Chapter # 7 Paragraph # 1 Study # 3
April 19, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(300)
1901 ASV
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. Mark's Continuing Focus Upon "The Pharisees [7:1,3, 5] And The Scribes" [7:1, 5].
- A. He is addressing their "problem" before God ("leaven": 8:15).
- 1. At issue is the underlying, and all-pervasive, foundation of all of their thinking and doing as they actively participate in resisting Jesus' identity and doctrine (they are in lock-step harmony with the "official" decree of "Jerusalem" as Mark recorded it in 3:22).
- 2. The "problem" is not in the fruits; it is in the roots.
- B. He repeats their "identities" for emphasis purposes.
- 1. These are the leaders of the nation (they are "from Jerusalem").
- 2. As leaders, they have set the standards for all the people and have led the vast majority into the bondage of idolatrous and deadly legal doctrine.
- 3. This is the explanation for why Jesus should be trusted against the traditional positions of those leaders. This is a large issue: when one man stands against the divine "establishment of order", the likelihood is that he is simply a rebel attempting to build his own "kingdom of glory" among the children of men. The typical question is this: would God allow the entire development of order and structure of "His people" to go so far wrong? Romanism and Judaism have used this question to intimidate any who refuse to "fall in line". Rarely is it the initial case that one man is correct and the "establishment" is wrong. However, the testimony of the Scriptures regarding the gradual development of "the mystery of iniquity" is that, eventually, all good institutions are corrupted.
- a. Saul of Tarsus pursued this course in his own way by seeking to be "the most zealous of his generation for the traditions of the elders" -- working from the "inside" (Galatians 1:14).
- b. Others pursue this course by the opposite way: seeking to overturn those traditions by setting competing traditions against them -- working from the outside (2 Peter 1:20).
- c. This is the same intent (self-exaltation) with opposite methods (similar to the development of the Sadducees vs. the Pharisees).
- II. Mark's Emphasis Upon Their Tactic.
- A. They pose their opposition in terms of a "question" (eperotao).
- 1. Mark uses the typical form of emphasis: a prepositional prefix attached to the basic verbal idea.
- a. The prefix in this case is "epi", signifying "placement upon". This, in the case of this text, has the same sense as our 21st century metaphor; "they came down on Him". To "come down on" means strong criticism/accusation that is voiced in a public way.
- b. The verbal idea is "erotao", a verb used by Mark in only three places without a prefix (4:10; 7:26; and 8:5) and its meaning is "simple request".
- 1) The use in 4:10 is in regard to the disciples seeking understanding from Jesus of the meaning of the parables.
- 2) The use in 7:26 is in regard to the Syrophoenician woman's continual "asking" for her daughter's deliverance from her demon.
- 3) The use in 8:5 is in regard to Jesus' "asking" His disciples for the number of loaves available to feed 4,000 people.
- 2. To this typical form of emphasis is added the "present tense in historical narrative".
- 3. Mark's use of this emphatic form is extensive (25 texts in his short Gospel), but his use of this form (in the present tense) is unique (7:5) and rare in the New Testament (Romans 10:20 being the only other time, and this precise form is in a quote from the Old Testament Septuagint). The use in our current text is the second of the twenty-five and gives us an indication that the meaning is that the question is raised by someone who intends to get an answer.
- B. Their "question" is not an honest search for Truth wherein the one questioned is given opportunity to explain.
- 1. This "question" is a veiled accusation.
- 2. The verbal expression of the "fault" of some of His disciples is another intensified verb and is in the present tense.
- a. The intensification is "peri" (around) plus "pateo" (to step on, with the intent to crush; as in Luke 10:19; 21:24 and Revelation 11:2; 14:20 and 19:15 -- the total of all New Testament references). When this preposition is attached to this verb, the sense of "to crush" is significantly diminished and the meaning shifts to "walking through life" (by "crushing" those appetites and choices that are seen to be detrimental, and exalting those appetites and choices that are seen to be beneficial); a metaphor for "living" in a specific way. All of life is intricately involved with this process of "thinking and acting" by accepting and rejecting thoughts, choices, and actions.
- b. The present tense indicates that the Pharisees and scribes are accusing the disciples of "habitual behavior" and are, thus, accusing Jesus of misleading those disciples by either direct teaching, or, at least, being too permissive toward them and not correcting them.
- 3. Mark's use of this verb in this form is limited to nine occurances.
- a. In 2:9 (the paralytic) and 5:42 (Jairus' daughter) Mark uses it as an ability to "walk around" after a period and condition that did not permit the involved person to "walk around": it is, in these two places, a manifestation of Jesus' physical-realm power to restore.
- b. In 6:48, 49 Mark uses it to record Jesus' ability to "walk upon the sea" (an ability to keep the "walking" from plunging His feet into the water so as to sink). This indicates Jesus' ability to "refrain from crushing" what would normally be automatic: one does not even attempt to "walk on water" because one's "crushing weight" would automatically lead to failure.
- c. 7:4 is our current text.
- d. In 8:24 Mark quoted the blind man as he described his half-restored sight ("I see men like trees walking around"). The meaning is that the "men" are moving around, but they lack clarity of focus (there is, here, a strong implication that the "walking" of the men is not discernible in terms of what they are choosing to exalt and to crush: this is at the root of Jesus' intent in giving clarity to sight -- to enable the disciples to discern those roots both in their own hearts as well as the hearts of others).
- e. In 11:27 Jesus is freely moving from one place to another in the temple and the "chief priests and the scribes and the elders come to Him" and question Him about His underlying "authority" to say and do what He is saying and doing (He is "crushing" their "temple-imposed manner of walking", and they cannot abide Him).
- f. And in his final use (12:38) Mark presents Jesus' warning against the scribes who, He says, "like to walk around in long robes, and respectful greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets..." ("crushing" the desires of others for the same objectives). This is yet another time when Mark presents the destructive "leaven" of the leaders of Israel.
- g. In five of the nine uses, this intensified verb is used to describe an outcome of Jesus' use of His "power", and the seventh use records the whole of the leadership in Jerusalem questioning Jesus' "authority" to use that power. Mark's use has this impact: people are using physical power to go through life with "walking around" as the metaphor of that "walking". In the case of our current text, this "walking" is a "not walking according to what the leaders insist upon": "Your disciples are rebelling against God's instructions" with the implied meaning of "this rebellion is Your fault".
- C. The "question" itself.
- 1. "On account of what...". dia plus the accusative case indicates a foundation for some action or doctrine. It is an expansion of our "Why?"
- 2. "...are your disciples not' 'walking around' according to the standard(s) of the traditions of the elders...?"
- a. In the flow of time, men are continuously involved in making decisions and taking actions that, by the very nature of the case, automatically "exalt" certain choices/actions and "diminish" every other choice/action that would stand in their way.
- b. In this case, the "elders" have exalted their reasonings/choices/actions as "standards" for everyone else, along with the imposition of consequences/rewards upon those who are supposed to accept those "standards".
- c. Clearly, some of Jesus' disciples are openly violating the "standards of the elders", the behaviors of which have been established as "traditions". They are "crushing under their feet" the "authority" of those "elders".
- 1) "Traditions"; every use by Mark is in chapter seven.
- a) In 7:3, the explanation by Mark regarding eating food only after washing one's hands involves "patterns of behavior established by the decisions of "the elders".
- b) In 7:5, the same issue is raised as emphasis by repetition.
- c) In 7:8, Jesus puts "the traditions" in opposition to "the commandments of God".
- d) In 7:9, the same oppositional reality is emphasized: "you are experts of setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your traditions".
- e) In 7:13, Jesus repeats His accusation: "...invalidating the word of God by your tradition...".
- 2) The particular "tradition": eating the bread with unwashed hands.