How I understand the rebuke of a John the Baptist in Matthew

[jennifer_bloom]

In the bible, John the Baptist rebukes the Pharisees and Sadducees by referring to them as a brood of vipers

The Pharisees are a symbol for religious egos

The Sadducees are a symbol for religious and non religious vanity

Vipers are known for their fangs so the The egocentric and bang are both destructive to the fibre of healthy moral society and pray on the healthy by exploiting them through their taste and personal preference for hostility and negativity and hatred and anger and hostility and violence

The fruit here since it is explicitly stated as being in compliance and yet distinction to repentance is the good labours

While the tree is a symbol for the spirit which is itself a symbol for motives

So John is saying to produce good labour’s in combination to their renunciation of evil

The Wheat that is gathered into the barn is the industrious and hard working truth speaker and servant of God

While the Tate is the socially dependent who leeches off others and destroys the good work of others by telling lies and serving only himself

Here you determine whether you want to be

a) A truth speaker like John the Baptist who is estranged from the ego of the pharisees

and

b) A truth servant like Jesus who is estranged from the vanity of the Sadducees

Or whether you want to exploit people and things for personal gain

While contributing nothing to the world and going to hell after you die

There are other lessons you can learn from this passage but I thought I would stop here

[Gedaria]

They are called offspring of vipers.
Vipers are snakes. It's in reference to their father Satan, he was the original serpent. Vipers as to the way they attack. Also in reference to Gen3:15...