Matthew 3:7

Pharisees and Sadducees. The two main religious sects. The PHARISEES began about the time of the Maccabees after the return from captivity. They were a "renewal group," "Jewish Puritans," but they had degenerated into formalists who ignored the "inner life." They were meticulous in ritual, orthodox, but full of spiritual pride. The SADDUCEES, SO named for Sadduc, their founder, were aristocratic traditionalists. Mostly political, and not religious at all, they did not believe in "angel, spirit, or the resurrection from the dead." The High Priests, Annas and Caiaphas, were Sadducees. You snakes. They were poisonous like snakes, polluted by their sin, hating one another and hateful to God. Who told you? Wrath had been predicted (Malachi 3:2; Malachi 4:5). John's question doubts their sincerity.