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Luke 11:43

Woe to you Pharisees! You love the chief seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces.

BSB

Parallel translations (2) ▾

ASV

Woe unto you Pharisees! for ye love the chief seats in the synagogues, and the salutations in the marketplaces.

KJV

Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets.

Commentary

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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

17 tagged words
OriginalTransliterationMeaningWord study
ΟὐαὶOuaiWoeG3759
ὑμῖνhuminto youG4771
τοῖςtois<the>G3588
Φαρισαίοις,PharisaioisPharisees,G5330
ὅτιhotiforG3754
ἀγαπᾶτεagapateyou loveG25
τὴνtēntheG3588
πρωτοκαθεδρίανprōtokathedrianfirst seatG4410
ἐνeninG1722
ταῖςtaistheG3588
συναγωγαῖςsunagōgaissynagoguesG4864
καὶkaiandG2532
τοὺςtoustheG3588
ἀσπασμοὺςaspasmousgreetingsG783
ἐνeninG1722
ταῖςtaistheG3588
ἀγοραῖς.¶agoraismarketplaces.G58

The walk

About Luke

The Return of the Prodigal Son — Gustave Doré (engraving, public domain)
The Return of the Prodigal Son — Gustave Doré (engraving, public domain)