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Jesus Challenges the Tradition of the Elders(A)

15 Then some Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem to Jesus and asked, “Why do your disciples disregard the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands when they eat.”[a]

But he answered them, “Why do you also disregard the commandment of God because of your tradition? Because God said,[b] ‘You are to honor your father and your mother,’[c] and, ‘Whoever curses father or mother must certainly be put to death.’[d] But you say, ‘Whoever tells his father or his mother, “Whatever support you might have received from me has been given to God,”[e] does not have to honor his father.’[f] Because of your tradition, then, you have disregarded[g] the authority of God’s word.[h] You hypocrites! How well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said,

‘These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me is empty,
    because they teach human rules as doctrines.’”[i]

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Footnotes

  1. Matthew 15:2 Lit. eat bread
  2. Matthew 15:4 Other mss. read commanded, saying
  3. Matthew 15:4 Cf. Exod 20:12; Deut 5:16
  4. Matthew 15:4 Cf. Exod 21:17; Lev 20:9
  5. Matthew 15:5 Lit. is a gift
  6. Matthew 15:6 Other mss. read his father or his mother
  7. Matthew 15:6 Or invalidated
  8. Matthew 15:6 Other mss. read law; still other mss. read commandment
  9. Matthew 15:9 Cf. Isa 29:13