Luke 12:1

In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

XII.

(1) In the mean time.—More literally, When the myriads of the multitude were gathered together. The words must be taken in immediate sequence with the close of the previous chapter. The dispute that had begun in the Pharisee’s house, and had been carried on by the lawyers and scribes as they followed Jesus from it, attracted notice. As on the occasion of the “unwashed hands” (Matthew 15:10), He appeals from the scribes to the people, or rather to His own disciples, scattered among the people. The scene may be compared, in the vividness of its description, with the picture of the crowd at Capernaum (Mark 2:1-2).

Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees.—This again was obviously an expression that had become almost proverbial in our Lord’s lips (Matthew 16:6). Here, however, the leaven is more definitely specified as “hypocrisy”—i.e., unreality, the simulation, conscious or unconscious, of a holiness which we do not possess. It does not follow that the Pharisees were deliberate impostors of the Tartuffe type. With them, as with other forms of religionism, it was doubtless true that the worst hypocrisy was that which did not know itself to be hypocritical. (See Note on Matthew 6:2.)

Benson Commentary

Luke 12:1. When there were gathered together an innumerable multitude — Επισυναχθεισων των μυριαδων, literally, myriads (that is, tens of thousands, how many is not said) being gathered together. By this it appears, that though the scribes and Pharisees thought to accuse him, and bring him into disrepute, the people that were not under the influence of their prejudices and jealousies still admired him, attended on him, and did him honour. Nay, it seems the more these learned hypocrites strove to drive them from Christ, the more they flocked to him; which, doubtless, vexed them no little. It is not improbable, however, that this vast assemblage of people might be partly owing to an apprehension, either that Christ might meet with some ill usage among so many of his enemies, or that he would say or do something peculiarly remarkable on the occasion. Be this as it may, it is evident that the people could bear reproof better than the Pharisees; for though, in the morning, when they were gathered thick together, (Luke 11:29,) he had severely reproved them, as an evil generation that sought a sign, yet in the afternoon they renewed their attendance on him. It is pleasing to see people thus forward to hear the word of God, and venture upon inconvenience and danger, rather than miss an opportunity of being instructed in divine things. He began to say unto his disciples, Beware of the leaven, &c. — The caution given in this and the two following verses, and the subsequent exhortations contained in this paragraph, are to the same purpose with others that we have had in Matthew and Mark, upon other the like occasions. See on Matthew 16:6; Matthew 10:26-32; Mark 8:15. For it is reasonable to suppose, that our blessed Lord preached the same doctrines, and pressed the same duties, at several times; and that some of his evangelists have recorded them as he delivered them at one time, and others as he taught them at another. It is here said, that he addressed his disciples first of all; for they were his peculiar charge, his family, his school, and therefore he particularly warned them as his beloved sons. They made a greater profession of religion than others, and hypocrisy therein was the sin of which they were most in danger. And as they were to preach to others, if they should prevaricate, corrupt the word of God, and deal deceitfully with it, and with the souls of men, their hypocrisy would be more criminal than that of others. Christ’s disciples, Judas excepted, were, we have reason to believe, the best men in the world, and yet we see they needed to be cautioned against hypocrisy. What need, then, have we to be jealous of ourselves lest we should fall into this sin! Christ gave this caution to his disciples in the hearing of this great multitude of people, rather than privately, to add the greater weight to it, and to let the world know that he would not countenance any sin, and especially hypocrisy, even in those he loved best.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:1-12 A firm belief of the doctrine of God's universal providence, and the extent of it, would satisfy us when in peril, and encourage us to trust God in the way of duty. Providence takes notice of the meanest creatures, even of the sparrows, and therefore of the smallest interests of the disciples of Christ. Those who confess Christ now, shall be owned by him in the great day, before the angels of God. To deter us from denying Christ, and deserting his truths and ways, we are here assured that those who deny Christ, though they may thus save life itself, and though they may gain a kingdom by it, will be great losers at last; for Christ will not know them, will not own them, nor show them favour. But let no trembling, penitent backslider doubt of obtaining forgiveness. This is far different from the determined enmity that is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, which shall never be forgiven, because it will never be repented of.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In the mean time - While he was discoursing with the scribes and Pharisees, as recorded in the last chapter.

