When
he had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority?” Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, which if you tell me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men?” They reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all hold John as a prophet.” They answered Jesus, and said, “We don’t know.” He also said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
Matthew 21:23-27
Matthew 21 [21.] Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, if you have faith, and don’t doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you told this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it would be done. All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
Matthew 21 [23.] When he had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority?”
Matthew 21 [24.] Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, which if you tell me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men?”
They reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all hold John as a prophet.” They answered Jesus, and said, “We don’t know.” He also said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
Matthew 21 [28.] But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, ‘Son, go work today in my vineyard.’ He answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind, and went. He came to the second, and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but he didn’t go. Which of the two did the will of his father?”
They said to him, “The first.”
Jesus said to them, “Most certainly I tell you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering into God’s Kingdom before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn’t believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. When you saw it, you didn’t even repent afterward, that you might believe him.
Meaning:
Jesus had entered Jerusalem as King, cleansed the temple, healed the blind and the lame there, and cursed the barren fig tree (Matthew 21:17-22). Now he returns to the temple courts to teach. The leaders who controlled the temple come to challenge him. This conversation begins a series of confrontations in the temple that fills the next chapters of Matthew.
- “The chief priests and the elders of the people”
The chief priests were the leading priestly families who ran the temple, and the elders were heads of the leading families of Jerusalem. Together with the scribes they formed the Sanhedrin, the council that governed Jewish affairs under Rome. Mark mentions all three groups (Mark 11:27). These were the very men Jesus had said would condemn him to death (Matthew 20:18).
- “By what authority do you do these things?”
“These things” included riding into the city as the son of David, driving the traders out of the temple and teaching in its courts. The leaders had not authorized any of it. Jesus was not a priest, had not trained under a recognised rabbi, and held no office. Their question was a trap: if he claimed authority from God, they could accuse him of blasphemy; if he admitted he had none, he would lose the crowds.
The people had long noticed the difference. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, “the multitudes were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them with authority, and not like the scribes” (Matthew 7:28-29).
- “The baptism of John, where was it from?”
Answering a question with a question was a normal way of debate among the rabbis. But Jesus’ question was not a dodge; it went to the heart of the matter. John had prepared the way for Jesus and pointed to him: “I indeed baptize you in water for repentance, but he who comes after me is mightier than I” (Matthew 3:11). He had called Jesus “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). If John’s ministry came from heaven, then so did the authority of the one he announced.
- “They reasoned with themselves”
The leaders did not ask what was true but what was safe. If they said “From heaven,” they would have to explain why they had not believed John; when John saw the Pharisees and Sadducees coming, he had called them “offspring of vipers” (Matthew 3:7). If they said “From men,” they feared the crowds, who held John as a prophet. So they answered, “We don’t know.” The rulers of Israel, who were meant to judge true and false prophets, confessed that they could not, or would not.
- “Neither will I tell you”
Jesus refused to answer people who were not honestly seeking the truth. Yet he did not leave them without an answer. In the parables that follow he tells them plainly who he is: the son sent by the owner of the vineyard (Matthew 21:37). After his resurrection he would declare, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18).
The Significance of Matthew 21:23-27
- Seek the truth, not safety
The leaders chose what was convenient over what was true. Honest seekers must be willing to follow the truth wherever it leads, even at a cost.
- Jesus’ authority comes from God
He does not need human permission. His words and works carry the authority of his Father.
Cross-References:
Mark 11:28: "By what authority do you do these things? Or who gave you this authority to do these things?" Mark’s account of the same challenge.
Matthew 7:29: "for he taught them with authority, and not like the scribes." The authority the crowds recognised.
Matthew 28:18: "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth." The answer given after the resurrection.
Conclusion: When the chief priests and elders demanded to know by what authority Jesus acted, he asked them whether John’s baptism was from heaven or from men. Afraid of the answer either way, they said, “We don’t know,” and Jesus declined to answer them. The passage exposes leaders who cared more for safety than truth, and points to Jesus’ authority as coming from God himself.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible