Now when the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. 3 (For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. 4 And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles [and beds].) 5 So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” 6 He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; 7 In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.’ 8 You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” 9 He went on to say, “How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘Whoever curses father or mother shall die.’ 11 Yet you say, ‘If a person says to father or mother, “Any support you might have had from me is qorban”’ (meaning, dedicated to God), 12 you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother. 13 You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things.”
Mark now brings Jesus into a public dispute about how God’s people should live. Some Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem notice that a few disciples eat with “unclean,” meaning unwashed, hands. Mark pauses to explain the practice because it is not simply a matter of table manners. It belongs to a wider set of customary purifications connected to ritual purity in daily life (cf. Ex. 30:17-21).
The question put to Jesus is pointed: why do his disciples not follow “the tradition of the elders”? In this setting, the “tradition of the elders” refers to accepted religious customs, treated with real authority and meant to shape Israel’s life as a holy people. Over time, such customs could also become detailed enough to feel like a burden, especially when they were applied beyond the temple and priestly service into everyday situations. The dispute, therefore, becomes more than a debate about technique. It becomes a debate about what truly honors God and who is rightly interpreting God’s will.
Jesus answers by quoting Isaiah: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Isa. 29:13; Mk 7:6-7). Jesus uses the prophet’s words to show what is wrong: they can look religious on the outside, but their hearts are not really turned toward God. He speaks to them plainly and does not soften the point: “You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition” (Mk 7:8). The issue is not that all tradition is bad. The issue is that a human practice has been treated as if it can outweigh, revise, or bypass what God has actually commanded.
Jesus then gives a concrete example, and he chooses one of the clearest moral obligations in the law: honoring father and mother (Ex. 20:12; Mk 7:10). He also cites the gravity of cursing father or mother (Mk 7:10; cf. Ex. 21:17). Against this stands a practice described with a single word, “qorban,” meaning something dedicated to God (Mk 7:11). In the example Jesus gives, a person declares that the support his parents might have received is now “qorban.” The result is that the person is permitted to do “nothing more” for father or mother (Mk 7:12). What looks like a religious dedication becomes a way to avoid a basic duty of justice and love within the family.
That is why Jesus concludes, “You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on” (Mk 7:13). His point is sharp and practical. If a religious custom ends up canceling what God has commanded, that custom has crossed a line. It no longer serves worship. It damages worship because it hides disobedience under the appearance of devotion.
Jesus is not rejecting Israel’s desire to be holy in daily life. He is exposing a failure of moral priority. Worship that is true cannot be separated from obedience to God’s commands and concrete love of neighbor, beginning with one’s own parents. The same theme appears elsewhere in the Gospels when Jesus presses beyond the external to the interior truth of the heart (cf. Lk 11:39-41) and when he repeats that God seeks worship that is real, ”in Spirit and truth”, not merely verbal (cf. Jn 4:23-24). Matthew records the same dispute with the same Isaiah quotation and the same core point (Mt 15:1-9), showing that the issue was widely understood as a conflict between humanly managed religion and God’s actual will.
Almighty God, give me a heart that is close to you. Keep my worship truthful, and keep my obedience simple and real. Teach me to honor you with my words and my life. This I pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Sources and References
- Sacred Scripture: The New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE), Mk 7:1-13; Is 29:13; Ex 20:12; Ex 21:17; Dt 5:16.
- Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch, The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament (San Francisco: Ignatius Press), 77-78 (Mk 7:1-13 notes).
- Raymond E. Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy, eds., The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990), 611-612, para. 47.
- The Navarre Bible: The Gospel According to St. Mark (Dublin: Four Courts Press), 187.
- Eugene LaVerdiere, The Gospel of Mark (Paulist Biblical Commentary) (New York: Paulist Press), 994.
- John J. Collins, Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid, and Donald Senior, eds., The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century, 3rd rev. ed. (London/New York: Bloomsbury), 1258-1259.
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