Was Jesus Being Deceitful?

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Some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

Pharisees/Scribes From Jerusalem Tried to Trap Jesus with Tradition

Prophesied Against Judah

Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?”
Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?”
They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin’—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”
So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”
Then he said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

Here, Jesus had just finished recognizing the Chief Priests’ failure (the previous day) to uphold the purpose of God’s Temple, which is worshiping God – it had been overtaken by greed of the Jewish religious leaders (the fig tree incident was an example of the Temple). It also wasn’t God’s original design for the Temple, but was built by Herod as a political move (he build 5 temples for 5 different “gods” so as to woo the people into raising him up as a king – his lifelong goal). So the Temple was built incorrectly, it was being used incorrectly, the leaders’ hearts were about greed, not worshiping God, and now they’re questioning Him about whose authority He’s claiming when turning over their moneychangers’ tables. If they were really acting under God’s rule, then they would have known already that Jesus was right to do so and would’ve recognized His authority, but they were no longer under God’s rule, but Satan’s.

So when they accused Jesus of doing this, He doesn’t need to tell them by whose authority He’s doing this, because they should have recognized Jesus’ authority long ago – either they did and rejected it, or their own pride and status’ blinded them from “seeing”.