Chapter # 7 Paragraph # 1 Study # 2
April 12, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(298)
1901 ASV
7:2 and had seen that some of his disciples ate their bread with defiled, that is, unwashen, hands.
7:3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands diligently, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders;
7:4 and [when they come] from the market-place, except they bathe themselves, they eat not; and many other things there are, which they have received to hold, washings of cups, and pots, and brasen vessels.)
7:5 And the Pharisees and the scribes ask him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled hands?
7:6 And he said unto them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoreth me with their lips, But their heart is far from me.
7:7 But in vain do they worship me, Teaching [as their] doctrines the precepts of men.
7:8 Ye leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.
7:9 And he said unto them, Full well do ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your tradition.
7:10 For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother; and, He that speaketh evil of father or mother, let him die the death:
7:11 but ye say, If a man shall say to his father or his mother, That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is Corban, that is to say, Given [to God];
7:12 ye no longer suffer him to do aught for his father or his mother;
7:13 making void the word of God by your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things ye do.
7:14 And he called to him the multitude again, and said unto them, Hear me all of you, and understand:
7:15 there is nothing from without the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.
7:16 [If any man hath ears to hear, let him hear.]
7:17 And when he was entered into the house from the multitude, his disciples asked of him the parable.
7:18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Perceive ye not, that whatsoever from without goeth into the man, [it] cannot defile him;
7:19 because it goeth not into his heart, but into his belly, and goeth out into the draught? [This he said], making all meats clean.
7:20 And he said, That which proceedeth out of the man, that defileth the man.
7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries,
7:22 covetings, wickednesses, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness:
7:23 all these evil things proceed from within, and defile the man.
- I. What The Pharisees And Some Of The Scribes Had Seen.
- A. Their "seeing" was the basis of their criticism of "some of His disciples".
1. This "seeing" will be the basis of God's reciprocal "criticism" of them in The Great Day of Judgment (1 John 1:1-3). Once a person "sees", he/she is liable before God (John 9:41 -- using the word blepo).
- 2. This "seeing" is here, and in many other places, established as having legitimacy as a basis for taking action and drawing conclusions about actions taken. As an issue of epistemology, the physical senses reveal sufficient truth to make a person "speechless" in the day of judgment (Romans 1:20 and 3:19).
- B. What they had seen that motivated their consequent speech.
- 1. "Some of His disciples" is likened unto "some of the scribes" in phraseology.
- 2. These disciples were responsible for reflecting the teachings of their Teacher. Thus, the teacher was liable to be criticized because of those disciples because their behavior was supposed to be a reflection of the teaching(s).
- 3. These disciples "are eating the bread with common hands" (that is, with "unwashed").
- a. The word translated "impure" is so translated because it is given somewhat of that meaning in the very next phrase "that is, unwashed".
- b. But, this same word is translated "common" in multiple other places with the sense of "not unique" or "undedicated to a specific person/place/thing".
- c. This word and word-group has a fundamental meaning of "not considered to be owned by a specific owner" so that everyone shares it/in it. It is like an animal slain to provide a meal for everyone as opposed to a sacrifice that is slain to provide a meal for a specific person/group. In other words, "unwashed hands" means that the hands have become "sharers" in all/any manner of "what is not hands"; i.e., dirt, polluted liquid, or anything that they have touched so that some element(s) of the object touched have transferred to the hands. The hands are not "only hands"; they are hands-plus.
- d. This may be why "touching" was so much a part of the notion that "I must touch His garment if I wish to be healed". Something must be transferred to me through my touch. It may also be why the Pharisees shrank away from "touching/being touched" by something that could "taint" them and were critical of Jesus for allowing the prostitute to wash His feet while He was eating. "Contamination" became the concept; whether in the physical realm, in the relational realm, or in the spiritual realm. It may also be why "fellowship" is a term derived from this one (people sharing something of themselves with others, not keeping that something for themselves only).
II. The Background For The Criticism.
- A. The Pharisees and all the Jews... .
- B. Do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands... .
- 1. The Greek lexicons, in the matter of "carefully", consider Mark's use of this term "problematic": Mark is the sole user of this word in the New Testament.
- 2. The word translated "carefully" is literally a noun that means "a fist" or "a clenched hand". It is in the Dative Case in the "five case" sense, or it is one of either a Locative, Instrumental, or Dative Case in the "eight case" sense.
- 3. The possibilities of meaning range from "up to the wrist", "up to the elbow", "use of the fist to rub a contaminated hand", or something along those lines. Because Mark is focusing upon the issue of "being diligent", the word probably means "using the fist of one hand to rub the other to cleanse it from its pollution". Mark's point is that these Pharisees and "all the Jews" were so fixated upon their notion that God would be offended if they failed to be sufficiently thorough so as to fail to be "clean enough" that they made the act extreme in diligence.
- C. Observing the traditions of the elders... .
- 1. Here is the "problem": the "elders" had settled upon the notion that the physical realm was the only/most important realm so that they did not consider that the physical realm exists for the purpose of illustration in regard to the non-physical, truly important realms.
- 2. From, then, the "elders" came the slavish observance of all things physical and, consequently, the followers could not move into understanding of those more important things of the realms not "seen".
- 3. Herein is a clear illustration of "majoring on the minors" to the degree that the "minors" are so elevated that the "majors" are ignored (Matthew 23:23). A major cause of this "twistedness" is the complete inability to be "diligent" in the more significant areas of experience of "Love" and "Truth".
- 4. There were laws in the Scriptures that required such washings. Thus, the elders had a basis for establishing these patterns of behavior. There was also the general principle expressed by Jesus, Himself, that "he who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much" (Luke 16:10). These "laws" and this "general principle" are a significant foundation for extreme legalism and very particular criticisms.
- D. And from the market place they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves;
- E. And there are many other things which they have received in order to observe...
- 1. Such as the washing of cups...
- 2. And pitchers...
- 3. And copper pots.
