Luke 11:45
One of the experts in the law told Him, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us as well.”
BSB
Parallel translations (2) ▾
ASV
And one of the lawyers answering saith unto him, Teacher, in saying this thou reproachest us also.
KJV
Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also.
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Commentary
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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
13 tagged words| Original | Transliteration | Meaning | Word study |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ἀποκριθεὶς | Apokritheis | Answering | G611 → |
| δέ | de | now | G1161 → |
| τις | tis | one | G5100 → |
| τῶν | tōn | of the | G3588 → |
| νομικῶν | nomikōn | lawyers | G3544 → |
| λέγει | legei | says | G3004 → |
| αὐτῷ· | autō | to Him; | G846 → |
| διδάσκαλε, | didaskale | Teacher, | G1320 → |
| ταῦτα | tauta | these things | G3778 → |
| λέγων | legōn | saying | G3004 → |
| καὶ | kai | also | G2532 → |
| ἡμᾶς | hēmas | us | G3165 → |
| ὑβρίζεις.¶ | hubrizeis | You insult. | G5195 → |
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