Luke 11:46

11:46 unbearable religious demands: This refers to the oral tradition with all its intricate details on living according to torah (God’s instruction in the books of Moses). The oral tradition placed a great burden upon the Jewish people.

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

Luk 11:46. Ἑνὶ, with one) There is an ascending climax, of which the steps are—to touch with one finger, to touch with the fingers, to move with the fingers, to lift with the hand, to lay on the shoulder [Mat 23:4]. The latter they used to compel the people to: the former they shrank back from themselves.

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

Luk_11:46. See on Mat_23:4.

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 11:46 . Jesus fearlessly proceeds to say what He thinks of the class. καὶ ὑμῖν , yes! to you lawyers also woes. Three are specified: heavy burdens (Mat 23:3 ), tombs of the prophets (Mat 23:29-31 ), key of knowledge (Mat 23:14 ). φορτίζετε (with two accusatives only in N.T.), ye lade men with unbearable burdens. προσψαύετε , ye touch, here only in N.T.

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

burdens grievous, &c.--referring not so much to the irksomeness of the legal rites (though they were irksome, Act 15:10), as to the heartless rigor with which they were enforced, and by men of shameless inconsistency.

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 46. Ye lade men with burdens] By insisting on the observance of the traditions of the elders, to which it appears, by the way, they paid no great attention themselves. See Clarke on Mt 23:4.

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

(46) Ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne.—See Note on Mat_23:4.

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

46. burdens grievous to be borne] These burdens of the Oral Law became yearly more and more grievous, till they were enshrined in the boundless pedantry of ceremonialism which fills the Talmud. But even at this period they were an intolerable yoke (Act_15:10), and the lawyers had deserved the Woe pronounced by Isaiah on them “that decree unrighteous decrees, and write grievousness which they have prescribed,” Isa_10:1. “Gradus: digito uno attingere, digitis tangere, digito movere, manu tollere, humero imponere. Hoc cogebant populum; illud ipsi refugiebant.” Bengel.

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.

Truly ye bear witness, that ye allow the deeds of your fathers,.... Or "ye bear witness, and ye allow"; that is, they both witnessed that their fathers killed the prophets, and they consented to what they did, and approved of their actions:

for they indeed killed them; it must be owned, and not their sons:

and ye build their sepulchres; which was a bearing and keeping up a testimony against them, and a continuing a remembrance of their crimes; and which looked as though they approved of them, or otherwise they should have been content to have the prophets lie buried in silence, and not erected stately monuments over them, which seemed to be raised more for the honour of those that put them to death, than of the prophets themselves. Or, whereas they did this under specious pretences of disliking their fathers' sins, which yet secretly they loved, and were of the same wicked disposition against the ministers of the word, and which they would quickly show; this discovered their hypocrisy, and confirmed the character Christ had before given of them; for it follows,

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

46 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.

Ver. 46. See Mat 23:4.

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.

See the notes at Mat 23:4.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

See Poole on "Mat 23:4".

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

Ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. Then the Lord turned to the accomplished Jerusalem scholar, and with withering emphasis pronounced upon his famous and influential order those scathing reproaches which for eighteen centuries have been the woeful inheritance of all hypocritical self-deceivers. How true was the expression, "burdens grievous to be borne," a very superficial study of the Talmud will amply show; for although even the earliest parts of that stupendous compilation were not committed to writing until some time after, yet very much of what we now peruse in those strange, weary treatises existed then in the oral tradition. which it was the life-work of scholars and pedants, like the lawyer to whom Jesus was then speaking, to learn, to expound, and to amplify; and these vexatious and frivolous ordinances which the lawyers and scribes pressed home upon the people with such urgency were often shirked and avoided by the learned and cultured scribe-class as a body.

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

46. φορτία δυσβάστακτα. These burdens of the Oral Law became yearly more and more grievous, till they were enshrined in the boundless pedantry of ceremonialism which fills the Talmud. But even at this period they were an intolerable yoke (Act 15:10), and the lawyers had deserved the Woe pronounced by Isaiah on them “that decree unrighteous decrees, and write grievousness which they have prescribed,” Isa 10:1. “Gradus: digito uno attingere, digitis tangere, digito movere, manu tollere, humero imponere. Hoc cogebant populum; illud ipsi refugiebant.” Bengel.

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.

46.] See on Matt. ver. 4.

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

46. There is a triplet of Woes against the lawyers (vv. 46, 47. 52), as against the Pharisees (42, 43, 44). With this first Woe comp. Mat 23:4. In both passages φορτίον occurs; and, as distinct from βάρος and ὄγκος, it means that which a man is expected to bear (Mat 11:30). But Lk. shows his fondness for cognate words by writing φορτίζετε φορτία, while Mt. has δεσμεύουσιν φορτία. See on 23:46, and comp. Gal 6:2.

δυσβάστακτα. Pro 28:3. The word probably occurs here only in N.T., and has been inserted Mat 23:4 from here. The reference is to the intolerably burdensome interpretations by which the scribes augmented the written Law. They made it far more severe than it was intended to be. explaining every doubtful point in favour of rigorous ritualism.

οὐ προσψαύετε. Touching with a view to removing seems to be meant ; but it may indicate that. while they were rigorous to others. they were evasive themselves. They were scrupulous about their own traditions, but they did not keep the Law. It is not admissible, however. to interpret τοῖς φορτίοις in a different way from φορτία δυσβάστακτα, making the latter refer to traditions. and τοῖς φορτίοις to the Law. Both mean the same, the force of the article being “the φορτία just mentioned.,” Seeing that νομικοί were not neglectful of traditions, τοῖς φορτιοις must mean the Law; and therefore φορτία δυσβάστακτα must have this meaning.

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

Also [και] . Emphatic. "Even or also unto you lawyers, woe." Note the article as in the address to the Pharisees (ver. 43) : You, the lawyers. Ye lade. Compare heavy laden, Mt 11:28.

Grievous to be born [δυσβαστακτα] . Only here and Mt 23:4.

Touch [προσψαυετε] . Only here in New Testament. A technical term in medicine for feeling gently a sore part of the body, or the pulse. Mt 23:4, has kinhsao, move.

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