Luke 11:44-45

11:44 Woe to you! You are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it!”

11:45 One of the experts in religious law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things you insult us too.”


tc Most mss (A [D] W Θ Ψ Ë13 Ï it) have “experts in the law and Pharisees, hypocrites” after “you,” but this looks like an assimilation to the parallel in Matt 23:25, 27, 29. The shorter reading has earlier attestation from a variety of reliable mss (Ì45,75 א B C L Ë1 33 1241 2542 lat sa).

tn Grk “men.” This is a generic use of ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo"), referring to both males and females.

sn In Judaism to come into contact with the dead or what is associated with them, even without knowing it, makes one unclean (Num 19:11-22; Lev 21:1-3; Mishnah, m. Demai 2:3). To Pharisees, who would have been so sensitive about contracting ceremonial uncleanness, it would have been quite a stinging rebuke to be told they caused it.

sn That is, an expert in the interpretation of the Mosaic law. They worked closely with the Pharisees.

tn For this term, see Matt 22;6; Luke 18:32; Acts 14:5; 1 Thess 2:2.