◄ Luke 20:46 ►
"Beware of the scribes. They like to walk around in long robes, and they love the greetings in the marketplaces, the chief seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets.
Study Bible
“Beware of the scribes.

Jesus warned His disciples publicly because the scribes exercised broad influence as interpreters and teachers of the Law. Their learning and office did not excuse hearts devoted to self-exaltation. The warning prepares for His condemnation of those who used religious authority to gain honor while neglecting justice, mercy, and devotion to God.

Mrk 12:38-40 In His teaching Jesus also said, “Watch out for the scribes.…
Mat 23:2-3 “The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.…
Luk 11:46 “Woe to you as well, experts in the law!” He replied.…

They like to walk around in long robes,

Their distinctive robes marked them as prominent religious figures and drew attention wherever they appeared. Jesus exposed the desire to display spiritual importance before people rather than to serve God in humility.

Mat 23:5 All their deeds are done for men to see.…
Isa 3:16-24 The LORD also says: “Because the daughters of Zion…
Zec 3:3-5 Now Joshua was dressed in filthy garments…

and they love the greetings in the marketplaces,

Respectful public greetings became occasions for the scribes to receive recognition and confirm their social rank. Jesus taught that honor sought from men is empty when it replaces the fear of God and the love of neighbor.

Mat 23:7 the greetings in the marketplaces, and the title…
Luk 11:43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats…
Jhn 5:44 How can you believe if you accept glory from one another…

the chief seats in the synagogues,

Seats near the front of the synagogue placed honored leaders before the assembled worshipers. Seeking visible prominence in the place of worship revealed a heart unlike the servant leadership Jesus commanded among His followers.

Mrk 12:39 to have the chief seats in the synagogues…
Mat 23:6 They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats…
Jas 2:1-4 My brothers, as you hold out your faith…

and the places of honor at banquets.

Formal meals assigned status through seating, and the scribes desired the recognition reserved for important guests. Christ calls His people to humility, trusting God to exalt the lowly in His kingdom rather than seeking advancement in the eyes of the world.

Luk 14:7-11 When Jesus noticed how the guests chose the places of honor…
Pro 25:6-7 Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king,…
1Sa 9:22-24 Then Samuel took Saul and his servant, brought them…

Persons / Places / Events
1. Scribes
Jewish religious leaders and scholars of the Law. They were responsible for teaching and interpreting the Scriptures but were often criticized by Jesus for their hypocrisy and pride.

2. Marketplaces
Public areas where people gathered for trade and social interaction. The scribes sought recognition and honor in these busy, public spaces.

3. Synagogues
Jewish places of worship and community gathering. The scribes desired the chief seats, which were positions of honor and authority.

4. Banquets
Social gatherings or feasts. The scribes sought the places of honor, reflecting their desire for social status and recognition.
Teaching Points
Beware of Hypocrisy
Jesus warns against the hypocrisy of the scribes, who outwardly display piety but lack genuine humility and righteousness. As believers, we must examine our motives and ensure our actions align with our faith.

Seek Humility Over Honor
The scribes' desire for recognition and honor serves as a cautionary tale. True greatness in the Kingdom of God is found in humility and service, not in seeking status or accolades.

Guard Against Pride
Pride can lead to a fall, as seen in the scribes' behavior. We must guard our hearts against pride and remember that our worth comes from God, not from human recognition.

Authentic Worship
The scribes' focus on external appearances detracted from genuine worship. Our worship should be sincere and focused on God, not on how others perceive us.

Examine Our Desires
Reflect on what we truly desire—recognition from people or approval from God. Our lives should be oriented towards pleasing God rather than seeking human praise.
Bible Study Questions
1. How can we identify and guard against hypocrisy in our own lives, similar to the warning Jesus gives about the scribes?

2. In what ways can we practice humility in our daily interactions, especially in environments where recognition and status are valued?

3. How does the desire for honor and recognition manifest in modern Christian communities, and how can we address it?

4. Reflect on a time when you sought human approval over God's approval. What steps can you take to realign your focus?

5. How can the teachings of James 2:1-4 about favoritism inform our understanding of Jesus' warning against the scribes in Luke 20:46?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Matthew 23:5-7
Jesus criticizes the scribes and Pharisees for their outward displays of piety and desire for honor, similar to the warning in Luke 20:46.

