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Your paraphrase of Matt 23:2-3 is the way that most read it, but the Greek is a bit different. In Greek, the 2nd Person Plural Indicative Active has the same form as the 2nd Person Plural Imperative Active. Your reading assumes the imperative, i.e., a command: "Do as they say." But Jesus oftentimes took the Pharisees to task for what they said, as well as what they did. Using the indicative mood, it's more of a simple statement: "Because the scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses's seat, you do what they say." It would be like saying, "Because you believe VPW to be "the Man of God for Our Time," you do what he says. George