle under the weight of their rules [lift a finger to move them; move them with their finger].
5 “They do good things so that other people will see them. They enlarge ·the little boxes holding Scriptures that they wear [L their phylacteries: leather cases worn on the left arm and forehead to literally fulfill Deut. 6:8; 11:18], and they ·make their special prayer clothes very long [L lengthen their tassels: Jewish males were to wear tassels on the four corners of their garment; Num. 15:38; Deut. 22:12]. 6 Those Pharisees and teachers of the law love to have the ·most important seats [places of greatest honor] at ·feasts [banquets] and [L the best seats] in the synagogues. 7 They love people to greet them with respect in the marketplaces, and they love to have people call them ·‘Teacher [L Rabbi].’
In addition to their hypocrisy [ethical play-acting, pious-pretending], they abused their authority imposing senselessly strict and burdensome requirements on the people and made no effort to ease them. They put on a great show of their "authority" over the laity, and [showed off their] piety, and dressed accordingly. They put on a terrific and impressive show and take great advantage of the influence their office affords them.
Matthew 23:8-10 (EXB)
8 “But you must not be called ‘·Teacher [Rabbi],’ because you have only one Teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters together. 9 And don’t call any person on earth ‘Father,’ because you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 And you should not be called ‘·Master [Leader; Teacher; Instructor]’ because you have only one ·Master [Leader; Teacher; Instructor], the ·Christ [Messiah].
The [pious leaders in Moses’ seat called themselves] father, Rabbi, teacher [as if they speak for God at the podium. But Jesus argues against this, saying that his disciples] should all call each other brothers (and sisters) in one spiritual family; [for, Jesus as the Messiah acted out God’s Wisdom in the Torah. Jesus further states:]
Mat 23:11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
Mat 23:12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
[Thus Jesus deals with those who stand at a podium claiming the power and authority to speak for God and lord it over others by saying such is not of God. [But instead we] should all be humble servants to each other.
Matthew 23:13-14 Expanded Bible (EXB)
13 “·How terrible for [L Woe to] you, ·teachers of the law [scribes] and Pharisees! You are hypocrites! [L Because] You ·close [shut; lock] the door for people to enter the kingdom of heaven. You yourselves don’t enter, and you ·stop [don’t allow] others who are trying to enter. |14 ·How terrible for [L Woe to] you, ·teachers of the law [scribes] and Pharisees. You are hypocrites. You ·take away [L devour] widows’ houses, and you say long prayers ·so that people will notice you [as a pretense]. So you will have a worse ·punishment [condemnation].|[a]
They prey on the widow (extort money in conjunction with services for the dead), and make great pretence of long prayer. Under the guise of piety, they rob the vulnerable [which sounds like megachurch pastors today]. The condemnation of these false teachers is about as strong as any proclaimed in the Bible, and it is condemnation from Jesus Himself!
What were the Scribes and Pharisees doing that is so strongly condemned? They read from the books of Moses (in his seat) when teaching in the synagogue, but then proceeded to levy their own burdensome [Traditions] on the people, [claiming to know the mind of God better than others and usurp authority over others].
This passage applies today as much as it did in the time of Jesus. ... Who does this apply to today? The answer should be obvious. They are as easily recognized today.
Source: http://biblelight.net/seat.htm
To summarize, Jesus says to do what they say only when they are reading from the Hebrew Bible (Scriptures) things like “love your neighbor,” etc. One should follow the ethical teachings when they derive from a wise interpreation of the Torah, but one can ignore their religious traditions and dogmas that they “make up” as if they speak for God. Jesus argues that all these added rules and traditions keep people out of the Kingdom of Heaven (the Garden of the Good), which he describes in organic and psychological terms as the implanting of habits where one imitates wise living that sprouts the Good. Jesus makes it clear that by their fruits (social harvest) ye shall know them, and here he points out their hypocritical play-acting (i.e. their hyper religious nitpicking and pious fakeness) does not produce the Good.
