A.T. Robertson Commentary Luke 11:40

"Ye foolish ones, did not he that made the outside make the inside also?" — Luke 11:40 (ASV)

Howbeit (πλην). See Lu 6:24. Instead of devoting so much attention to the outside.

Those things which are within (τα ενοντα). Articular neuter plural participle from ενειμ, 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" (καθαρα). Properly understood, this is not irony and is not Ebionism, but good Christianity (Plummer).