Mark 12:38-40
Parallel account where Jesus warns against the scribes, emphasizing their exploitation of widows and pretense in long prayers.

James 2:1-4
James warns against showing favoritism, which connects to the scribes' desire for preferential treatment and honor.
Sermons
Character and Precept, EtcW. Clarkson Luke 20:45-47
The Sins of the Scribes and PhariseesW. Wilson.Luke 20:45-47
People
David, Isaac, Jacob, Jesus, John
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Banquets, Best, Beware, Flowing, Greeted, Greetings, Honor, Important, Law, Love, Marketplaces, Places, Robes, Scribes, Seats, Synagogues, Teachers, Walk
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Luke 20:46

     4410   banquets
     5177   robes
     5328   greeting
     5402   market
     7462   tassel
     7464   teachers of the law
     8302   love, abuse of

Luke 20:41-47

     7552   Pharisees, attitudes to Christ

Luke 20:45-46

     2363   Christ, preaching and teaching
     5379   law, Christ's attitude
     8822   self-justification

Luke 20:45-47

     5173   outward appearance
     5743   widows

Luke 20:46-47

     5360   justice, God
     8804   pride, examples

Library
Whose Image and Superscription?
'Whose image and superscription hath it?'--Luke xx. 24. It is no unusual thing for antagonists to join forces in order to crush a third person obnoxious to both. So in this incident we have an unnatural alliance of the two parties in Jewish politics who were at daggers drawn. The representatives of the narrow conservative Judaism, which loathed a foreign yoke, in the person of the Pharisees and Scribes, and the Herodians, the partisans of a foreigner and a usurper, lay their heads together to propose …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

Tenants who Wanted to be Owners
'Then began He to speak to the people this parable; A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time. 10. And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty. 11. And again he sent another servant: and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. 12. And again he sent a third: and they wounded him …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

The God of the Living.
He is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.--ST LUKE xx. 38. It is a recurring cause of perplexity in our Lord's teaching, that he is too simple for us; that while we are questioning with ourselves about the design of Solomon's earring upon some gold-plated door of the temple, he is speaking about the foundations of Mount Zion, yea, of the earth itself, upon which it stands. If the reader of the Gospel supposes that our Lord was here using a verbal argument with the Sadducees, …
George MacDonald—Unspoken Sermons

The Resurrection of the Sleeping Saints.
"And the dead in Christ shall rise first." This is the second blessed event which shall occur at the Redeemer's return--the sleeping saints will be awakened and raised. This brings us to a branch of our subject upon which there is much ignorance and confusion in Christendom generally. The idea which popularly obtains is that of a general resurrection at the end of time. So deeply rooted is this belief and so widely is it held that to declare there will be two resurrections--one of saints and another …
Arthur W. Pink—The Redeemer's Return

The Morality of the Gospel.
Is stating the morality of the Gospel as an argument of its truth, I am willing to admit two points; first, that the teaching of morality was not the primary design of the mission; secondly, that morality, neither in the Gospel, nor in any other book, can be a subject, properly speaking, of discovery. If I were to describe in a very few words the scope of Christianity as a revelation, [49] I should say that it was to influence the conduct of human life, by establishing the proof of a future state …
William Paley—Evidences of Christianity

In Reply to the Questions as to his Authority, Jesus Gives the Third Great Group of Parables.
(in the Court of the Temple. Tuesday, April 4, a.d. 30.) Subdivision A. Introduction ^A Matt. XXI. 23-27; ^B Mark XI. 27-33; ^C Luke XX. 1-8. ^c 1 And it came to pass, on one of the days, ^b they [Jesus and the disciples] come again to Jerusalem: ^a 23 And when he was come into the temple, ^b and as he was walking in the temple [The large outer court of the temple, known as the court of the Gentiles, was thronged during the feasts, and was no doubt the part selected by Jesus and his apostles when …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

