Did the Pharisees come to John for baptism, or refuse it?

Matthew says the Pharisees came to John’s baptism; he never says that John baptised them. The Greek, erchomenous epi to baptisma autou, means ‘coming to his baptism’, and the BSB renders it “coming to his place of baptism”. What follows is not a baptism but a rebuke. John called them a “generation of vipers”, told them not to rely on being Abraham’s children, and demanded that they first “bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance” (Matthew 3:7–9). His baptism was a sign of repentance, and he would not give it to those who showed none.

Luke 7:29–30 tells us how the matter ended: the Pharisees and lawyers “rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him”. Matthew agrees. Later Jesus asked the chief priests and elders whether John’s baptism was from heaven, and they reasoned that if they said yes, he would reply, “Why did ye not then believe him?” (Matthew 21:25). He told them plainly that the publicans and the harlots believed John, “and ye believed him not” (21:32). Some Pharisees may have come out of curiosity, or to see what the crowds were following, or to look into John’s claims, as the delegation sent from Jerusalem did (John 1:19–24).

A few may have been baptised

Barnes reads Matthew 3:7 as saying that some Pharisees came wanting baptism. Even if a few did receive it, Luke is describing the Pharisees as a party, and as Barnes says, ‘the great mass’ of them rejected John. On either reading the two Gospels agree.