Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 7:5
Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
Verse 5. Why walk not thy disciples] See Clarke on Mt 15:2-9.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Then the Pharisees and Scribes asked him,…. Not the disciples, but Christ himself; for their chief view was to find fault, and quarrel with him:
why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with unwashen hands? or “with common”, that is, defiled “hands”, as in Mr 7:2. So the words are read in Beza’s most ancient copy, and in one of Stephens’s copies, and in the Vulgate Latin version. The word “common” is used for that which is unclean or unholy, Ac 10:14, and so signifies unwashen hands, as we read, and render it: besides, “common hands” may have some respect to the hands of the common people, the vulgar and illiterate, who showed no regard to this tradition, but ate their common food without washing their hands. Instead of “the tradition of the elders”, the Ethiopic version reads, “the constitution of the Scribes and Pharisees”; and which are sometimes by the Jews called,
, “the words”, or “sayings of the Scribes” o, and are preferred by them to the written law; and the same are commonly called , “ways”, in which a man is to walk, and according to which he is to steer his course of life; and to which reference is here had in the word, “walk”, used by the Pharisees; who suggest, that these decisions, constitutions, and traditions of the elders, were the rule, according to which men ought to order their manner of life and conversation; blaming the disciples, that they did not conform to them, and particularly in the case of eating bread, which they did without washing their hands, which was strictly enjoined among these canons; and they wanted to know the sense of Christ upon it. Though they might have known from the Scriptures, particularly from Eze 20:18 that it was their duty, as well as the disciples of Christ, to walk, not in the, statutes of their fathers, nor observe their judgments, the laws and ordinances instituted by them; but to walk in the statutes of the Lord, and to keep his judgments, and do them: not the traditions of men, but the word of God, should be the rule of walk and conversation; and as many as walk according to this rule, peace will be upon them; but those that walk according to the commandments of men, justly deserve the character given of such by the prophet Isaiah, whose words our Lord produces in the following verses.
o T. Hieros. Beracot, fol. 3. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1) “Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him,” (kai eperotosin auton hoi Pharisaioi kai hoi grammateis) “And the Pharisees and Scribes inquired of or questioned Him,” as follows:
2) “Why walk not thy disciples,” (kai ti ou peripatousin hoi mathetai sou) “Just why do not your disciples walk,”
3) “According to the tradition of the elders,” (kata ten paradosin ton presbuteron) “According to, or in harmony with, the traditions of the elders,” in this matter of eating, according to the “oral law,” alleged to have been passed down from Moses, Mar 7:7-9; Mat 15:1-3.
4) “But eat bread with unwashed hands?” (alla kainais chersin esthiousin ton arton) “But instead they eat with unwashed (or unclean) hands?” hands without ceremonial cleansing. The Pharisees and scribes, jealous guardians of the law, without quoting the law, appealing to their own adopted traditional standards of “clean and unclean,” faulted Jesus and His disciples; In ignorance they did it, Rom 10:1-4.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(5) With unwashen hands.The better MSS. give, with defiled hands, the word being the same as before. It was probable that the Pharisees would use the stronger word in their question, equally probable that a transcriber might think it better to substitute that which was the more easily understood.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘And the Pharisees and the Scribes ask him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled hands?” ’
We can be sure that the Pharisees and Scribes here were not the most amenable ones like Gamaliel (Act 5:34). They had not come in order to be helpful. If they had Jesus would have responded accordingly. Rather they had come in order to find fault. We already know that they had thought in terms of His death (Mar 3:6), and that certain Doctors of the Law, possibly these same ones, had accused Him of being in league with Satan (Mar 3:22). So they were waiting for an occasion to attack Him.
But having said this we need not doubt that seeing some of Jesus’ disciples eating without going through the proper ritual would undoubtedly have sent shivers up their spines, so strongly did they feel about it. Thus it was not just a technical question but one put with deep feeling. And the blame was laid squarely on Him in front of the crowd. The inference was that He was being deficient, that He should have ensured that His disciples observed the sacred traditions of the elders. And the crowds would be listening and watching.
It was a challenge that had to be met head on. Unless He answered it He would be seen as accepting that all Who followed Him would have to be bound by the traditions of the elders, something which would certainly have taken their eye off what was most important, and would have limited His message.
Of course, had He thought that they were right He would have acknowledged it. But His view was rightly that there were other things in God’s word which were more important than arguments about a particular sect’s interpretation of the Law, especially when the people involved in that sect were not themselves outstanding examples of godliness and morality.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
Ver. 5. See Trapp on “ Mat 15:2 “ See Trapp on “ Mat 15:3 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
5. ] The construction is an anacoluthon, begun with , Mar 7:2 , which subject being lost sight of in the long parenthesis, is here renewed with . . . .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mar 7:5 . At last we come to the point, the complaint of the jealous guardians of Jewish custom, as handed down from the elders ( . .), against the disciples of Jesus, and indirectly against Jesus Himself : for this Mt. substitutes . .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
according to. Greek. kata. App-104.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
5.] The construction is an anacoluthon,-begun with , Mar 7:2, which subject being lost sight of in the long parenthesis, is here renewed with . …
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mar 7:5. , ask Him) The Pharisees were always giving their whole zeal to mere questionings.-, walk) is often found in this sense among the Hebrews.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
tradition
i.e. the so-called “oral law” alleged to have been handed down from Moses; really a traditional interpretation of the written law.
