Luke 11:52 Fun

I am now posting daily on X.com (formerly Twitter), but under a new user name, @GagliardiGary (Click here to access). These verse-specific Fun posts, with additional Drama posts will only be posted there and free to everyone. They will also be much shorter and pithier. These posts will be under the hashtags: #christswords #jesushumor #jesusdrama.

The translators missed the whole point of Luke 11:52 and created a translation that makes no sense if we think about it. We cannot blame pastors for not quoting Jesus more in their sermons when this is the type of verses they are given. Here is the NIV translation of Luke 11:52: And, of course, they miss Jesus’s humor and meaning.

NIV: Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”

The whole point of this verse appears to be to attack (“woe to you”) the “experts in the law, but what does this attack mean? The experts in the law of Jesus’s time spoke taught the Law. Pharisees were legalists. They ran religious courts. They challenged people on the basis of the law. How did they take away a “key” to it? What key did they have?

This misses the point from the beginning. "Woe" is from a Greek exclamation of grief, translated as "woe" or "alas," but Jesus uses it as a signal that he is using humor. It works like the Yiddish “oy-vey,” which is an expression of both sadness and humor. In English we might say cynically "sadly for you" or "boo-hoo to you." More about this word in this article on Jesus’s exaggeration.

The humor of the rest of the verse is lost, because the translation reverses the meaning of the phrase, “taken away the key to knowledge.” The word translated as "key" means "latch" or "door bar." The verb translated as "taken away" primarily means "lift" though it can also mean "remove." Lifting a latch or a door bar, unlocks the door. It doesn’t keep it locked. If the door was locked, no one could “enter.” This verse starts with praise for the lawyers. A classic example of a comic setup.

Though they open the books of the Law, they don't "enter" them. The word translated as "enter," also means "to come into mind." They didn't let the Law penetrate their minds. This contradicts the initial praise in the verse.

The final setup is by "and those entering?" To which the punchline is "You hinder!" This is the present tense, something they are doing now, not the past. Who is entering? Jesus and his followers. Their opponents wouldn’t need to “hinder” them if the “knowledge” was still locked.

What does the verse really say?

Listeners Heard: Boo-hoo, for you… these lawyers! because you lifted the latch of this means of knowing. You yourselves did not enter and those entering? You hinder!