And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words.
And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees - "their disciples," says Matthew; probably young and zealous scholars in that hardening school.
And of the Herodians. See the note at Matthew 22:16. In Luke 20:20 these willing tools are called, "spies, which should feign themselves just (or 'righteous') men, that they might take hold of His words, that so they might deliver Him unto the power and authority of the governor." Their plan, then, was to entrap Him into some expression which might be construed into disaffection to the Roman government; the Pharisees themselves being notoriously discontented with the Roman yoke.