In Reply to the Questions as to his Authority, Jesus Gives the Third Great Group of Parables.
(in the Court of the Temple. Tuesday, April 4, a.d. 30.) Subdivision C. Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen. ^A Matt. XXI. 33-46; ^B Mark XII. 1-12; ^C Luke XX. 9-19. ^b 1 And he began to speak unto them ^c the people [not the rulers] ^b in parables. { ^c this parable:} ^a 33 Hear another parable: There was a man that was a householder [this party represents God], who planted a vineyard [this represents the Hebrew nationality], and set a hedge about it, and digged a ^b pit for the ^a winepress in it …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Cix. Jewish Rulers Seek to Ensnare Jesus.
(Court of the Temple. Tuesday, April 4, a.d. 30.) Subdivision A. Pharisees and Herodians Ask About Tribute. ^A Matt. XXII. 15-22; ^B Mark XII. 13-17; ^C Luke XX. 20-26. ^a 15 Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might ensnare him in his talk. ^c 20 And they watched him, and sent forth { ^b send unto him} ^a their disciples, ^b certain of the Pharisees and of { ^a with} ^b the Herodians, that they might catch him in talk. [Perceiving that Jesus, when on his guard, was too wise for them, …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Jesus' Last Public Discourse. Denunciation of Scribes and Pharisees.
(in the Court of the Temple. Tuesday, April 4, a.d. 30.) ^A Matt. XXIII. 1-39; ^B Mark XII. 38-40; ^C Luke XX. 45-47. ^a 1 Then spake Jesus ^b 38 And in his teaching ^c in the hearing of all the people he said unto ^a the multitudes, and to his disciples [he spoke in the most public manner], 2 saying, ^c 46 Beware of the scribes, ^a The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat: 3 all things whatsoever they bid you, these do and observe: but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Third Day in Passion-Week - the Events of that Day - the Question of Christ's Authority - the Question of Tribute to Cæsar - The
THE record of this third day is so crowded, the actors introduced on the scene are so many, the occurrences so varied, and the transitions so rapid, that it is even more than usually difficult to arrange all in chronological order. Nor need we wonder at this, when we remember that this was, so to speak, Christ's last working-day - the last, of His public Mission to Israel, so far as its active part was concerned; the last day in the Temple; the last, of teaching and warning to Pharisees and Sadducees; …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Third Day in Passion-Week - the Last Controversies and Discourses - the Sadducees and the Resurrection - the Scribe and the Great Commandment - Question
THE last day in the Temple was not to pass without other temptations' than that of the Priests when they questioned His authority, or of the Pharisees when they cunningly sought to entangle Him in His speech. Indeed, Christ had on this occasion taken a different position; He had claimed supreme authority, and thus challenged the leaders of Israel. For this reason, and because at the last we expect assaults from all His enemies, we are prepared for the controversies of that day. We remember that, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Fac-Similes
OF ANCIENT NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS, TO ILLUSTRATE CHAPTER XXVI., PAGE 380. Most of the following specimens of ancient manuscripts are taken from Scrivener's Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament. No. (1) is from Tischendorf s Novum Testamentum Graece ex Sinaitico Codice; Nos. (2) and (11) from Smith's Dictionary of the Bible; and No. (5) from Horne's Introduction, Vol. IV. No. (1). PLATE I. SINAI CODEX, Century IV. Heb. 12:27-29. Notice the occasional use of very small letters. In …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

The Third Day in Pasion-Week - the Last Series of Parables: to the Pharisees and to the People - on the Way to Jerusalem: the Parable
(ST. Matt. xix. 30, xx. 16; St. Matt. xxi. 28-32; St. Mark xii. 1-12; St. Luke xx. 9-19; St. Matt. xxii. 1-14.) ALTHOUGH it may not be possible to mark their exact succession, it will be convenient here to group together the last series of Parables. Most, if not all of them, were spoken on that third day in Passion week: the first four to a more general audience; the last three (to be treated in another chapter) to the disciples, when, on the evening of that third day, on the Mount of Olives, [5286] …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Wherefore I Cannot Indeed Say, of Females who have Fallen Away from a Better...
14. Wherefore I cannot indeed say, of females who have fallen away from a better purpose, in case they shall have married, that they are adulteries, not marriages; but I plainly would not hesitate to say, that departures and fallings away from a holier chastity, which is vowed unto the Lord, are worse than adulteries. For if, what may no way be doubted, it pertains unto an offense against Christ, when a member of Him keepeth not faith to her husband; how much graver offense is it against Him, when …
St. Augustine—On the Good of Widowhood.

