Luke 11:52-54

11:52 Woe to you experts in religious law! You have taken away ¹  the key to knowledge! You did not go in yourselves, and you hindered ²  those who were going in.”

11:53 When he went out from there, the experts in the law ³  and the Pharisees began to oppose him bitterly, ⁴  and to ask him hostile questions ⁵  about many things, 11:54 plotting against ⁶  him, to catch ⁷  him in something he might say.

[11:52]  ¹ sn You have taken away the key to knowledge is another stinging rebuke. They had done the opposite of what they were trying to do.

[11:52]  ² tn Or “you tried to prevent.”

[11:53]  ³ tn Or “the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 5:21.

[11:53]  ⁴ tn Or “terribly.”

[11:53]  ⁵ tn For this term see L&N 33.183.

[11:54]  ⁵ tn Grk “lying in ambush against,” but this is a figurative extension of that meaning.

[11:54]  ⁶ tn This term was often used in a hunting context (BDAG 455 s.v. θηρεύω; L&N 27.30). Later examples of this appear in Luke 20.