Why does John the Baptist call the Pharisees and the Sadducees a “brood of vipers” and what does this mean?
Brood of vipers
or snake seed
(see Matthew 12:34;Matthew 23:33) refers to children of the devil (see John 8:44). Like Isaiah (see Isaiah 11:8, Isaiah 14:29, Isaiah 30:6), John sees the leaders as insincere, like the snake in Eden, knowing that they think that they have their own way to escape God’s judgment.
Brood of vipers
or snake seed
(see Matthew 12:34, Matthew 23:33) designates children of the devil (see John 8:44). Just like snakes flee for an approaching bush fire, so the Jewish leaders flee from the coming judgment.1
Because the state of their heart has been revealed to John, he knows that their motives are impure and as such he immediately addresses them as vipers—a name not uncommon in Semitic expressions (see Isaiah 11:8, Isaiah 14:29, Isaiah 30:6) which alluded to the evil and slyness of the snake in paradise.2
By calling them a brood of vipers,
the prophet rebukes them sharply. When stubble is burnt, serpents flee from the fire. Similarly, the members of the two parties think that they too will be able to avoid the judgment. They think this in part because of their origins. They do not think that they are in need of repentance to flee the coming judgment. In fact, while so many flee to the baptism to avoid the wrath to come, they merely stand aloof as observers. They seem to believe they have their own escape path and simply come to observe what John is teaching.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?