Luke 11:42-44

11:42 “But woe to you Pharisees! ¹  You give a tenth ²  of your mint, ³  rue, ⁴  and every herb, yet you neglect justice ⁵  and love for God! But you should have done these things without neglecting the others. ⁶  11:43 Woe to you Pharisees! You love the best seats ⁷  in the synagogues ⁸  and elaborate greetings ⁹  in the marketplaces! 11:44 Woe to you! ¹⁰  You are like unmarked graves, and people ¹¹  walk over them without realizing it!” ¹² 

[11:42]  ¹ tn Grk “Woe to you…because you…” The causal particle ὅτι (Joti) has not been translated here for rhetorical effect (and so to the end of this chapter).

[11:42]  ² tn Or “you tithe mint.”

[11:42]  ³ sn These small herbs were tithed with great care (Mishnah, m. Demai 2:1).

[11:42]  ⁴ tn Grk “and rue.” Καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[11:42]  ⁵ sn Justice was a major theme of OT ethics (Mic 6:8; Zech 7:8-10).

[11:42]  ⁶ tn Grk “those”; but this has been translated as “the others” to clarify which are meant.

[11:43]  ⁷ tn Or “seats of honor.” The term here is plural and is not a reference only to the lead “seat of Moses” in the synagogue, but includes the front seats near the ark.

[11:43]  ⁸ sn See the note on synagogues in 4:15.

[11:43]  ⁹ tn Grk “and the greetings.”

[11:44]  ¹³ 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 (Ì^45,75 א B C L ˹ 33 1241 2542 lat sa).

[11:44]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “men.” This is a generic use of ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo"), referring to both males and females.

[11:44]  ¹⁵ 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.