Difficulties and Objections
"Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not My way equal? are not your ways unequal?" (Ezek. 18:25). A convenient point has been reached when we may now examine, more definitely, some of the difficulties encountered and the objections which might be advanced against what we have written in previous pages. The author deemed it better to reserve these for a separate consideration rather than deal with them as he went along, requiring as that would have done the …
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God

Synopsis. --Account to be Made of the Law of Atrophy through Disuse. --The virgin Birth and the Corporeal Resurrection of Jesus
VII SYNOPSIS.--Account to be made of the law of atrophy through disuse.--The virgin birth and the corporeal resurrection of Jesus, the two miracles now insisted on as the irreducible minimum, affected by this law.--The vital truths of the incarnation and immortality independent of these miracles.--These truths now placed on higher ground in a truer conception of the supernatural.--The true supernatural is the spiritual, not the miraculous.--Scepticism bred from the contrary view.--The miracle narratives, …
James Morris Whiton—Miracles and Supernatural Religion

Of the Practice of Piety in Holy Feasting.
Holy feasting is a solemn thanksgiving, appointed by authority, to be rendered to God on some special day, for some extraordinary blessings or deliverances received. Such among the Jews was the feast of the Passover (Exod. xii. 15), to remember to praise God for their deliverance out of Egypt's bondage; or the feast of Purim (Esth. ix. 19, 21), to give thanks for their deliverance from Haman's conspiracy. Such amongst us is the fifth of November, to praise God for the deliverance of the king and …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Jesus Attends the First Passover of his Ministry.
(Jerusalem, April 9, a.d. 27.) Subdivision A. Jesus Cleanses the Temple. ^D John II. 13-25. ^d 13 And the passover of the Jews was at hand [We get our information as to the length of our Lord's ministry from John's Gospel. He groups his narrative around six Jewish festivals: 1, He here mentions the first passover; 2, another feast, which we take to have been also a passover (v. 1); 3, another passover (vi. 4); 4, the feast of tabernacles (vii. 2); 5, dedication (x. 22); 6, passover (xi. 55). This …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Cix. Jewish Rulers Seek to Ensnare Jesus.
(Court of the Temple. Tuesday, April 4, a.d. 30.) Subdivision B. Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection. ^A Matt. XXII. 23-33; ^B Mark XII. 18-27; ^C Luke XX. 27-39. ^a 23 On that day there came { ^b come} unto him ^c certain of the the Sadducees, they that { ^b who} say there is no resurrection [As to the Sadducees, see p. 71. We may regard their attitude toward Christ as expressed by their leader Caiaphas, see p. 528]; and they asked him, saying, 19 Teacher, Moses wrote unto us [See Deut. xxv. 5, …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The King on his Throne.
"Crown Him with many crowns, The King upon His Throne." When the time came for our Blessed Lord to return into Heaven again, He ascended in the presence of His Apostles, whilst in the act of blessing them; "and a cloud received Him out of their sight" (Acts i. 9). And, we are told, they "returned to Jerusalem with great joy" (S. Luke xxiv. 52), not sorrowing as before at His being taken from them. And when we consider what His Ascension implied, we can see that they had good reason for their joy. …
Edward Burbidge—The Kingdom of Heaven; What is it?

The Barren Fig-Tree;
OR, THE DOOM AND DOWNFALL OF THE FRUITLESS PROFESSOR: SHOWING, THAT THE DAY OF GRACE MAY BE PAST WITH HIM LONG BEFORE HIS LIFE IS ENDED; THE SIGNS ALSO BY WHICH SUCH MISERABLE MORTALS MAY BE KNOWN. BY JOHN BUNYAN 'Who being dead, yet speaketh.'--Hebrews 11:4 London: Printed for J. Robinson, at the Golden Lion, in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1688. This Title has a broad Black Border. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. This solemn, searching, awful treatise, was published by Bunyan in 1682; but does not appear …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

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