Luke 11:44

11:44 hidden graves in a field: Touching a grave or a dead body rendered a Jew ceremonially unclean. Jesus accused the religious leaders of being a defiling influence rather than a purifying one. This was a strongly offensive accusation (11:45).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 11:44. Οὐαὶ ὑμῖν, ὅτι, κ.τ.λ.) Here the Lord does not add τοῖς Φαρισαίοις, as He had added the words in Luk 11:42. Moreover it seems that, together with His discourse, the countenance (look) also of the Lord was turned towards the lawyers, as we may infer from Luk 11:45, where a certain lawyer feels that the Lord’s saying was spoken to him. The words, γραμματεῖς καὶ Φαρισαῖοι, ὑποκριταὶ, were introduced here from Matthew [Luk 23:27] by some transcribers.[113]—ἄδηλα, hidden [which appear not]) not whitened over [as was the custom in order to warn against defilement].—οὐκ οἴδασιν, they know not) and therefore become defiled.

[113] And through the Harmonies. ADb Lucif. 133 and Rec. Text support the words; except that D and Lucif. omit ὑποκριταί. BCLac Vulg. Memph. omit the words. Tisch. therefore omits them; Lachm. brackets them.—ED. and TRANSL.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk_11:44. See on Mat_23:27. Yet here the comparison is different.

τὰ ἄδηλα] the undiscernible, which are not noticeable as graves in consequence of whitewash (Matt. l.c.) or otherwise.

καί] simplicity of style; the periodic structure would have linked on the clause by means of a relative, but this loose construction adds the point more independently and more emphatically.

περιπατοῦντες] without an article (see the critical remarks): while they walk.

οὐκ οἴδασιν] know it not, that they are walking on graves.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 11:44 . This “woe” is evidently adapted for Gentile use. In Mt. the sepulchres are made conspicuous by white-washing to warn passers-by, and the point is the contrast between the fair exterior and the inner foulness. Here the graves become invisible ( ἄδηλα , in this sense here only in N.T.; cf. 1Co 14:8 ) and the risk is that of being in the presence of what is offensive without knowing. Farrar (C. G. T.) suggests that the reference may be to Tiberias, which was built on the site of an old cemetery.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hypocrites deceive men with an outward show.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

appear not, &c.--As one might unconsciously walk over a grave concealed from view, and thus contract ceremonial defilement, so the plausible exterior of the Pharisees kept people from perceiving the pollution they contracted from coming in contact with such corrupt characters. (See Psa 5:9; Rom 3:13; a different illustration from Mat 23:27).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 44. Ye are as graves which appear not] In Mt 23:27, our Lord tells them that they exactly resembled white-washed tombs: they had no fairness but on the outside: (see the note there:) but here he says they are like hidden tombs, graves which were not distinguished by any outward decorations, and were not elevated above the ground, so that those who walked over them did not consider what corruption was within; so they, under the veil of hypocrisy, covered their iniquities, so that those who had any intercourse or connection with them did not perceive what accomplished knaves they had to do with.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(44) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!—The better MSS. give simply, Woe unto you, Pharisees, (See Note on Mat_23:27.)

Ye are as graves which appear not.—The comparison, though drawn from the same object, presents a different phase of it. In St. Matthew the contrast is between the whitened surface and the decaying bones within. Here the whitewash is worn out, and there is nothing to distinguish the graves, and men walk over them without knowing what lies below the surface.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

44. hypocrites] The first meaning of the word is ‘actors.’

as graves which appear not] Any contact with sepulchres involved Levitical uncleanness. Hence graves and tombs were whitewashed that none might touch them unawares. Perhaps our Lord was alluding to Tiberias, which when it was being built was discovered to be partly on the site of an old unsuspected cemetery; so that every true Jew regarded it as pollution to live there, and Herod could only get it inhabited partly by bribes, partly by threats. In St Matthew—several of whose particulars are differently applied—they are called ‘whited sepulchres, fair outside, polluted within. Here they are unsuspected graves.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he said, woe unto you also, ye lawyers,.... Christ was so far from calling back what he had said or suggested, that he repeats and confirms it, and more particularly names them, and enlarges on their evil practices:

for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers;, Mat 23:4.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

44 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.

Ver. 44. For ye are as graves] As the deep grave keeps the stinking carcase from offending any one’s smell, so doth the dissembling hypocrite so cleanly carry the matter that hardly the sharpest nose, &c.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Sepulchres that appear not. This comparison is partly different from that of Matthew xxiii. 27. For there Christ compares hypocrites to whitened sepulchres, which may be seen and avoided; here he compares them to sepulchres covered with grass, which appear not: yet the comparison, in the main, is the same; that whether they appear or not, still under them is corruption: as the interior of the Pharisees was always full of vice and corruption. (Witham) --- Men that walk, &c. Because they bear with them a fair outside, but are made up of nothing but corruption. (St. Ambrose)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

