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Luke 11:44

Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without even noticing.”

BSB

Parallel translations (2) ▾

ASV

Woe unto you! for ye are as the tombs which appear not, and the men that walk over them know it not.

KJV

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.

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
ὅτιhotiforG3754
ἐστὲesteyou areG1510
ὡςhōslikeG5613
τὰta<the>G3588
μνημεῖαmnēmeiagravesG3419
τὰta<the>G3588
ἄδηλα,adēlaunmarked,G82
καὶkaiandG2532
οἱhoitheG3588
ἄνθρωποιanthrōpoimenG444
οἱhoiwhoG3588
περιπατοῦντεςperipatountesare walkingG4043
ἐπάνωepanōaboveG1883
οὐκouknotG3756
οἴδασιν.¶oidasindo know [it].

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)