Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 11:40
[Ye] fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?
40. that which is within also ] See Mar 7:18-19, which contains our Lord’s distinctest utterance in abrogation of the Levitic Law “This He said …making all meats clean. ”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ye fools – How unwise and wicked is your conduct! The word denotes not only want of wisdom, but also wickedness. Compare Psa 14:1; Pro 13:19; Pro 14:9. Your conduct is not merely foolish, but it is a cloak for sin – designed to countenance wickedness.
Did not he … – Did not God, who made the body, make also the soul? You Pharisees take great pains to cleanse the body, under a pretence of pleasing God. Did he not also make the mind? and is it not of as much importance that that should be pure, as that the body should?
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 40. Did not he that made that which is without] Did not the maker of the dish form it so, both outwardly and inwardly, as to answer the purpose for which it was made? And can it answer this purpose without being clean in the inside as well as on the outside? God has made you such, both as to your bodies and souls, as he intended should show forth his praise; but can you think that the purpose of God can be accomplished by you while you only attend to external legal purifications, your hearts being full of rapine and wickedness? How unthinking are you to imagine that God can be pleased with this outward purification, when all within is unholy!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
40. that which is without,&c.that is, He to whom belongs the outer life, and right todemand its subjection to Himselfis the inner man less His?
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without,…. That is, made clean that which is without, or the outside of the cup and platter;
make that which is within also? does not he make the inside clean likewise? whoever washes a cup or platter, but washes and makes clean the inside, as well as the outside? and so ye who are so very careful to have your cups and platters clean, should be as careful what you put in them, that they are clean also; not only that they are clean according to the law, in a ceremonial sense, but in a moral sense, that they are honestly and lawfully got. The word,
, rendered “made” and “make”, answers to the Hebrew word
, which sometimes signifies to beautify and adorn, and to cleanse, and remove away filth, as by paring nails, and washing the feet; so in De 21:12 it is said of a captive woman that a man takes into his house for his wife, among other things, , “she shall make her nails”; that is, “pare” them, as we render it, and remove the filth from them. Again, in 2Sa 19:24 it is said of Mephibosheth, that from the day king David departed, he had not,
, “made his feet”; that is, as the Targum renders it,
, “he had not washed his feet”; and so other Jewish interpreters understand it, either of his having not washed his feet, much less his whole body w, or of not having pared his nails x; and so the Vulgate Latin renders it, that he came to meet the king “with unwashen feet”; which may serve to illustrate and confirm the sense before given: though interpreters generally understand this of God, as the maker of the soul, as well as of the body; and therefore the purity of the former should be regarded, as well as that of the latter.
w R. David Kimchi and Rabbenu Isaiah in loc. Vid Jarchi in ib. x R. Levi ben Gersom in ib.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Howbeit (). See Lu 6:24. Instead of devoting so much attention to the outside.
Those things which are within ( ). Articular neuter plural participle from , to be in, common verb. This precise phrase only here in the N.T. though in the papyri, and it is not clear what it means. Probably, give as alms the things within the dishes, that is have inward righteousness with a brotherly spirit and the outward becomes “clean” (). Properly understood, this is not irony and is not Ebionism, but good Christianity (Plummer).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “Ye fools,” (aphrones) “0 foolish ones,” or stupid acting ones, thoughtless creatures, Isa 55:8-9. The word is just slightly more courteous than “morons.”
2) “Did not he that made that which is without,” (ouch ho poiesas to echothon) “Did not the one who made the outside,” the exterior, the outer, visible parts of the body, for which you all have invented a pre-meal washing ceremony, Mar 7:6-9.
3) “Make that which is within also?” (kai to esothen epoiesen) “Also make the inside?” the heart, soul, and mind of man. The idea is, He did, did He not? Does the Creator not know and reveal that both the inner and outer man needs cleansing, the whole man? Joh 3:3; Joh 3:5. To have outward pious religious ceremony and pomp, without a new nature, is base hypocrisy, that is not able to grant one entrance to heaven, Mat 5:20.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(40) Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without . .?The question is peculiar to St. Luke, and implies a latent parabolic application of the previous words. Outward, positive ceremonial law, ordering the cleansing of the outside of the cup and of the platter, the eternal moral law requiring truth in the inward parts,these had, to say the least, the same Maker, and one was not to be neglected for the other.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
40. Without within also If the Creator require a clean body, will not he also require a clean soul?
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“You foolish ones, did not he who made the outside make the inside also?”
Then He gives a gentle rebuke. Such an attitude is foolish for God created all things. To be concerned about the outside and not the inside is to neglect half of creation, and God is equally concerned about both. Indeed He is more concerned about the inward than the outward. For if the inward is right, the outward will soon conform. (The purpose of the laws of cleanliness was in order to encourage an attitude of clean living from the heart).
