Luke Chapter 11 verse 39 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerses 39, 40. And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? Many of the words spoken on this occasion had been uttered by the Master previously. The variations in them, slight though they be, necessitate often quite a different interpretation. This helps us to come to the conclusion that in these cases the Lord must have spoken such sayings on different occasions. In this place, for instance, in the report of a similar accusation levelled against the Pharisees reported by St. Matthew (Matthew 23:25), the second clause of the verse, which treats of the outside of the cup and the platter, reads thus: "but within they are full of extortion and excess." The meaning of this is - while every care had been taken to purify the cup and the dish, no pains whatever had been paid to the source whence came the contents of these. They were too often the proceeds of extortion, they were too frequently consumed with self-indulgence. But here, in St. Luke, the second clause reads, "your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness." The meaning of these words is, "In spite of your extreme care for the vessels of your table, your whole moral life is unclean and defiled. Are you not," argues the Master, "fools to lay down such strict rules to avoid outward defilement, while within, in the soul, you allow all manner of wickedness? Surely God, who created the things we see and touch, created the soul also!"

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(39) Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup.--See Note on Matthew 23:25. The verses that follow stand in the relation to the great discourse against the Pharisees in that chapter, as the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6) does to the Sermon on the Mount. Here, too, we recognise another instance, not of a narrative misplaced, but of words actually repeated. All past experiences, all faults previously noted, were gathered at last into one great and terrible invective. We note, as an instance of independence, St. Luke's use of a different Greek word for "platter," viz., that which is elsewhere (Matthew 14:8; Matthew 14:11) better translated charger, the large central dish, as distinguished from the smaller "platter" or side-dish. For the "excess" of St. Matthew, St. Luke has the more generic "wickedness." From one point of view the words are more startling here than in their context in St. Matthew. There they are spoken as in open conflict with a class, here they are addressed to an individual member of the class, and by One whom he had invited as a guest. It must be remembered, however, that there was a touch of supercilious scorn in all these invitations, still more, perhaps, in the looks and whispers in which the wonder in this instance showed itself; and the words point to secret sins which the Searcher of hearts knew, and which it was necessary to reprove.