Jesus then deals with those who will step up to the vacant podium (Moses' seat) to claim authority to speak for God by saying that a true disciple of his will not seek to do this, but seek to serve others while creating and cultivating Goodness (Loving Joyful Abundance). He uses planting metaphors in the passage below to point out that the blind lead the blind, but those who see and produce the good grow the Good:
Matthew 15:10-18
New American Bible (Revised Edition):
10 He summoned the crowd and said to them, “Hear and understand. 11 It is not what enters one’s mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one.” 12 Then his disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” 13 He said in reply,[footnote reads: Jesus leads his disciples away from the teaching authority of the Pharisees] “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides (of the blind). If a blind person leads a blind person, both will fall into a pit.” 15 Then Peter said to him in reply, “Explain [this] parable to us.” 16 He said to them, “Are even you still without understanding? 17 Do you not realize that everything that enters the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled into the latrine [toilet]? 18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile.
Jesus was saying not to follow those who stand at a vacant podium (or in his day, those who sit on Moses' seat) and make up the “will of God” with added rules and traditions. Jesus' solution to the empty podium or Moses' seat was to argue that the message of the Torah is meant to plant a change of heart and produce a good society. Jesus emphasizes the practical way over the abstract and authoritarian way. It is not about claiming to talk for God at the podium but it's about tapping into the Divine Algorithm that will grow God's Garden. It's not about performing a religious ritual and acting pious but what comes out of your mouth and your behaviors that either cultivates the good or cultivates evil. So the solution is to embody Jesus’s Ethic of the Heart and act it out; as Jesus himself was simply living out the Heart of the Torah and went around doing good.
Jesus realizes that sitting in Moses’ seat, that is in modern terms standing at the podium to speak for God, can lead to a lot of problems with insincere power hungry pious fakers sitting in Moses’ seat (the podium of that day), who can then formulate dogmatic religious traditions and religious charlatans and fakers can end up running the show and exploiting the naïve and vulnerable. Jesus spends much of his time condemning the fake “podium speakers” of his day and sets up a way to know they are wrong when they don’t produce the Good but spread Chaos and Contention.
To see evidence of Jesus arguing for the practical way of living out the Divine Algorithm, and how one can know Jesus' Way is true (as-effectively-right) by testing it out or acting it out and proving it's goodness by experience, see my blog post Practical Christianity & The Epistemology of Jesus.
Jesus goes so far as to even challenge parental authority which was like the podium of that day in that parents were seen as superior in status above their children, even adult children. It was culturally accepted to obey your parents even if you think they are wrong. Jesus responded to this first century cultural norm by saying:
Matthew 12:48-50
Expanded Bible
48 He answered, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers [and sisters]?” 49 Then he ·pointed to [or stretched out his hand toward] his ·followers [disciples] and said, “·Here are [L Look; T Behold] my mother and my brothers. 50 My true brother and sister and mother are those who do ·what my Father in heaven wants [the will of my Father in heaven].”
For Jesus, his father in heaven is the originating Source of the universe, the Power that cultivates the good through actions not from top down obedience to leadership with promises of “blessings if you obey.” For example, Jesus agrees with the Book of Ecclesiastes and the Book of Job, in pointing out the randomness of life that doesn’t always reward the virtuous, when he says:
Matthew 5: 45
Complete Jewish Bible
45 ... become children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun shine on good and bad people alike, and he sends rain to the righteous and the unrighteous alike.
In other words, the virtuous life will likely improve your life yes (as Proverbs argues), yet randomness still pervades the cosmos as argued by Ecclesiastes and Job. So Jesus presents a Divine Presence that is not a “Genie in a Bottle,” but a God that is the underlying Good Operating Dimension, the God of patterns in Nature, plant this grow that, etc. In other words, just as a garden can't grow without seeds and cultivation, the Good/God can't grow without humans seeding the Word (God’s Logos) via positive emotional contagion (as Daniel Goleman puts it). Just as there is a scientific algorithm in an acorn growing into an oak tree, there is a Divine Algorithm in growing a People into a more Just Society ("a more perfect union" in American terms) that grows the Good Life more abundantly.
Energy begets energy: so too evil begets evil, and the good begets the good. Just as there is compound interest, there is compound goodness or compound evil. So what are you investing in? Are you investing in selfishness, win-lose deals, greediness, meanness and pessimism? Or are you investing in building people up, win-win deals and healthy and civil mutual flourishing? Hate and usury or kindness and generosity?
