Luke 12:1-3

: The assured Success of their Ministry, and the Fall of their Adversaries. “ In the meantime, 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. 2. For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. 3. Therefore, whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the house-tops. ” The words ἐν οἷς, on which, establish a close connection between the following scene and that which precedes. This gathering, which is formed as in the previous scene (Luke 11:29), is readily explained by the general circumstances those of a journey. When Jesus had arrived at a village, some time was needed to make the population aware of it; and soon it flocked to Him en masse. ῎Ηρξατο, He began, imparts a solemn character to the words which follow. Jesus, after having spoken severely to His adversaries, now addresses the little company of His disciples, lost among that immense throng, in language full of boldness. It is the cry onwards, with the promise of victory. The words, to the disciples, are thus the key to the discourse following. The word πρῶτον, before all, should evidently be connected with the verb which follows, beware ye. Comp. Luke 9:61; Luke 10:5.

Meyer concludes, from the absence of the article before ὑπόκρισις, that the leaven is not hypocrisy itself, but a style of teaching which has the character of hypocrisy. This is a very forced meaning. The absence of the article is very common before terms which denote virtues and vices. (Winer, Gramm. des N. T. Sprachidioms, § 19. 1.) Leaven is the emblem of every active principle, good or bad, which possesses the power of assimilation. The devotion of the Pharisees had given a false direction to the whole of Israelitish piety (Luke 12:39; Luke 12:44). This warning may have been repeated several times (Mark 8:13; Matthew 16:6).

The δέ adversative of Luke 12:2 determines the sense of the verse: “But all this pharisaic hypocrisy shall be unveiled. The impure foundation of this so vaunted holiness shall come fully to the light, and then the whole authority of those masters of opinion shall crumble away; but, in place thereof (ἀνθ᾿ ὧν, Luke 12:3), those whose voice cannot now find a hearing, save within limited and obscure circles, shall become the teachers of the world.” The Hillels and Gamaliels will give place to new teachers, who shall fill the world with their doctrine, and those masters shall be Peter, John, Matthew, here present! This substitution of a new doctorate for the old is announced in like manner to Nicodemus (John 3:10-11). Here, as there, the poetical rhythm of the parallelism indicates that elevation of feeling which arises from so great and transporting a thought. Comp. the magnificent apostrophe of St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 1:20: “ Where is the wise? Where is the scribe...? ” By St. Paul's time the substitution had been fully effected. Ταμεῖον, the larder (from τέμνω); and hence the locked chamber, the innermost apartment, in opposition to the public room.

The roofs of houses in the East are terraces, from which one can speak with those who are in the street. This is the emblem of the greatest possible publicity. The mouth of the scribes shall be stopped, and the teaching of the poor disciples shall be heard over the whole universe. The apophthegms of Luke 12:2-3 may be applied in many ways, and Jesus seems to have repeated them often with varied applications. Comp. Luke 8:17. In the parallel passage (Matthew 10:27), the matter in question is the teaching of Jesus, not that of the apostles; and this saying appears in the form of an exhortation addressed to the latter: “ What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light. ” Naturally the maxim which precedes (Luke 12:2 of Luke) should also receive a different application in Matthew (Matthew 10:26): “Everything that is true must come to the light. Publish, therefore, without fear whatsoever I have told you.”