Mark 7:5
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So the Pharisees and scribes questioned Jesus: “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? Instead, they eat with defiled hands.”
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
FOUR THOUSAND MIRACULOUSLY FED--A SIGN FROM HEAVEN SOUGHT AND REFUSED--THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES--A BLIND MAN AT BETHSAIDA RESTORED TO SIGHT. ( = Mat. 15:32-16:12). (Mark 8:1-26) In those days the multitude being very great, &c.
Open source ↗In this chapter we have, I. Christ's dispute with the scribes and Pharisees about eating meat with unwashen hands (Mar 7:1-13); and the needful instructions he gave to the people on that occasion, and further explained to his disciples (Mar 7:14-23). II. His curing of the woman Canaan's daughter that was possessed (Mar 7:24-30). III. The relief of a man that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech (Mar 7:31-37).
Open source ↗7:5 Since the Pharisees believed that their oral traditions were given to Moses as part of God’s divine revelation, they asked Jesus why his disciples did not keep them. After all, teachers were responsible for the behavior of their disciples (see 2:24).
Open source ↗Cross-references
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But they are under the impression that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or observe our customs.
Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from any brother who leads an undisciplined life that is not in keeping with the tradition you received from us.
I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
Take these men, purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know that there is no truth to these rumors about you, but that you also live in obedience to the law.
“Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands before they eat.”
And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
Yet we hear that some of you are leading undisciplined lives and accomplishing nothing but being busybodies.