See margin ref., (See Scofield “Mar 7:7”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Mar 2:16-18, Mat 15:2, Act 21:21, Act 21:24, Rom 4:12, 2Th 3:6, 2Th 3:11
Reciprocal: Mat 7:29 – and not
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
5
They based their criticism on the fact that the disciples had disregarded the tradition of the elders, not that they had gone contrary to the rules of sanitation.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mar 7:5. See on Mat 15:2.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 5
Walk; that is, act,–regulate their conduct.–Tradition of the elders; rules of action handed down from ancient times, but not contained in the Word of God. This claim of the Pharisees for the authority of human traditions, seems to have been quite analogous to that of those branches of the church, in modern times, which insist upon certain principles and practices on the authority of the early church, though the Scriptures themselves do not enjoin them.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? 6 He answered and said unto them Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with [their] lips, but their heart is far from me. 7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching [for] doctrines the commandments of men. 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, [as] the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. 9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. 10 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: 11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, [It is] Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; [he shall be free]. 12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; 13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye. The term translated “tradition” in verse five means “transmission” or as it is used a precept or tradition handed down. Standing at the singing/playing of the Hallelujah chorus is something that is handed down to us from years past as a tradition.
Mark correctly records their question – it was based on the precepts handed down from the elders and in all likelihood from elders that were long gone from the scene.
We won’t dwell on the accusations of the contemporary music group of today and their saying that “Traditional worship” is traditional – it is to some extent but traditions are not wrong – only if they are based on incorrect information. The elders of Israel had left the Word and were following the interpretation.
Traditional worship is usually and hopefully based on good Scriptural principles and good sound lyrics for the hymns. If the style does not fit into those parameters then it is tradition in the bad sense. If the music and methods are correct and true, then it is a tradition in a good sense.
The contemporary crowd do not realize it but they are stuck in tradition as well, they are all doing it the same way and little has changed from the beginning of the movement as to lyrics and method – as to method most anything goes but for the most part it is quite similar from church to church – traditional contemporary you might say.
In verse six Christ uses the term “hypocrite” which means an actor or one that assumes a role other than who they really are. These folks are on the surface honoring God but underneath are as corrupt as can be. No, that doesn’t sound like any Christians today does it?
Next time you are sitting in church listening so piously to the message, where is your mind where are your thoughts leading you? Our own piety would probably be questioned by the Lord at times as He did the Jews and rightly so.
Imagine the Jewish leaders and their feelings at this moment. They are there to spring their trap on him and take His life and he sees them and tells them they are hypocrites – they are there to cause His death yet ask questions that appear to be honest inquiries. They are hypocrites on multiple levels. They are there to cause his death but are innocent in their approach, they are supposed to be spiritual, yet they are lost and walking against the law, and they purport to follow the law, yet they follow the laws of man a triple threat they were.
We have a little hint of the qualities of Scripture in this verse. “Written” is a passive perfect indicating something that was done from outside of the Word’s writing to cause its coming into existence and that the setting down of the Word was completed (that portion of it) in the past and that it will endure into the future to completion.
A little information on the perfect tense of the Greek language: “The basic thought of the perfect tense is that the progress of an action has been completed and the results of the action are continuing on, in full effect. In other words, the progress of the action has reached its culmination and the finished results are now in existence.”
From: http://www.ntgreek.org/learn_nt_greek/nouns1.htm
Now, it is of interest that The Old Testament has this clearly appointed pedigree, yet the King James only folks would argue that the Hebrew is not to be trusted but that the King James version is the only one that is to be trusted. Christ Himself told us in Mark that the Old Testament or at the very least this prophet was at His own time set and continuing on into the future as written, not to change – it was complete at the time of writing and not open for discussion or editing by people under the auspices of King James.
Christ sums it up quite well by using Isa 29:13 to rebuke the listener. We see in Mat 15:8-9 “This people honoureth me with their lips; But their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men.”
Now the term translated “corban” means treasury or the place where the gift boxes were contained. It was also that which a person set aside for God and His future reception. The Jews were telling their parents that all they had was dedicated to God thus when mom and dad had a need they had nothing to give them or assist them with. Neat trick if you can do it but I rather think that God knew of their little ploy and Christ smacks them up along side the head with it as the proof of their hypocrisy.
Not only does He call them hypocrites, but he adds to the end of His comments to them “and many such like things do ye.” Rather well put them in their place and most likely added to their severe dislike for Him. Oh well, I’m sure the Lord was disappointed – NOT! He knew them and their hearts and informed them just in case they didn’t know themselves as He did.
There is a principle for life hidden in the account relating to caring for your father and mother. The Jewish leaders knew it was right and proper to assist their parents for they were avoiding taking care of their responsibility by attributing all they had to “corban.”
As your parents age, you need to begin to look toward the day that they have needs that they cannot take care of themselves. With people living longer lives it is even more important.
Not all will need care, but many may. Years ago we lived across the street from a couple that was in their 90’s and still living on their own. He mowed the lawn, and was even known to get on the roof for repairs. On the other hand many are in a care home by their 70’s.
The point – care for their needs as they come along. Even if they are in a care facility you have a responsibility to visit them and see to their emotional needs for family. My wife did nursing home care for a time and many families would set their parents up in a care home and that was the last they would see them. Out of site and out of mind. Not much different than these leaders that have basically told their parents that they were out of luck.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
7:5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why {f} walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
(f) Why live they not? This is a Hebrew idiom: for among them the “way” is taken for “lifestyle”.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The critics asked Jesus for an explanation of His disciples’ conduct because, as their teacher, He was responsible for them. They suspected that the disciples’ failure to wash properly indicated that Jesus disregarded all the traditions of the elders. Walking is a Hebrew figure of speech meaning habitual conduct (e.g., Gen 5:24; Psa 1:1). It occurs frequently in John’s Gospel and in Paul’s epistles.