The word for December 11th is BROOD. It is taken from the gospel lesson for the 2nd Sunday of Advent, where John the Baptist calls the Pharisees and Sadducees a “Brood of Vipers”. In other words a group of like minded folks who are actually snake-y! In Matthew chapter 3, John the Baptist sees these two groups of religious leaders approach and says, “But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance.”

The term “coming for baptism” could also be translated something like “Coming to see about these baptisms”. So most likely they were opposed to the JtB baptisms and came out to oppose them. So John calls them out for this, a group of snakes who oppose the repentance John insisted on and held the to the same standard – bear fruit worthy of repentance. A good lesson for all of us!