<p>12:38&nbsp;<em>Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying: Teacher</em>- It would seem these were a different group of Pharisees to those with whom the Lord was in engagement earlier in the chapter; they address Him as &quot;Master&quot;. They appear at least to be trying a more subtle approach than the previous group. Mk. 3:22 notes that this group had come from Jerusalem.</p>
<p><em>We would see a sign from you</em>- The context of the chapter makes it clear that the Lord had been clearly doing signs / miracles. So maybe the emphasis is on&nbsp;<em>we</em>. They were maybe claiming that they personally had not been present when the signs were done, and now they wanted to see one.&nbsp; But Lk. 11:16 adds the detail that they sought a &quot;sign&nbsp;<em>from Heaven</em>&quot;. This continues the issue under debate; the Pharisees accepted that Jesus was doing signs / miracles, but they considered them to be from 'Satan'; the Lord has responded by saying that His good works show He is a good man working on God's behalf, and that they would be called to account at the last day for their blasphemy. But it seems this other group of Pharisees continue in the blasphemous position- their response is to assume that the earlier miracles were signs from 'Satan', but now they give the Lord a chance to do a sign / miracle from God (&quot;Heaven&quot;). They repeated this request later (Mt. 16:1), and again the Lord answered them with &quot;the sign of the prophet Jonah&quot;. It's not necessarily wrong to require a sign- Gideon's example comes to mind. The disciples themselves asked for a sign (Mt. 24:3), and the Lord answered them to the effect that there would be &quot;the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven&quot; (Mt. 24:30). &quot;In&quot; Heaven can mean 'by the instrumentality of [Heaven]'. The similarity of words and concepts is so close that there must be some continuity in meaning. It could be that the sign of the Son of Man given by Heaven in the last days is the sign of Jonah- the successful preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles and the resurrection from the dead.</p>