3 Now the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not take food without washing their hands with care, keeping the old rule which has been handed down to them:
4 And when they come from the market-place, they take no food till their hands are washed; and a number of other orders there are, which have been handed down to them to keep--washings of cups and pots and brass vessels.
5 And the Pharisees and the scribes put the question to him, Why do your disciples not keep the rules of the fathers, but take their bread with unwashed hands?
6 And he said, Well did Isaiah say of you, you false ones: These people give me honour with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7 But their worship is to no purpose, while they give as their teaching the rules of men.
8 For, turning away from the law of God, you keep the rules of men.
9 And he said to them, Truly you put on one side the law of God, so that you may keep the rules which have been handed down to you.
10 For Moses said, Give honour to your father and mother, and, He who says evil of father or mother, let him have the punishment of death:
11 But you say, If a man says to his father or his mother, That by which you might have had profit from me is Corban, that is to say, Given to God,
12 You no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother;
13 Making the word of God of no effect by your rule, which you have given: and a number of other such things you do.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Mark 7
Commentary on Mark 7 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 7
In this chapter we have,
Mar 7:1-23
One great design of Christ's coming, was, to set aside the ceremonial law which God made, and to put an end to it; to make way for which he begins with the ceremonial law which men had made, and added to the law of God's making, and discharges his disciples from the obligation of that; which here he doth fully, upon occasion of the offence which the Pharisees took at them for the violation of it. These Pharisees and scribes with whom he had this argument, are said to come from Jerusalem down to Galilee-fourscore or a hundred miles, to pick quarrels with our Saviour there, where they supposed him to have the greatest interest and reputation. Had they come so far to be taught by him, their zeal had been commendable; but to come so far to oppose him, and to check the progress of his gospel, was great wickedness. It should seem that the scribes and Pharisees at Jerusalem pretended not only to a pre-eminence above, but to an authority over, the country clergy, and therefore kept up their visitations and sent inquisitors among them, as they did to John when he appeared, Jn. 1:19.
Now in this passage we may observe,
We have here an account of the practice of the Pharisees and all the Jews, v. 3, 4.
Now that which he goes about to set them right in, is, what the pollution is, which we are in danger of being damaged by, v. 15.
Mar 7:24-30
See here,
Mar 7:31-37
Our Lord Jesus seldom staid long in a place, for he knew where his work lay, and attended the changes of it. When he had cured the woman of Canaan's daughter, he had done what he had to do in that place, and therefore presently left those parts, and returned to the sea of Galilee, whereabout his usual residence was; yet he did not come directly thither, but fetched a compass through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis, which lay mostly on the other side Jordan; such long walks did our Lord Jesus take, when he went about doing good.
Now here we have the story of a cure that Christ wrought, which is not recorded by any other of the evangelists; it is of one that was deaf and dumb.
Now this cure was,