Then he said to them, “Therefore every expert in the law ¹  who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his treasure what is new and old.”

“But woe to you, experts in the law ¹  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! ²  You keep locking people out of the kingdom of heaven! ³  For you neither enter nor permit those trying to enter to go in. ⁴ 

“Woe to you, experts in the law ¹  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You cross land and sea to make one convert, ²  and when you get one, ³  you make him twice as much a child of hell ⁴  as yourselves!

“Woe to you, experts in the law ¹  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean. ² 

“For this reason I ¹  am sending you prophets and wise men and experts in the law, ²  some of whom you will kill and crucify, ³  and some you will flog ⁴  in your synagogues ⁵  and pursue from town to town,

Then ¹  Jesus ²  began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer ³  many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, ⁴  and be killed, and after three days rise again.

Now ¹  one of the experts in the law ²  came and heard them debating. When he saw that Jesus ³  answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”

Two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the chief priests and the experts in the law ¹  were trying to find a way ²  to arrest Jesus ³  by stealth and kill him.

(His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jewish religious leaders. ¹  For the Jewish leaders had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus ²  to be the Christ ³  would be put out ⁴  of the synagogue. ⁵ 

Children, I am still with you for a little while. You will look for me, ¹  and just as I said to the Jewish religious leaders, ²  ‘Where I am going you cannot come,’ ³  now I tell you the same. ⁴ 

After threatening them further, they released them, for they could not find how to punish them on account of the people, because they were all praising ¹  God for what had happened.

When the meeting of the synagogue ¹  had broken up, ²  many of the Jews and God-fearing proselytes ³  followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and were persuading ⁴  them ⁵  to continue ⁶  in the grace of God.

“I am a Jew, ¹  born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up ²  in this city, educated with strictness ³  under ⁴  Gamaliel ⁵  according to the law of our ancestors, ⁶  and was ⁷  zealous ⁸  for God just as all of you are today.

There was a great commotion, ¹  and some experts in the law ²  from the party of the Pharisees stood up ³  and protested strongly, ⁴  “We find nothing wrong ⁵  with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?”

And he is also the father of the circumcised, ¹  who are not only circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham possessed when he was still uncircumcised. ² 

But again I ask, didn’t Israel understand? ¹  First Moses says, “I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation; with a senseless nation I will provoke you to anger.” ² 

To the Jews I became like a Jew to gain the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) ¹  to gain those under the law.

Is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? ¹  Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. ² 

Jeroboam inaugurated a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, ¹  like the festival celebrated in Judah. ²  On the altar in Bethel he offered sacrifices to the calves he had made. ³  In Bethel he also appointed priests for the high places he had made.

On the fifteenth day of the eighth month (a date he had arbitrarily chosen) ¹  Jeroboam ²  offered sacrifices on the altar he had made in Bethel. ³  He inaugurated a festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to offer sacrifices.