Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 11:52

"Woe unto you lawyers! for ye took away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." — Luke 11:52 (ASV)

Woe unto you, lawyers!—The “woe” in this case is uttered against those who were, by their very calling, the professed interpreters of the Law. Its form rests on the fact that each scribe or “doctor of the law,” in the full sense of the term, was symbolically admitted to his office by the delivery of a key.

His work was to enter with that key into the treasure-chambers of the house of the interpreter and to bring forth from there things new and old (Matthew 13:52).

The sin of the “lawyers” of that time—the “divines,” as we would call them—was that they claimed a monopoly on the power to interpret, yet they did not exercise that power.

Wearisome minuteness, dishonest and demoralizing casuistry, and fantastic legends—these took the place of a free and reverential study of the meaning of the sacred Books.

Those who “were entering in” correspond to the souls not far from the kingdom of God, who were waiting for the consolation of Israel and pressing with eagerness toward the spiritual meaning of the Law and Prophet.

Such, at one stage of his life, must have been the Evangelist himself.

It will be noted that this is the third occurrence of the word “woe” in Luke's Gospel (see Notes on Luke 8:16; Luke 11:33). It is obvious that the passage, as a whole, sheds light on the promise of the “keys” of the kingdom made to Peter (see Note on Matthew 16:19).