Luke 11:46
“Woe to you as well, experts in the law!” He replied. “You weigh men down with heavy burdens, but you yourselves will not lift a finger to lighten their load.
BSB
Parallel translations (2) ▾
ASV
And he said, Woe unto you lawyers also! for ye load men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.
KJV
And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.
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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
24 tagged words| Original | Transliteration | Meaning | Word study |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ὁ | Ho | <the> | G3588 → |
| δὲ | de | And | G1161 → |
| εἶπεν· | eipen | He said; | G2036 → |
| καὶ | kai | Also | G2532 → |
| ὑμῖν | humin | to you | G4771 → |
| τοῖς | tois | <the> | G3588 → |
| νομικοῖς | nomikois | lawyers | G3544 → |
| οὐαί, | ouai | woe! | G3759 → |
| ὅτι | hoti | For | G3754 → |
| φορτίζετε | phortizete | you burden | G5412 → |
| τοὺς | tous | the | G3588 → |
| ἀνθρώπους | anthrōpous | men | G444 → |
| φορτία | phortia | [with] burdens | G5413 → |
| δυσβάστακτα | dusbastakta | heavy to bear | G1419 → |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → |
| αὐτοὶ | autoi | yourselves | G846 → |
| ἑνὶ | heni | with one | G1520 → |
| τῶν | tōn | of the | G3588 → |
| δακτύλων | daktulōn | fingers | G1147 → |
| ὑμῶν | humōn | of you | G4771 → |
| οὐ | ou | not | G3756 → |
| προσψαύετε | prospsauete | do touch | G4379 → |
| τοῖς | tois | the | G3588 → |
| φορτίοις.¶ | phortiois | burdens. | G5413 → |
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