Luke 16:14

And the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things; and they scoffed at him.

CONNECTIVE TEACHING

Lovers of money ... One finds it simply impossible to understand why some commentators strive to question a statement of this kind. Ray Summers, for example, implied that the other synoptics do not fully support Luke's charge here that the Pharisees were lovers of money; but he neglected to explain why the sacred historian needed any such support. If there had not been another word in the whole New Testament regarding this, Luke's statement here is more than enough to guarantee the unqualified truth of it. Summers went on to remark concerning the passage in Matthew 23:14 (KJV), in which the Pharisees were charged with devouring "widow's houses," that "It is not in the best manuscripts, so it can be used only in a qualified support of Luke's statement."[25] He evidently overlooked the fact that in that same chapter (Matthew 23:26), Matthew quoted Jesus Christ as saying that the cup and platter of the Pharisees were "full of extortion," the same being a total endorsement of what Luke said about the Pharisees here. His error, however, is not in overlooking such a confirmation of Luke's words, but in supposing that the record of two or more Gospels is more authentic than the statement of only one of them. The thesis maintained in this commentary is that each of the Gospels is totally reliable in all that they contain.

Over and beyond Luke's statement here, however, is the total picture of the Pharisees that emerges from the New Testament record. Their devious handling of money by application of the device of "Corban," which Jesus so emphatically condemned, their making the temple itself a "den of thieves and robbers," and their merciless exploitation of the poor, and their having more regard for an animal than for a human being - all of these things demonstrate the indisputable fact that Luke's simple declaration here, to the effect that this class were "lovers of money," is in perfect harmony with all the word of God. As Frank L. Cox said, "No one scoffs at a scriptural lesson on giving but the lover of money."[26]

Scoffed at him ... "The term scoffed indicates to turn up the nose at a thing."[27]

[25] Ray Summers, op. cit., p. 192.

[26] Frank L. Cox, According to Luke (Austin, Texas: Firm Foundation Publishing House, 1941), p. 50.

[27] Anthony Lee Ash, Living Word Commentary (Austin, Texas: Sweet Publishing Company, 1973), Vol. 4, p. 73.