Luke 16:14-18

Words to Pharisees.

Luke 16:14 f. Lk. only. The verses seem introduced by Lk. to indicate that the preceding and succeeding parables were directed against Pharisees. They also illustrate his antipathy to the rich. Poverty and righteousness are identified, as in many of the Psalms. In Lk.'s source the parable of Luke 16:19 may have illustratively followed Luke 16:15.

Luke 16:16. Cf. Matthew 11:12 f.* The coming of John marks a crisis in the religious history of the world; he separates the Law from the Kingdom. And yet the Law has not been abrogated (Luke 16:17, cf. Matthew 5:18 *); what seems subversion, e.g. Christ's teaching on divorce, is really preservation. The underlying teaching is that the Gospel fulfils and perfects the Law.

Luke 16:18 combines the first case of Mark 10:11 * with the second case of Matthew 5:32 *, and may be the original form.