“You foolish ones.” The idea of that those who do not respond to God and His word are ‘fools’ is mentioned in the book of Proverbs over seventy five times, and in the Psalms over a dozen times, and the behaviour of the fool is well illustrated there, and especially described in Psalms 14. It was a word that among the Jews pointed to one who took little regard of God and his requirements. To these men it should have been a wake-up call. They were behaving as if there were no God.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Luk 11:40. Ye fools, &c. “What a silly as well as hypocritical part do you herein act, as if you could impose upon the all-seeing and heart-searching God, who desires truth in the inward parts? Did not he create the soul as well as the body? and can you suppose, that he is pleased with your ceremonious washings of the flesh, and takes no notice of the impurity of your spirits?”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Luk 11:40 . Jesus now shows how irrational ( ) this is from the religious point of view.
. . .] did not He (God) who made that which is without ( i.e. everything external in general, res externas ) also make that which is within ( res internas )? How absurd, therefore, for you to cleanse what belongs to the rebus externis , the outside of the cup, but allow that which belongs to the rebus internis , your inner life and effort, to be full of robbery, etc.; that ye do not devote to the one and to the other (therefore to both ) the cleansing care that is due to God’s work! Consequently is the category to which belongs . . . . ., Luk 11:39 , and the category to which belongs , Luk 11:39 . In opposition to the context, others limit the words to the relation of body and spirit (Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, and many others, Bornemann also), which is not permitted by , Luk 11:39 , Others limit them to the materiale patinae et poculi and the cibum et potum , which , Luk 11:39 , does not allow (in opposition to Starck, Notae select . p. 91, and Wolf, Paulus also and Bleek). Kuinoel (following Elsner and Kypke) makes the sentence affirmative: “ Non qui exterius purgavit , pocula patinasque, (eadem opera) etiam interius purgavit , cibos;” but this view, besides being open to the objection drawn from , Luk 11:39 , is opposed to the usus loquendi of the words and .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
40 Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?
Ver. 40. Did not he that made, &c. ] Ought he not, therefore, to be served with both? It is the hidden man of the heart that he most regardeth; the law of the mind that he would have chiefly observed.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Luk 11:40 . , stupid men! not so strong a word as (Mat 23:17 ). , etc.: either a question or an assertion. As an assertion = he that makes the outside (as it should be) does not thereby also make the inside: it is one thing to cleanse the outside, another, etc. On this view has a pregnant sense = purgare , which Kypke and others (Bornemann dissenting) claim for it in this place. As a question the reference will be to God, and the sense: did not the Maker of the world make the inside of things as well as the outside? Why therefore lay so exclusive stress on the latter? The outside and inside are variously taken as body and spirit (Theophy., Euthy., etc.), vessel and contents (Wolf, Hofmann), vessel and human spirit (Bengel).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Ye fools. Fools = senseless ones. Greek. aphron. The first of eleven occurances.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Luk 11:40. , He who made) God.- ) On this account, both must be attended to. Cleanness of the manner of life [answering to the vessel] becomes a clean heart [answering to the interior or inward part].
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
fools: Luk 12:20, Luk 24:25, Psa 14:1, Psa 75:4, Psa 75:5, Psa 94:8, Pro 1:22, Pro 8:5, Jer 5:21, Mat 23:17, Mat 23:26, 1Co 15:36
did: Gen 1:26, Gen 2:7, Num 16:22, Psa 33:15, Psa 94:9, Zec 12:1, Heb 12:9
Reciprocal: Psa 45:13 – all glorious Pro 30:12 – that are Isa 26:21 – also Isa 55:7 – his thoughts Eze 13:3 – foolish Zec 11:15 – a foolish Mat 5:20 – exceed Mat 12:33 – General Mat 23:25 – for 2Co 7:1 – let Jam 4:8 – purify 1Pe 3:4 – the hidden
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
0
It is true that God made the outward man and wants him to be kept clean. But he also made the inner man and requires that he be kept clean, which means that he should not be defiled with pride of tradition and with acts of hypocrisy.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?
[Ye fools.] A word very common to the nation. “Rabban Jochanan Ben Zacchai said to the Baithuseans, Ye fools; how prove you this?” “Esau said, Cain was a fool. Pharaoh said, Esau was a fool. Haman said, Pharaoh was a fool. Gog and Magog will say, They were all fools that are gone before us.” Hence that common phrase, O thou most foolish thing in all the world.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Luk 11:40. Ye fools, etc. The folly of such a contradiction is shown. Such a partial cleansing is no cleansing: all such religious acts are supposed to have reference to God, to holiness before Him; since He made the inside as well as the outside, the ceremonial purification of the latter without the real sanctification of the former is folly as well as wickedness.