According to the custom followed by the priests, he was chosen by lot to burn incense on the altar. So he went into the Temple of the Lord,

while the crowd of people outside prayed during the hour when the incense was burned.

saying to them, "It is written in the Scriptures that God said, 'My Temple will be a house of prayer.' But you have turned it into a hideout for thieves!"

Hear my prayers and the prayers of your people when they face this place and pray. In your home in heaven hear us and forgive us.

One day Peter and John went to the Temple at three o'clock in the afternoon, the hour for prayer.

All the people heard him; they and especially the tax collectors were the ones who had obeyed God's righteous demands and had been baptized by John.

But the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law rejected God's purpose for themselves and refused to be baptized by John.

Which one of the two did what his father wanted?" "The older one," they answered. So Jesus said to them, "I tell you: the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the Kingdom of God ahead of you.

For John the Baptist came to you showing you the right path to take, and you would not believe him; but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. Even when you saw this, you did not later change your minds and believe him.

When Paul saw that some of the group were Sadducees and the others were Pharisees, he called out in the Council, "Fellow Israelites! I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees. I am on trial here because of the hope I have that the dead will rise to life!"

(For the Sadducees say that people will not rise from death and that there are no angels or spirits; but the Pharisees believe in all three.)

They have always known, if they are willing to testify, that from the very first I have lived as a member of the strictest party of our religion, the Pharisees.

I was circumcised when I was a week old. I am an Israelite by birth, of the tribe of Benjamin, a pure-blooded Hebrew. As far as keeping the Jewish Law is concerned, I was a Pharisee,