² “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.”^(A)

³⁸ The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not first wash before dinner.^(A)

² they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.

Warnings against False Teachers

²⁰ If with Christ you died to the elemental principles^[a] of the world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations,^{(A) 21} “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? ²² All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings.^{(B) 23} These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence.^[b]

⁸ Watch out that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental principles^[a] of the world, and not according to Christ.^(A)

¹⁸ You know that you were ransomed from the futile conduct inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold

⁵ So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?”^(A)

¹⁴ And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,^(A)