P A R T S I X T H.
FROM THE THIRD PASSOVER UNTIL OUR
LORD'S ARRIVAL AT BETHANY.
(Time: One Year Less One Week.)
LXV.
JESUS FAILS TO ATTEND THE THIRD PASSOVER.
SCRIBES REPROACH HIM
FOR DISREGARDING TRADITION.
(Galilee, probably Capernaum, Spring A. D. 29.)
aMATT. XV. 1-20; bMARK
VII. 1-23; dJOHN VII. 1.
d1 And after these things
Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Judæa, because
the Jews sought to kill him. [John told us in his last chapter that
the passover was near at hand. He here makes a general statement which
shows that Jesus did not attend this passover. The reason for his absence
is given at John v. 18.] a1
Then there come to Jesus from Jerusalem
b1 And there are gathered together unto him the Pharisees, and
certain of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem,
2 and had seen that some of his disciples ate their bread with defiled,
that is, with unwashen, hands. [Evidently several days intervened between
the address of John vi. and the events recorded here, for the Pharisees
and scribes would not be likely to leave Jerusalem until after the passover.*]
3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands diligently,
eat not, holding the tradition of the elders;
4 and when they come from the [393] market-place,
except they bathe themselves, they eat not; and many other things there
are, which they have received to hold, washings of cups, and pots, and
brasen vessels.) 5 And the Pharisees and
scribes asked him, asaying, bWhy walk not thy disciples
according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled
hands? a2 Why do thy disciples
transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when
they eat bread. [For former comment on the custom of washing or dipping
see page 312. Belief in the
tradition of the elders was the fundamental peculiarity of the Pharisaic
system. They held that these traditions, or oral expositions of and additions
to the law, were revealed to Moses along with the law, and were communicated
by him orally to the elders of the people, by whose successors they had
been handed down through each successive generation. They regarded these
traditions as equal in authority with the written word. Various types of
uncleanness are specified in the Mosaic law. Traditions extended the idea
of uncleanness so as to hold the man as probably unclean who had been in
the marketplace, where he might have touched an unclean person, and to
hold certain cups, pots, and brazen vessels as ceremonially unclean when
neither the laws of Moses nor the laws of hygiene declared them to be so.
Since the law of Moses ordered the unclean to dip himself in a bath for
his cleansing, the tradition of the elders required a like dipping in these
cases of uncleanness which they had invented. When we remember that bathing
was a daily practice among the Pharisees, we are less surprised at this
observance. As to the theory that the tradition of the elders was derived
from Moses, Jesus here flatly contradicts it. There is no trustworthy evidence
to show that it is of higher antiquity than the time of the return from
the Babylonian captivity.] 3 And he
answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment
of God because of your tradition?
7 Ye hypocrites, bWell did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites
[Isa. xxix. 13],asaying, bas
it is written, This people [394] honoreth
me with their lips, But their heart is far from me.
7 But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the
precepts of men. 8 Ye leave the commandment
of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.
9 And he said unto them, Full well do ye reject the commandment of God,
that ye may keep your tradition. [These Pharisees coming from Jerusalem
could find nothing wherein Jesus or his disciples transgressed the law,
so they eagerly grasped this transgression of the tradition as affording
ground for an accusation. Jesus does not deny their charge, but justifies
his disciples by attacking the whole traditional system, basing his attack
upon a pointed prophecy which condemns it. It is hard for us to learn and
apply the distinction between serving God as God wishes to be served, and
serving him according to our own wishes and notions.]
a4 For God {bMoses} said [that is, God said it
through Moses], Honor thy father and thy mother;
and, He that speaketh evil of father or mother, let him die the death
[see Ex. xx. 12; Deut. v. 16; Ex xxi. 17; Lev. xx. 9]:
11 but ye say, If a man {aWhosoever} shall say to his father
or his mother, That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me bis
Corban, that is to say, Given to God;
a6 he shall not honor his father.
b12 ye no longer suffer him to do ought for his father or his
mother; aAnd ye have made {b13
making} void the word of God by {abecause of} your tradition.
bwhich ye have delivered: and many such like things ye do.
[Leaving for a moment the main question concerning uncleanness and washing,
Jesus makes good his indictment against their tradition by giving an example
of the mischievous way in which it set aside God's commandments. The law
required the honoring of parents, and for any one to cast off his parents
in their old age, thus subjecting them to beggary or starvation, was to
do more than to speak evil of them. Such conduct was practically to curse
them, and to incur the death penalty for so doing. But at this point the
Pharisees interfered with their tradition, which taught that [395] a
son could say of that part of his estate by which his parents might be
profited, It is a gift; that is, a gift to God, and by thus dedicating
that part to God, he would free himself from his obligation to his parents.
Thus tradition undid the law. God's law leads to pure and acceptable worship,
while human additions and amendments make worship vain, if not abominable.
There is probably not one such addition or amendment which does not to
a greater or less degree make some commandment void.]
