Luke by R. T. France

Author:R. T. France [France, R. T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Religion, Biblical Commentary, New Testament, Gospel of Luke
ISBN: 9780801092350
Google: BNvJMgEACAAJ
Amazon: 0801092353
Barnesnoble: 0801092353
Publisher: Baker Books
Published: 2013-11-18T22:00:00+00:00

When it says in 11:38 that “Jesus did not first wash before the meal,” it may refer to the hand-washing ritual that religious Jews engaged in prior to eating. This stone cup may have been manufactured for ritual hand washing during the late Second Temple period.

11:39 you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup. The detailed Pharisaic rules for purity fill one of the six main sections of the Mishnah (Teharot, “Cleannesses”), though much of this elaboration is later than Jesus’s time. Jesus sees this preoccupation with external cleanness as missing the point of true religious observance. His distinction between “outside” and “inside” (using the literal utensils as a metaphor for the human person) recalls his radical pronouncement, recorded elsewhere (Matt. 15:11; Mark 7:15), that impurity comes from within, from the heart, not from what is touched or eaten.

11:40 Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? An exclusive concern for “external” ritual betrays too limited an understanding of God. God did prescribe some rules of purity, but his law is even more concerned with ethical behavior and spiritual values. To miss that is to be “foolish” (one who lacks good judgment), a strong term of disparagement.

11:41 as for what is inside you. Ritual washing does nothing to change the “inside” attitude of “greed and wickedness” (11:39). Jesus instead summarizes internal purity in the single demand: “Be generous to the poor.” It is by such ethical behavior, not by ritual observance, that the true orientation of the heart is revealed. Compare the parable of the good Samaritan, with its focus on love expressed in doing.

11:42 you give God a tenth. The principle of giving a tenth of all produce to God (to provide for the upkeep of the priesthood) was clear in the Torah (Lev. 27:30), and Jesus does not object to its observance (“without leaving the former undone”). In itself, such tithing does no harm. But what Jesus objects to is the distorted sense of priorities that puts all the emphasis on tithing even the most insignificant garden herbs but gives no attention to the fundamental principles of the Torah (“justice and the love of God”).

11:43 you love the most important seats. The “outward” focus of many Pharisees meant that they were more interested in their own reputation for godliness than in actually living the way God wanted. The repetition of the word “love” in very different senses in 11:42 and 11:43 shows how they are out of kilter with God’s scale of values.

11:44 unmarked graves. Graves were covered with lime plaster to make them visible, so that people would not inadvertently become defiled by touching them (Num. 19:16). But the Pharisees’ outward respectability conceals behavior (“what is inside you” [11:39–41]) that is morally unclean, and there is nothing to warn other people of it.

11:45 you insult us also. Pharisaic behavior and values were governed by the scribal interpretation of the Torah. It is that whole system of interpretation that Jesus is implicitly attacking. In 20:46 he will make the same criticism of scribes that he makes here in 11:43 of Pharisees.

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