Luke 20:1-8

Contemporary English Version

A Question about Jesus' Authority

(Matthew 21.23-27; Mark 11.27-33)

20 One day, Jesus was teaching in the temple and telling the good news. So the chief priests, the teachers, and the nation's leaders ² asked him, “What right do you have to do these things? Who gave you this authority?”

³ Jesus replied, “I want to ask you a question. ⁴ Who gave John the right to baptize? Was it God in heaven or merely some human being?”

⁵ They talked this over and said to each other, “We can't say God gave John this right. Jesus will ask us why we didn't believe John. ⁶ And we can't say it was merely some human who gave John the right to baptize. The crowd will stone us to death, because they think John was a prophet.”

⁷ So they told Jesus, “We don't know who gave John the right to baptize.”

⁸ Jesus replied, “Then I won't tell you who gave me the right to do what I do.”