Passage Viewer

On Tradition

One day, the Pharisees gathered around Jesus, along with some teachers of the law who had just arrived from Jerusalem.

They noticed that some of his disciples were eating their meal with unwashed hands, meaning they did not wash them. 

 Now the Pharisees, and indeed all the Jews, never eat without washing their hands because they follow the tradition passed down from their ancestors. 

Nor do they eat anything when they come from the market without first rinsing themselves. And they observe many other traditions as well; for example, the ritual washing of cups, pots, and plates. 

So the Pharisees and the teachers of the law asked him:

“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders, but eat with unclean hands?”

Jesus answered:

“You shallow people! How well Isaiah prophesied about you when he wrote:

This people honors me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me. 

The worship they offer me is worthless,

Teaching as doctrines only human precepts. 

You even set aside the commandment of God to hold on to human tradition.”

And Jesus commented:

“You have a poor way of disregarding the commandments of God in order to enforce your own traditions!

For example, Moses said: Do your duty to your father and your mother, and: Whoever curses his father or his mother is to be put to death. 

But according to you, someone could say to his father or his mother, ‘I already declared Corban (which means “offered to God’),’ which you could have expected from me.’ 

In this case, you no longer require him to do anything for his father or mother; 

 and so you nullify the word of God through the tradition you have handed down. And you do many other things like that.”