Verse 18
‘And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and sought how they might destroy him, for they feared him, for all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.’
The chief priests, who ran the Temple and controlled its ministries, were inevitably angry because He had hit at their pockets and at their reputation. And the problem was that they knew that everyone believed it was true. The scribes here might be Sadducean scribes who naturally sided with the leading Sadducees, the chief priests. But we need not doubt that many scribes of the Pharisees were also willing to side with them as well in this particular case. Jesus’ teaching was getting too uncomfortable and as a result some of the people were beginning to question their authority. There was only one answer, and that was to destroy Him. Mark has already described the same intention in Galilee (Mark 3:6). Now the rot had spread through the whole country.
‘They feared Him.’ Because He was undermining their authority and revealing the inadequacy of much of their teaching.
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