See Poole on "Mat 23:27", where our Saviour compares the Pharisees to whited sepulchres: here he compares them to sepulchres, but not as there to denote their hypocrisy, appearing white, but having nothing within but rottenness; but upon the account of the contagion of them, and their pollution of others that were not aware of them. To understand our Saviour, we must consider the Levitical law, Num 19:16; where we shall find that not only he that touched a dead body, but he that touched a grave, was legally unclean for seven days. Christ here alludes to that, though he be speaking not of legal, but moral uncleanness. By reason of the law afore mentioned, the Jews took care to whiten their graves, that people might see them, and avoid that danger. To such whited sepulchres Christ compares the Pharisees, Mat 23:27. But some graves might not be whited, or the colour washed off, so as they did not appear, and men could not be aware of them, but ran into a pollution by them. To such graves he in this place compares them. They were men that externally appeared not to be what they were. The Jews took the Pharisees’ for great saints, (the strictest sect of their religion), so strict they were in their duties to their traditions, &c.; which external severity and formal behaviour covered their extortion, and covetousness, and malice, and erroneous opinions, so as people did not suspect them of any such guilt.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. Here and in St. Matthew the same imagery was present in the great Teacher"s mind the whitewashed tombs of a cemetery. But in the report of St. Matthew the Master"s picture drew a sharp contrast between the fair outward appearance of the clean white tomb, and the decaying, loathsome mass of what represented poor humanity within! When Jesus spoke the saying related by St. Luke here, the imagery was still drawn from the graves in a cemetery; but now he compared his hosts and their school of thought to graves, from the wood and stones of which the whitewash was worn off, and passers-by would walk over them, thus touching them and contracting ceremonial defilement, without being conscious what they were walking over and touching. All contact with sepulchres involved ceremonial defilement; hence the fact of their being constantly whitewashed in order to warn passers-by of their presence. This silent warning of the graves has been compared to the leper"s cry, "Unclean, unclean!" with which he warned passers-by of his sad defiling presence. These tombs were whitewashed usually yearly on the fifteenth day of the month Adar (about the beginning of March). Tiberius on the lake was built partly on the site of an old unsuspected cemetery; no true Jew would reside there in consequence.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For ye are as graves which appear not - Probably in speaking this our Lord fixed his eyes on the scribes. As graves which appear not, being overgrown with grass, so that men are not aware, till they stumble upon them, and either hurt themselves, or at least are defiled by touching them. On another occasion Christ compared them to whited sepulchres, fair without, but foul within; Matt. xxiii, 27.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Another woe is here denounced against the Pharisees, for cheating and deceiving the people with an outward show and appearance of piety and religion. They were like graves and sepulchres grown over with grass, which though they held dead men’s bones, yet the putrefaction not outwardly appearing, men walked unawares over them, and so were polluted by them, intimating, that the inward rottenness and filthy corruptions of the Pharisees not appearing unto men, the people were easily deceived by outward shows of Pharisaical sanctity, and so fell into a dangerous imitation of them.

Learn thence, that the great design of hypocrites is to cheat the world with an empty show of piety: the hypocrite’s ambition is to be thought good, not to be so.

Learn, 2. That nothing is more fatally dangerous to the souls of men, and draws persons to an admiration and imitation of hypocritical professors, like their outward shows of sanctity, and their extraordinary appearances of devotion and piety. This it was that gained the Pharisees such a veneration and esteem among the people, that it became a proverb among them. "If but two men went to heaven, the one must be a Pharisee." But their counterfeit piety being double iniquity, they did receive for it double damnation.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

44. [ὑποκριταί.] The first meaning of the word is ‘actors.’

ὡς τὰ μνημεῖα τὰ ἄδηλα. Any contact with sepulchres involved Levitical uncleanness. Hence graves and tombs were whitewashed that none might touch them unawares. Perhaps our Lord was alluding to Tiberias, which when it was being built was discovered to be partly on the site of an old unsuspected cemetery; so that every true Jew regarded it as pollution to live there, and Herod could only get it inhabited partly by bribes, partly by threats. In St Matthew—several of whose particulars are differently applied—they are called ‘whited scpulchres,’ fair outside, polluted within. Here they are unsuspected graves.

οὐκ οἴδασι. Sc. περιπατοῦντες, ‘Know not that they are walking on them.’

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

44.] See Matt. ver. 27;—but here the point of comparison is different. There (see note) the sepulchres are whited, that men may not pass over them unawares: and the comparison is to the outside fairness, and inside abomination. Here, the graves are not seen, and men thinking they are walking on clean ground are defiled by passing over them. Perhaps the difference of expression may have been occasioned by the greater wealth and splendour and display of the Pharisees in the metropolis, where Mat_23 was spoken.

οἱ ἄνθρ. οἱ περ. ἐπ., the men who walk over them …; οἱ ἄνθρ. περ. ἐπ., men, when they walk over them.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

44. ἐστὲ ὡς τὰ μνημεῖα τὰ ἄδηλα. “Whosoever in the open field toucheth a grave shall be unclean seven days” (Num 19:16). Hence the Jews were accustomed to whitewash such graves to make them conspicuous. People mixed freely with Pharisees, believing them to be good men. and unconsciously became infect with their vices, just as they sometimes walked over a hidden grave and were polluted without knowing it. In Mat 23:27 the Pharisees are compared to the whitewashed graves, which look clean and are inwardly foul.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tombs which appear not [τα μνημεια τα αδηλα] . Lit., the tombs, the unseen ones. The word adhlov, unapparent, occurs only here and 1Co 14:8, of the trumpet giving an uncertain sound.

That walk over [περιπατουντες] . The participle, and without the article; and therefore better, as they walk; walk about [περι] on their daily business. In Matthew the sepulchres are whitened, that men may see them and avoid ceremonial defilement. Here they are not seen, and men walking on them are unconsciously defiled. See on Mt 23:27.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.