With whom was Jesus very critical over and over, and why?

Answer 1

With the religious, self righteous leaders of God's people. He was angry because of their hard hearts, and blind eyes, and their jealousy of Him. These held to traditions of men, rather than the word of God; "they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them", no they won't believe, "though one rose from the dead".

They were blinded to fullfill all the prophecy concerning Jesus.

Answer 2

Pharisees.
My personal impression without a bible quote (and I have read the entire bible) is that they were such a hindrance to the people Jesus was trying to reach. Jesus came to really get across "if you have seen me you have seen the Father' and he was healing people on the sabbath and talking to tax collectors and "sinners' and all these other things, basically showing the heart of the Father that People were cherished by God and that his laws were meant to bless them..........and the Pharisees were presenting a harsh, angry God who was more concerned with his laws than people. The Pharisees were highly respected and viewed as "knowing God" and they abused their positions of Authority and did not portray the heart of the Father. Jesus said many things like "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees"........and he called them hypocrites to their faces. However Jesus went out and preached by the sea rather than taking over the temple which truly was his rightful place. This is to demonstrate the scripture that even Jesus will do exactly what the Father says in the Father's timing. It was not time for Jesus to rule and reign even though that position is rightfullly his.

Answer 3

The Vipers, the hypocritical Sadducee's and Pharisees that were misleading the people for their own self-aggrandizement

They had coined their own money that was only acceptable in the temple, so they were making money on it. Not long after he overthrew the tables of the money changers he was brought in by these and crucified. He was trying to show how peole had been deceived by them. We are in the same condition today.

Answer 4

I'd say the "scribes and the Pharisees" (religious & political leaders of his day) referred to in Mathew 23. He calls them Hypocrites! SEVERAL times, and even goes as far to call them "Serpents, and offspring of vipers". That makes it pretty clear to me who Jesus had a problem with!

Answer 5

Jesus was never afraid to confront the Chief Priests, the Elders, The Scribes and The Pharisees; meaning the "religious leaders" of the Jewish temple. Matthew chapters 21 and 22 are filled with confrontations between Jesus and these groups.

He had several reasons for this, but they mostly had to do with the hypocrisy in the way these leaders led the flock. In the Matthew passage below, (and in the verses immediately following it, where Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ,) I think we see that Jesus knew how men would deny His authority, deity and doctrine from the very start, and that those whose parasitic livelihood was most threatened (i.e., the religious leaders) would be the ones to act out against this threat.

A couple of passages that speak to this threat: 1) Matthew 12:14 "Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him." and 2) Matt 21:45-46 "Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet."

Jesus was also critical of the Sadducees, mainly, I think because they did not believe that the scriptures indicated such a thing as the "resurrection" was possible; for Jesus, not only is it possible, it's the second most important part of His mission to earth: die for our sins that we might be forgiven, and rise from the dead that we might have the promise of eternal life.

Matthew 16:1-12
The Pharisees and Sadducees Seek a Sign
1 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; 3 and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. 4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.

The Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees
5 Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. 6 Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”
7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have taken no bread.”
8 But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread? 9 Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? 10 Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up? 11 How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?—but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.


Several other times, Jesus directly confronted these religious hypocrites:
Matthew 23:13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation."


Their plots to get Jesus to commit some criminal (hopefully capital) offense, some part of the Mosaic law, or to say or do something that would alienate His growing popularity with the downtrodden are found throughout the rest of Matthew's gospel:

Matt 9:33-35 "And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke. And the multitudes marveled, saying, “It was never seen like this in Israel!” But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons.”

Matt 12:1-2 "At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, 'Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!'”

Matt 15:1-3 "Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, 'Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.'
He answered and said to them, 'Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?'"

Matt 19:3 “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”

Matt 22:17b "...Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"

Answer 6

The Pharisees, because he saw them as religious hypocrites. They wanted people to see them living highly religious lives so they could get that holier-than-thou recognition.

Answer 7

we don't really know.

the best guesses still rely on the writings and interpretations of intermediaries. there is no known first-hand sources from Jesus himself (assuming he actually existed).