14 And he called to him the multitude again, and said unto them [Having
been accused by the scribes and Pharisees of a breach of their tradition,
Jesus points out to them generally the iniquity of tradition, for
it lay within their power as leaders to remedy the whole system of things.
Having done this, he turns to the multitude and answers before them
as to the offense with which he is specifically charged. Thus he gives
to the leaders general principles, and to the common people the single
instance], Hear me all of you, and understand:
a11 Not that which entereth into the mouth defileth a man; but
that which proceedeth out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
b15 there is nothing from without a man, that going into him
can defile him: but the things which proceed out of the man are those that
defile the man. 17 And when he was entered
into the house from the multitude, a12
Then came the disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees
were offended, when they heard this saying? [The entire speech offended
them. He charged them with hypocrisy. He showed that their tradition, which
they reverenced as a revelation from God, led them into sin, and he disturbed
their self-complacency by showing that the ceremonial cleanness, which
was founded on tradition, and in which they prided themselves, was worthless
in comparison with the moral cleanness required by God's law, which they
had ignored. It grieved the disciples to see Jesus offend these reverend
gentlemen from Jerusalem. Like many modern disciples their respect for
men counteracted their zeal for truth.]
13 But he answered and said, Every [396] plant
which my heavenly Father hath planted not, shall be up rooted up. [God
had planted the law with its doctrine: he had planted the Hebrew religion
as given by Moses. He had not planted the tradition of the elders; so it,
and the religion founded upon it, was doomed to be rooted up.]
14 Let them alone: they are blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind,
both shall fall into a pit. [This proverbial expression is found in
the Sermon on the Mount. See page
262. There it taught that the disciple could expect to attain no higher
felicity than his teacher. Here it teaches the lesson of patience, and
is akin to the words of David, which begin, "Fret not thyself because of
evil-doers" (Ps. xxxvii. 1, 2). The words of Jesus are full of encouragement
to those who adhere to the simple teachings of God; for they show that
God guarantees that every error shall be uprooted, and that every teacher
of error or false religion shall participate in the judgment which uproots,
and shall fall into the pit of ruin; and his disciples, no matter how numerous,
shall share his fate. In this particular instance, the destruction of Jerusalem
was the pit. The Jewish leaders led their disciples into it, and God uprooted
their system of tradition, that the pure gospel might be sowed in the room
which they occupied.] 15 And Peter
answered and said unto him, Declare unto us the parable. [The word
"parable" is used here in its looser sense to indicate an obscure saying.]
bhis disciples asked of him the parable. [They asked what
he meant by the words contained in the eleventh verse.
18 And he saith {asaid,} bunto them, aAre
ye even yet bso without understanding also? [It was to be
expected that the multitude, swayed by the teaching of the Pharisees, would
be slow to grasp what Jesus said about uncleanness; but the disciples,
having been so long taught of him, and having felt free to eat with unwashed
hands, should have been more quick of understanding.] Perceive
ye not, that whatsoever from without goeth into the man, it cannot
defile him; 19 because it goeth not into
his heart, but apasseth into the {bhis} belly, and
goeth out into {aand is cast out into} the [397] draught?
bThis he said, making all meats clean.
20 And he said, a18 But the things
which proceed out of the mouth come forth out of the heart; and they defile
the man. bThat which proceedeth out of the man, that defileth
the man. 21 For
from within, out of the heart of men, acome forth {bproceed,}
aevil thoughts, bfornications, thefts, murders, adulteries,
22; covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye [an
envious eye] afalse witness, railings: {brailing,}
pride, foolishness: 23 all these evil
things proceed from within, and a20
these are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashen hands,
defileth not the man. [Thus Jesus sets forth the simple doctrine that
a man's moral and spiritual state is not dependent upon the symbolic cleanness
of his physical diet, much less is it dependent on ceremonial observances
in regard to things eaten, or the dishes from which they are eaten. Of
course, Jesus did not mean at this time to abrogate the Mosaic law of legal
uncleanness. These uncleannesses worked no spiritual defilement,
but were merely typical of such; for the food in no way touched or affected
the mind or soul, the fountains of spiritual life, but only the corporeal
organs, which have no moral susceptibility. The Pharisees had erred in
confusing legal and spiritual defilement, and had added error to error
by multiplying the causes of defilement in their tradition. By thus showing
that legal defilement was merely symbolic, Jesus classed it with all the
other symbolism which was to be done away with when the gospel reality
was fully ushered in (Col. ii. 16, 17). In saying, therefore, that Jesus
made all meats clean, Mark does not mean that Jesus then and there repealed
the law. The declaration of such repeal came later (Acts x. 14, 15). He
means that he there drew those distinctions and laid down those principles
which supplanted the Mosaic law when the kingdom of God was ushered in
on the day of Pentecost. Here was the fountain whence Paul drew all his
teaching concerning things clean and unclean.] [398]
* It was
a whole year.--J. W. McG.
[FFG 393-398]