So it's not about obeying parents no matter what even when they're wrong, or listening to those "who sit on Moses seat" (the vacant podium) but it's about practicing the Art of the Good and loving one another:
John 13:35
Expanded Bible
35 All people will know that you are my followers [disciples] if you love each other [T one another].”
Jesus deals with standing at the podium claiming to speak for God by saying to instead follow his active Way because it produces the Good; that is, to enact his way, imitate his actions which is the heart of Torah; just as one embodying Dale Carnegie's Way and imitating his spirit will enact the heart of all successful public relations skills, a person who imitates Jesus's Kingdom Ideal will produce joy and abundance. So the message of Jesus is: do not bother with those who seek the power position but instead focus on those who are in the words of his brother James, "doers of the word" (James 1: 22); in fact Jesus condemns the podium puppeteers when he said things like, “Woe to you Pharisees! You love the best seats in the synagogues and elaborate greetings in the marketplaces!” (Luke 11:43 NET Bible). Jesus rejects power-hungry religious hierarchies, podium seekers, and authority claims; and focuses his disciples' attention on organic fruition and imitating his message and character, like in passages like the following:
Luke 22: 24-27 (NET Bible):
24 A dispute also started among them over which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. 25 So Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ 26 Not so with you; instead the one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the one who serves. 27 For who is greater, the one who is seated at the table, or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is seated at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.
In Jesus' Own Words:
Matthew 23 (subheadings are my own for emphasis):
4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
Chairs Designating Higher Status
6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
Emphasizing Titles & Position
7 And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.
Treating Leaders like Celebrities
11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
Mistreatment of the Poor:
14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
Focusing on observable appearances more than internal transformation of character:
23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. 25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Refusal to listen to historians and Scholars and anyone outside the Inner Circle and high up hierarchy:
34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city.
In Matt. 23: 24–26 we see that once people worship a personality, over the principles in the written Scriptures, they will begin to join the controlling personality of the leader in
straining out tiny flies with a net and swallowing a camel of burdensome traditions. Jesus was criticizing types of religious leaders who were so fixated on their status and controlling others over the ethical principles of the written revelations in the Torah.
Below are some quotes from The Unvarnished New Testament by Andy Gaus with my words in brackets. Gaus renders the word "hypocrites" (as I heard the term growing up Mormon using the King James version) to instead "fakes." I think fakes is a more apt descriptive term of what religious types like this are like. Consider these passages (words in brackets are my own):
“Be careful not to put your virtue in front of people to be noted by them.
... So when you contribute to charity, don’t have a trumpet-player go before you, like the fakes do in temples and down alleyways, so people will glorify them; believe me, they have already been paid their wages. But when you give to charity, your left hand shouldn’t know what your right hand is doing, so that your charity is on the sly…
“And when you pray, don’t be like the fakes who love to pray standing in the temples and on street corners so as to show off for everybody.
Believe me, they have already been paid their wages. When you pray, duck into the store-room and lock the door and pray to your Father on the sly. …
“When you pray, don’t babble on like pagans who think they can make themselves heard with a great glut of words. ...
“Ween you fast, don’t be like the grim-looking fakes who disguise
their faces so they’ll look to people like they’re fasting. Believe me, they have already been paid their wages. When you fast, put on a fragrance and wash your face, so you don't look to people like you’re fasting ...
... where your treasure is, your heart will be too.
The lamp of the body is the eye. So if your eye is in one piece, your whole body is lighted; whereas if your eye is bad, your whole body is in darkness. So if the light inside you is dark . . . what a lot of darkness!
…
Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged; you will be sentenced to the same sentence that you sentence others, and by whatever standard you measure you will be measured. Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the log in your own eye? And how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me get that splinter out of your eye,’ with that log there in your own eye? You fake, first get the log out of your own eye, and then you can see about getting the splinter out of your brother’s eye!
… Then Pharisees and canon-lawyers from Jerusalem come up to Jesus saying, “Why do your students overstep the tradition of the elders? Why, they don’t wash their hands [ritually as we demand] when they eat bread.”
