Review of the Covenant for a New Generation

4 So now, Israel, listen to the statutes and the ordinances that I am teaching you, and carry them out so that you may live and so that you may enter the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving to you and take possession of it. ² Do not add to the word that I am commanding you, and do not subtract from it, so that you keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you.

⁶ Keep them and put them into practice, because in this way your wisdom and your understanding will be recognized by all the people who hear about all these statutes; and they will say, “This great nation is certainly a wise and understanding people,” ⁷ because what other great nation is there that has a god as close to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call on him? ⁸ What other great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances as righteous as this entire law that I am presenting to you today?

⁹ But guard yourselves and guard your whole being^[a] diligently, so that you do not forget the things that your eyes have seen and so that those things do not disappear from your heart all the rest of the days of your life. Make them known to your children and to your children’s children.

The Majority of Jews Rejected Justification by Faith

³⁰ What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who were not pursuing righteousness, have obtained righteousness, a righteousness that is by faith. ³¹ But Israel, while pursuing the law as a way of righteousness, did not reach it. ³² Why? Because they kept pursuing it not by faith, but as if it comes by works.^[a] They stumbled over the stumbling stone. ³³ Just as it is written:

Prayer for Israelites to Believe

10 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God on behalf of the Israelites is that they may be saved. ² Indeed, I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but it is not consistent with knowledge. ³ Since they were ignorant of the righteousness from God and sought to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to the righteousness from God. ⁴ For to everyone who believes, Christ is the end of the law, resulting in righteousness.

Commandments and Traditions

7 The Pharisees and some of the experts in the law came from Jerusalem and gathered around Jesus. ² They saw some of his disciples eating bread with unclean (that is, unwashed) hands. ³ In fact, the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they scrub their hands with a fist,^[a] holding to the tradition of the elders. ⁴ When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.^[b] And there are many other traditions they adhere to, such as the washing^[c] of cups, pitchers, kettles, and dining couches.^{[d] 5} The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked Jesus, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? Instead they eat bread with unclean hands.”

⁶ He answered them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. As it is written:

⁸ “You abandon God’s commandment but hold to human tradition like the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things.”^[f]

¹⁴ He called the crowd to him again and said, “Everyone, listen to me and understand. ¹⁵ There is nothing outside of a man that can make him unclean by going into him. But the things that come out of a man are what make a man unclean.

²¹ In fact, from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual sins, theft, murder, ²² adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. ²³ All these evil things proceed from within and make a person unclean.”