By What Authority?

Authority, the Stone, and the Living God · Luke 20

Story guide: Jesus faces three dignified leaders in the temple court as one answers with an uncertain open hand. Chief priests, scribes, and elders challenge Jesus’s authority.

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1And it happened, on one of those days, while he was teaching the people in the temple and proclaiming the good news, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, came up to him,

2And they said to him, “Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things? Or who is the one who gave you this authority?”

3But in reply he said to them, “I also will ask you a question, and you tell me:”

4Was John's baptism from heaven or from men?

5But they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’”

6But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.

7So they answered that they did not know where it was from.

8And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

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