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Luke 11:52

Woe to you experts in the law! For you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”

BSB

Parallel translations (2) ▾

ASV

Woe unto you lawyers! for ye took away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.

KJV

Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.

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
νομικοῖς,nomikoislawyers,G3544
ὅτιhotiforG3754
ἤρατεērateyou have taken awayG142
τὴνtēntheG3588
κλεῖδαkleidakeyG2807
τῆςtēsof theG3588
γνώσεως.gnōseōsknowledge.G1108
αὐτοὶautoiYou yourselvesG846
οὐκouknotG3756
εἰσήλθατεeisēlthatedid enterG1525
καὶkaiandG2532
τοὺςtousthoseG3588
εἰσερχομένουςeiserchomenousenteringG1525
ἐκωλύσατε.¶ekōlusateyou hindered.G2967

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)