An innumerable multitude - The original word is "myriad's," or ten thousands. It is used here to signify that there was a great crowd or collection of people, who were anxious to hear him. Multitudes were attracted to the Saviour's ministry, and it is worthy of remark that he never had more to hear him than when he was most faithful and severe in his reproofs of sinners. Men's consciences are on the side of the faithful reprover of their sins; and though they deeply feel the reproof, yet they will still respect and hear him that reproves.

To his disciples first of all - This does not mean that his disciples were, before all others, to avoid hypocrisy, but that this was the "first" or chief thing of which they were to beware. The meaning is this: "He said to his disciples, "Above all things beware," etc.

The leaven - See the notes at Matthew 16:6.

Which is hypocrisy - See the notes at Matthew 7:5. Hypocrisy is like leaven or yeast, because:

1. It may exist without being immediately detected. Leaven mixed in flour is not known until it produces its effects.

2. It is insinuating. Leaven will soon pervade the whole mass. So hypocrisy will, if undetected and unremoved, soon pervade all our exercises and feelings.

3. It is swelling. It puffs us up, and fills us with pride and vanity. No man is more proud than the hypocrite, and none is more odious to God. When Jesus cautions them to beware of "the leaven of the Pharisees," he means that they should be cautious about imbibing their spirit and becoming like them. The religion of Jesus is one of sincerity, of humility, of an entire want of disguise. The humblest man is the best Christian, and he who has the least disguise is most like his Master.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 12

Lu 12:1-12. Warning against Hypocrisy.

1-3. meantime—in close connection, probably, with the foregoing scene. Our Lord had been speaking out more plainly than ever before, as matters were coming to a head between Him and His enemies, and this seems to have suggested to His own mind the warning here. He had just Himself illustriously exemplified His own precepts.

his disciples first of all—afterwards to "the multitudes" (Lu 12:54).

covered—from the view.Luke 12:1-12 Christ teacheth his disciples to avoid hypocrisy, and

not to be fearful in publishing his doctrine.

Luke 12:13-21 He refuseth to be judge in a civil cause, and warns the

people to beware of covetousness by the parable of a

rich man, who boasted himself in his multiplied stores.

Luke 12:22-32 He exhorteth, not to be over anxious about the

provisions of this life; but to seek the kingdom of God,

Luke 12:33,34 to lay up treasure in heaven by giving alms,

Luke 12:35-40 and to be always ready against our Lord’s coming.

Luke 12:41-48 By the parable of a good and a wicked steward he

showeth the duty of his ministers in particular.

Luke 12:49-53 He foretells the divisions on account of the gospel,

Luke 12:54-56 reproveth the people for not discerning the times,

Luke 12:57-59 and showeth the danger of neglecting the means of

reconciliation offered them.

We read of such a caution given to the disciples, Matthew 16:6. But that is not the same caution with this; there he compared their doctrine to leaven, for the aptness of it to infect others; here he compares their lives to the same thing, and for the same reason: this appeareth to be the same sense of our Saviour here, because he saith their leaven is hypocrisy. There are none so like to do mischief to the better sort of people, as those that, under a mask and exterior disguise of severity and strictness, indulge themselves in corrupt affections and vicious inclinations.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

In the mean time,.... While Christ was discoursing with the Pharisees, and they were using him in the vilest manner, throwing out their invectives against him in order to draw off the people from him:

when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people. There were "myriads" of them, as in the original text, and a myriad is ten thousand; the meaning is, that there were several thousands of them:

insomuch that they trod one upon another; striving to get near to Christ, either to see his person, or to hear his discourses; and particularly, what he would say to the Pharisees, who had fallen upon him in so violent a manner:

he began to say unto his disciples first of all; he directed his discourse not to the Pharisees, nor to the multitude, but to his disciples in the first place; at least, chiefly to them; for whom he had a regard, who were his dear friends, and were to be the preachers of his Gospel every where; and therefore it was proper that they should be aware of the dissembling arts of the Scribes and Pharisees, and have their minds fortified against approaching dangers, persecutions, and death itself: the last phrase, "first of all", is omitted in the Vulgate Latin version; and by all the Oriental versions, it is joined to the next clause, and read thus, "especially", or

before all things, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy; expressed both in their doctrines, and in their lives; which carried a great show of piety and holiness, but was in appearance only: very aptly is hypocrisy in doctrine and manners, compared to leaven; which at first is small and little, but gradually increases and spreads itself, and lies hid and covered, and is not easily discerned, nor its influence and effects observed; but in time, it infects and corrupts the whole of men's principles and practices, and puffs and swells them up with a vain opinion of themselves; and when our Lord bids his disciples beware of it, his meaning not only is, that they take heed that they were not infected with it themselves, but that they were not imposed upon by the specious pretences of these artful and designing men.

