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Pharisees Object To Eating With Unwashed Hands. Jesus Condemns Their Traditions

And the Pharisees and some of the scribes are gathered-together with Him, having come from Jerusalem. And having seen some of His disciples, that they are eating their bread with defiled[a] hands, that is, unwashed[b] for the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands with a fist[c], holding-on-to the tradition of the elders.

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Footnotes

  1. Mark 7:2 Or, unclean; that is, not ritually purified from contact with unclean things or people, according to their traditions.
  2. Mark 7:2 Mark breaks off his sentence here and explains this to his readers, then begins again in v 5.
  3. Mark 7:3 There are different opinions about the exact procedure in view here. In any case it is a ceremonial washing for which the water is seen in Jn 2:6. Some manuscripts have a different word meaning ‘often’ or ‘thoroughly’.

That Which Defiles(A)

The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled,(B) that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders.(C)

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