Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageBut when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GBut when he saw many of the P'rushim and Tz'dukim coming to his immersion, he said to them: "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?"
KJV
King James VersionBut when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
BSB
Berean Standard BibleBut when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
Footnotes
γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν (gennēmata echidnōn) = "offspring of vipers" — a devastating image linking Israel's religious leadership to the serpent of Eden (Gen. 3:1). The P'rushim (פְּרוּשִׁים, "the Separated Ones") and Tz'dukim (likely linked to the priestly Zadokite line) represented the religious establishment; to call them snake-spawn was to place them on the wrong side of the primordial conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