Geneva Study Bible

In {1} the mean time, when there were gathered together {a} an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

(1) The faithful teachers of God's word, who are appointed by him for his people, must both take good heed of those who corrupt the purity of doctrine with smooth speech, and also take pains through the help of God to set forth sincere doctrine, openly and without fear.

(a) Literally, ten thousand of people, a certain number which is given for an uncertain number.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Luke 12:1. During what was narrated in Luke 11:53-54 (ἐν οἷς), therefore while the scribes and Pharisees are pressing the Lord after He has left the house with captious questions, the crowd, without number, had gathered together (ἐπισυναχθ.), and now at various intervals He holds the following discourse, primarily indeed addressing His disciples (πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ, Luke 12:22), yet turning at times expressly to the people (Luke 12:15 ff., Luke 12:54 ff.), and in general in such a manner (Luke 12:41) that the multitude also was intended to hear the whole, and in its more general reference to apply it to themselves. With the exception of the interlude, Luke 12:13-21, the discourse is original only in this way, that very diverse, certainly in themselves original, fragments of the Logia are put together; but when the result is compared with the analogous procedure of Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew is found to be the more original of the two. Among the longer discourses in Luke none is so much of a mosaic as the present. Although the historical situation of Luke 12:1 is not invented, yet by the designed and plainly exaggerated bringing together of a great multitude of people it is confused. It would be too disproportioned an apparatus merely to illustrate the contents of Luke 12:2 f. (Weizsäcker).

τῶν μυριάδων] The article denotes the innumerable assembled mass of the people (very hyperbolically, comp. Acts 21:20).

ὥστε καταπατ. ἀλλήλ.] οὕτως ἐφιέμενοι ἕκαστος πλησιάζειν αὐτῷ, Theophylact.

ἤρξατο] He began, pictorial style.

πρῶτον] before all, is to be taken with προσέχετε, comp. Luke 9:61, Luke 10:5; Gersdorf, p. 107. It does not belong to what precedes (Luther, Bengel, Knapp, Schulz, Scholz, Paulus, Lachmann, Tischendorf), in connection with which it would be absolutely superfluous, although A C D א, etc., do take it thus. Ewald well says, “As a first duty.”

τῆς ζύμης] see on Matthew 16:6; Mark 8:15. Here also is not meant the vice of hypocrisy (the usual interpretation), because in that case the next clause would have ἡ ὑπόκρισις (with the article); but it glances back to the subject of the previous conversation at the table,[152] and means: the pernicious doctrines and principles. Of these He says: their nature is hypocrisy; therein lies what constitutes the reason of the warning (ἥτις, quippe quae).

[152] Therefore not to be interpreted of the Judaizers of the apostolic times (Weizsäcker, p. 364); just as little is Luke 16:14.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 12:1-12. Exhortation to fearless utterance, addressed to the disciples (cf. Matthew 10:17-33).—ἐν οἷς, in these circumstances, i.e., while the assaults of the Pharisees and scribes on Jesus were going on (Luke 11:53).—μυριάδων: a hyperbolical expression for an “innumerable multitude,” pointing, if the words are to be taken in earnest, to the largest crowd mentioned anywhere in the Gospels. Yet this immense gathering is not accounted for: it does not appear where or why it collected, but the ἐν οἶς suggests that the people had been drawn together by the encounter between Jesus and His foes.—πρῶτον from its position naturally qualifies προσέχετε, implying that hypocrisy was the first topic of discourse (Meyer). But it may also be taken with μαθητὰς, as implying that, while Jesus meant to speak to the crowd, He addressed Himself in the first place to His disciples (Schanz, J. Weiss, Holtzmann). Bornemann points out that while Mt. places τρῶτον after imperatives, Lk. places it also before, as in Luke 9:61, Luke 10:5.—ἀπὸ τῆς ζύμης τ. φ.: this is the logion reported in Matthew 16:6 and Mark 8:15, connected there with the demand for a sign; here to be viewed in the light of the discourse in the Pharisee’s house (Luke 11:37 f.). In the two first Gospels the warning expresses rather Christ’s sense of the deadly character of the Pharisaic leaven; here it is a didactic utterance for the guidance of disciples as witnesses of the truth.—ἥτις ἐστὶν ὑπόκρισις: not in Mt. and Mk.; might be taken as an explanatory gloss, but probably to be viewed as part of the logion. Hypocrisy, the leading Pharisaic vice = wearing a mask of sanctity to hide an evil heart; but from what follows apparently here to be taken in a wider sense so as to include dissimulation, hiding conviction from fear of man as in Galatians 2:13 (so J. Weiss in Meyer). In Lk.’s reports our Lord’s sayings assume a form adapted to the circumstances of the writer’s time. Hypocrisy in the sense of Galatians 2:13 was the temptation of the apostolic age, when truth could not be spoken and acted without risk.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Luke 12:1-12. The Duty of bold Sincerity and Trust in God.

