Discovery BoxLuke 11:51-54 
Context11:51 from the blood of Abel 1 to the blood of Zechariah, 2 who was killed 3 between the altar and the sanctuary. 4 Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against 5 this generation. 11:52 Woe to you experts in religious law! You have taken away 6 the key to knowledge! You did not go in yourselves, and you hindered 7 those who were going in.”
11:53 When he went out from there, the experts in the law 8 and the Pharisees began to oppose him bitterly, 9 and to ask him hostile questions 10 about many things, 11:54 plotting against 11 him, to catch 12 him in something he might say.
1 sn Gen 4:10 indicates that Abel’s blood cried out for justice.
2 sn It is not clear which Zechariah is meant here. It is probably the person mentioned in 2 Chr 24:20-25.
3 tn Or “who perished.”
4 tn Or “and the temple”; Grk “and the house,” but in this context a reference to the house of God as a place of sanctuary.
5 tn Or “required from.”
6 sn You have taken away the key to knowledge is another stinging rebuke. They had done the opposite of what they were trying to do.
7 tn Or “you tried to prevent.”
8 tn Or “the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 5:21.
9 tn Or “terribly.”
10 tn For this term see L&N 33.183.
11 tn Grk “lying in ambush against,” but this is a figurative extension of that meaning.
12 tn This term was often used in a hunting context (BDAG 455 s.v. θηρεύω; L&N 27.30). Later examples of this appear in Luke 20.
