And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to complain, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.”
Parallel translations
- WEB The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.”
- KJV And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.
- BSB So the Pharisees and scribes began to grumble: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
- NKJV And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.”
- NLT This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The Pharisees and scribes grumble that Jesus welcomes and eats with sinners. Their complaint becomes the occasion for the great parables of grace.
Overview
Sharing meals signified acceptance, so Jesus' table fellowship with sinners scandalized the religious leaders. Their murmuring reveals hearts that resent grace shown to the undeserving. Ironically, their criticism captures the very heart of the gospel, that Christ came to receive sinners.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Matt 9:11When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
- Luke 19:7When they saw it, they all murmured, saying, “He has gone in to lodge with a man who is a sinner.”
- Luke 7:39Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what kind of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner.”
- Luke 5:30Their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?”
- Acts 11:3saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men, and ate with them!”
- Gal 2:12For before some people came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.
- Luke 7:34The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man, and a drunkard; a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
- Luke 15:29–30But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.
- 1 Cor 5:9–11I wrote to you in my letter to have no company with sexual sinners;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 15:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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