Luke 11:39
“Now then,” said the Lord, “you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.
BSB
Parallel translations (2) ▾
ASV
And the Lord said unto him, Now ye the Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter; but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness.
KJV
And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.
⋯
Commentary
1 voiceVoices on this verse
loading…Hebraic traditional view
The dinner-table woes: cups, herbs, and proportion
The setting is a Pharisee's dinner table, and the host “marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner”: netilat yadayim, the ritual hand-pouring before bread (explained in this site's Mark 7 note). Jesus answers with the tradition's own vocabulary of vessels: “Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter.” The purity law genuinely distinguished a vessel's outside from its inside; the Mishnah's tractate on vessels opens a chapter with exactly that: “All vessels have different laws for their outer and inner sides” (Kelim 25:1). Jesus turns the technical distinction into a mirror: the inside of the person is the part that counts.
Luke's tithing woe is sharper than Matthew's, and knowing the law shows why: “ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs.” The Mishnah exempts rue from tithes (Sheviit 9:1 lists it first among the exempt plants). The Pharisees of the woe are tithing beyond what even their own tradition required, while “judgment and the love of God” go passed over. As in Matthew 23:23, Jesus affirms the scruple (“these ought ye to have done”) and indicts the inversion of weight.
Sources: Mishnah Kelim 25:1 (a vessel's outside and inside) · Mishnah Sheviit 9:1 (rue exempt from tithes)
Original language & word study
26 tagged words| Original | Transliteration | Meaning | Word study |
|---|---|---|---|
| Εἶπεν | Eipen | Said | G2036 → |
| δὲ | de | then | G1161 → |
| ὁ | ho | the | G3588 → |
| κύριος | kurios | Lord | G2962 → |
| πρὸς | pros | to | G4314 → |
| αὐτόν· | auton | him; | G846 → |
| νῦν | nun | Now | G3568 → |
| ὑμεῖς | humeis | you yourselves | G4771 → |
| οἱ | hoi | <the> | G3588 → |
| Φαρισαῖοι | Pharisaioi | Pharisees | G5330 → |
| τὸ | to | the | G3588 → |
| ἔξωθεν | exōthen | outside | G1855 → |
| τοῦ | tou | <of> the | G3588 → |
| ποτηρίου | potēriou | cup | G4221 → |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → |
| τοῦ | tou | <of> the | G3588 → |
| πίνακος | pinakos | dish | G4094 → |
| καθαρίζετε, | katharizete | you cleanse, | G2511 → |
| τὸ | to | <the> | G3588 → |
| δὲ | de | and | G1161 → |
| ἔσωθεν | esōthen | the inside | G2081 → |
| ὑμῶν | humōn | of you | G4771 → |
| γέμει | gemei | is full | G1073 → |
| ἁρπαγῆς | harpagēs | of plundering | G724 → |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → |
| πονηρίας. | ponērias | wickedness. | G4189 → |
The walk
Featured studies on this passage
On Luke 11:39
Prayer in Luke — Jesus at Every Hinge
Open the study →
Walks through Luke 11
The Lord's Prayer
Phrase by phrase — the Old Testament roots under each petition, the Jewish prayers it spoke alongside, and Matthew's and Luke's forms honestly compared.
Open the study →
Walks through Luke 11
The Key
Open the study →
About Luke

