Bible Verses About Satire

The greatest among you must be your servant,

for whoever promotes himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be promoted.

"But woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P'rushim! For you are shutting the Kingdom of Heaven in people's faces, neither entering yourselves nor allowing those who wish to enter to do so.

Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P'rushim! For you swallow up widow's houses while making a show of davvening at great length. Because of this your punishment will be all the worse

"Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P'rushim! You go about over land and sea to make one proselyte; and when you succeed, you make him twice as fit for Gei-Hinnom as you are!

"Woe to you, you blind guides! You say, `If someone swears by the Temple, he is not bound by his oath; but if he swears by the gold in the Temple, he is bound.'

You blind fools! Which is more important? the gold? or the Temple which makes the gold holy?

And you say, `If someone swears by the altar, he is not bound by his oath; but if he swears by the offering on the altar, he is bound.'

Blind men! Which is more important? the sacrifice? or the altar which makes the sacrifice holy

So someone who swears by the altar swears by it and everything on it.

And someone who swears by the Temple swears by it and the One who lives in it

And someone who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and the One who sits on it.

"Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P'rushim! You pay your tithes of mint, dill and cumin; but you have neglected the weightier matters of the Torah -- justice, mercy, trust. These are the things you should have attended to -- without neglecting the others!

Blind guides! -- straining out a gnat, meanwhile swallowing a camel!

"Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P'rushim! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self indulgence.

Blind Parush! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside may be clean too.

"Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P'rushim! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look fine on the outside but inside are full of dead people's bones and all kinds of rottenness.

Likewise, you appear to people from the outside to be good and honest, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and far from Torah.

"Woe to you hypocritical Torah-teachers and P'rushim! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the tzaddikim,

and you say, `Had we lived when our fathers did, we would never have taken part in killing the prophets.'

In this you testify against yourselves that you are worthy descendants of those who murdered the prophets.

Go ahead then, finish what your fathers started!

"You snakes! Sons of snakes! How can you escape being condemned to Gei Hinnom?

Next they sent some P'rushim and some members of Herod's party to him in order to trap him with a sh'eilah.

They came and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you tell the truth and are not concerned with what people think about you, since you pay no attention to a person's status but really teach what God's way is. Does Torah say that taxes are to be paid to the Roman Emperor, or not?"