You Snakes! - Matthew 23:33-36

"You are snakes! You are from a family of poisonous snakes! You will not escape God. You will all be judged guilty and go to hell! So I tell you this: I send to you prophets and wise men and teachers. You will kill some of these people. You will hang some of them on crosses. You will beat some of these people in your synagogues. You will chase them from town to town. So you will be guilty for the death of all the good people that have been killed on earth. You will be guilty for the killing of that good man Abel. And you will be guilty for the killing of Zechariah son of Berachiah. He was killed between the temple and the altar. You will be guilty for the killing of all the good people that lived between the time of Abel and the time of Zechariah. I tell you the truth. All of these things will happen to you people that are living now." (ERV)   Full Text

Matt 3:7-8 (ERV) One of the teachers of the law said to Jesus, "Teacher, when you say these things about the Pharisees, you are criticizing our group too." Jesus answered, "It will be bad for you, you teachers of the law! You make strict rules that are very hard for people to obey. You try to force other people to obey those rules. But you yourselves don't even try to follow any of those rules. It will be bad for you, because you build tombs for the prophets. But these are the same prophets that your fathers killed! And now you show all people that you agree with what your fathers did. They killed the prophets, and you build tombs for the prophets! This is why the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send prophets and apostles to them. Some of my prophets and apostles will be killed by evil men. Others will be treated badly.' So you people that live now will be punished for the deaths of all the prophets that were killed since the beginning of the world. You will be punished for the killing of Abel. And you will be punished for the killing of Zechariah. Zechariah was killed between the altar and the temple. Yes, I tell you that you people that live now will be punished for them all. "It will be bad for you, you teachers of the law. You have taken away the key to learning about God. You yourselves would not learn, and you stopped others from learning, too." When Jesus was leaving, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees began to give him much trouble. They tried to make Jesus answer questions about many things. They were trying to find a way to catch Jesus saying something wrong. Luke 11:45-54 (ERV) {Then Stephen said,} "You stubborn Jewish leaders! You have not given your hearts to God! You won't listen to him! You are always against what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell you. Your ancestors did this, and you are just like them! Your ancestors persecuted every prophet that ever lived. Those prophets said long ago that the Righteous One (Christ ) would come. But your ancestors killed those prophets. And now you have turned against the Righteous One and killed him. Acts 7:51-52 (ERV)