So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.”

Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,

‘These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship is a farce,
    for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 7:7 Isa 29:13 (Greek version).

So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders(A) instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

“‘These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
    their teachings are merely human rules.’[a](B)

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Footnotes

  1. Mark 7:7 Isaiah 29:13