Luke 11:40

Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(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.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:37-54 We should all look to our hearts, that they may be cleansed and new-created; and while we attend to the great things of the law and of the gospel, we must not neglect the smallest matter God has appointed. When any wait to catch something out of our mouths, that they may insnare us, O Lord, give us thy prudence and thy patience, and disappoint their evil purposes. Furnish us with such meekness and patience that we may glory in reproaches, for Christ's sake, and that thy Holy Spirit may rest upon us.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ye fools - How unwise and wicked is your conduct! The word denotes not only "want of wisdom," but also wickedness. Compare Psalm 14:1; Proverbs 13:19; Proverbs 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?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

40. that which is without, &c.—that is, He to whom belongs the outer life, and right to demand its subjection to Himself—is the inner man less His?

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 11:39"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire 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 Deuteronomy 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 2 Samuel 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.

Geneva Study Bible

Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Luke 11:40. Jesus now shows how irrational (ἄφρονες) this is from the religious point of view.

οὐχ ὁ ποιήσας κ.τ.λ.] 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 τὸ ἔξωθεν is the category to which belongs τὸ ἔξωθεν τ. ποτ. κ. τ. πίν., Luke 11:39, and τὸ ἔσωθεν the category to which belongs τὸ ἔσωθεν ὑμῶν, Luke 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 τὸ ἔξωθεν τοῦ ποτηρίου, Luke 11:39, Others limit them to the materiale patinae et poculi and the cibum et potum, which τὸ ἔσωθεν ὑμῶν, Luke 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 τὸ ἔσωθεν ὑμῶν, Luke 11:39, is opposed to the usus loquendi of the words ἐποίησε and ποιήσας.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 11:40. ἄφρονες, stupid men! not so strong a word as μωροὶ (Matthew 23:17).—οὐχ ὁ ποιήσας, 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 ποιήσας 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).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

40. that which is within also] See Mark 7:18-19, which contains our Lord’s distinctest utterance in abrogation of the Levitic Law— “This He said ...making all meats clean.”

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 11:40. Ὁ ποιήσας, He who made) God.—καὶ τὸ) 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].

Luke 11:40