He answered, “Why do you overstep the command of God on account of your tradition? …. you invalidate the word of God [Torah] on the basis of your tradition. You fakes, Isaiah prophesied very well about you when he said,
These people honor me with their lips
But their heart is far away from me.
Pointlessly they worship me,
Teaching as their doctrine the commandments of the world.
Then Jesus talked to the crowds and his students, saying, “Where Moses
sat, the Pharisees and the canon-lawyers now sit. So do and keep what they say to you [when it matches true principles and the written revelation (Torah)], but don’t go by what they do, because they say things and then don’t do them. They shackle us with unbearably heavy taxes and lay that on people’s shoulders, but they let no taxes come within arm’s length of them. Everything they do is done to be observed by the world: their phylacteries with big broad strips [these were a small leather box containing text, worn by Jewish men at morning prayer as a reminder to keep the law], their cloaks with nice large prayer-tassels. They love their seats at the head tables of banquets and in the front pews of churches, and everyone saying hello to them downtown, and having people call them ‘Master.’
“Don't You be called ‘Master’: you only have one teacher, all of you are brothers. ... And don’t be called leaders, because you only have one leader, the [example of the] Anointed [Christ]. The highest person among you is to be the servant of you all, so those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
“Woe to you canon-lawyers and Pharisees, you fakes, for shutting the door to the kingdom of [Justice] in humanity’s face: you don’t go in yourselves and you don’t let anybody else go in either.
“Woe to you canon-lawyers and Pharisees, you fakes, for traversing land and sea to make a convert, and then when one is made, turning him into a son of Gehenna twice as bad as yourselves!
[Jesus is speaking in the 30s AD to certain fellow Jews who were the religious elites; many Jews were killed by the Romans and their corpses burned in the valley of Gehenna in 70 AD]
“Woe to you canon-lawyers and Pharisees, you fakes, for singling out the mint, the dill weed, and the curry-powder of the law and leaving aside the hard parts, like judgment and mercy and faith! Those were the parts you should have done—and then the others shouldn’t be omitted. Blind pathfinders, if there’s a gnat in your soup, you strain it out; if there’s a camel in your soup, you drink it down!
“Woe to you canon-lawyers and Pharisees, you fakes, for [ritually] cleaning off the rim of your cup and saucer while on the inside you’re bursting with greed and wild appetites. Blind Pharisee, wash out the inside of the cup and saucer first, if you want the outside to end up clean!
“Woe to you canon-lawyers and Pharisees, you fakes, for being like dusty monuments that look pretty on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of corpses and all kinds of rot. You likewise from the
outside appear to the world to be decent, but inside you’re full of hypocrisy and ways around the law [i.e. the core ethical teachings of the Torah].
“Woe to you canon-lawyers and Pharisees, you fakes, for building monuments to the prophets and decorating the graves of the just, and saying, ‘If we’d been around in our fathers’ time, we’d have had no part in shedding the prophets’ blood.’ So you testify yourselves that you’re the children of those who did murder the prophets. And you fully come up to the standard of your forefathers. Vipers, offspring of snakes, how will you run from the sentence of Gehenna?
[Note here that Jesus is referencing the snake character in the Garden of Eden story which is a sly and sneaky character; so they are acting metaphorically like the offspring of the snake with their fake religiosity luring humanity away from true spirituality]
“For this reason I hereby send you prophets, wise men and scholars.
Some of them you’ll kill, some of them you’ll crucify, some of them you’ll have flogged in the synagogue and hounded from town to town. So that there will come back upon you all the innocent blood poured out upon the earth from the blood of Abel the innocent to the blood of Zachariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. I assure you, that will all come back upon this generation.
[Note how Abel was killed by Cain (the first murderer in the Bible). The religious elites who control the religious buildings and priesthood rites are acting like the snake in the garden and like the murderer Cain. When Jesus refers to "this generation," he's referring to the a particular sect of religious Jews in Second Temple Judaism who would eventually die in 70 AD]
…
And he made this comparison for them: “A blind man can’t lead a blind man around, can he? Won’t they both fall into the ditch? …