1. when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people] Rather, -when the myriads of the multitude had suddenly assembled. It is evident that the noise of this disgraceful attack on our Lord had been heard. This scene was as it were the watershed of our Lord’s ministry in Galilee. At this period He had excited intense opposition among the religious authorities, but was still beloved and revered by the people. They therefore flocked together for His protection, and their arrival hushed the unseemly and hostile vehemence of the Pharisees.

they trode one upon another] Literally, “trod one another down.”

he began to say] The words seem to imply a specially solemn and important discourse.

unto his disciples first of all, Beware] Rather, to His disciples, Beware first of all of, &c.

the leaven of the Pharisees] See for comment Matthew 16:12; Mark 8:15.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 12:1. Ἐν οἷς) [“in the meantime”] during these things.—τῶν) of those who were wont to be present.—μυριάδων, myriads) Not merely the adjective μύριοι, but this substantive μυρίαδες, is wont to be used of a large indefinite number.—πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς, unto His disciples) The rest were not yet able to comprehend this doctrine.—πρῶτον, first of all) To the disciples first: then, after one or two interruptions and questions, to the multitude of people also: Luke 12:54.—ὑπόκρισις, hypocrisy) This charge is afterwards brought also in the case of the people: Luke 12:56. Hypocrisy, like a leaven, infects the whole man, and through the one man infects many. Hypocrisy is either when evil is covered over with a good veil by evil men, or when good is in an evil manner (improperly) covered by good men. This latter kind of hypocrisy is what is denoted in the present instance. Comp. the following verses.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 1-59. - The Lord, after leaving the Pharisee's house, speaks at great length to a numerous crowd waiting for him, addressing his words principally to his own disciples. The foregoing scene (ch. 11.), when the Master addressed his bitter reproaches to the learned and cultivated of the great Pharisee party, took place in a private house belonging to an apparently wealthy member of this, the dominant class. The name of the large village or provincial town where all this happened is unknown. The crowd who had been listening to the great Teacher before he accepted the Pharisee's invitation still lingered around the house. Many from the adjoining villages, hearing that Jesus was in this place and was publicly teaching, had arrived; so, when the Lord came out from the guest-chamber into the street or market-place, he found a vast crowd - literally, myriads of the multitude - waiting for him. The words descriptive of the crowd in ver. I indicate that a vast concourse was gathered together. His fame then was very great, though his popularity was on the wane. Verse 1. - Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. In dwelling on this and similar expressions used by our Lord in respect to the life and work of this famous section of the people who were generally so bitterly hostile to him and his teaching, we must not condemn their whole character with a condemnation more sweeping than the Master's. Utterly mistaken in their views of life and in their estimate of God, whom they professed to know, our Lord here scarcely charges them with dell-berate hypocrisy. These mistaken men dreamed that they possessed a holiness which was never theirs; unconscious hypocrites they doubtless were, without possibly even suspecting it themselves. Luke 12:1

Vincent's Word Studies

An innumerable multitude (τῶν μυριάδων τοῦ ὄχλου)

The word μυρίας strictly means a number of ten thousand. It is our word myriad. Hence, generally, of any countless number.

First of all

Many connect this with what follows: "first of all beware," etc.

Leaven

See on Matthew 13:33.

Which (ἥτις)

Classifying the leaven: which belongs to the category of hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy

See on hypocrites, Matthew 23:13.