Home
"The Teaching of the
Ancestors"
Mark 7.1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Good News Translation (GNT)
*************************
1 Some Pharisees and teachers of the Law who
had come from Jerusalem gathered around
Jesus.
2 They noticed that some of his disciples were
eating their food with hands that were ritually
unclean - that is, they had not washed them in
the way the Pharisees said people should.
3 For the Pharisees, as well as the rest of the
Jews, follow the teaching they received from
their ancestors: they do not eat unless they
wash their hands in the proper way;
4 nor do they eat anything that comes from the
market unless they wash it first.(a) And they
follow many other rules which they have
received, such as the proper way to wash
cups, pots, copper bowls, and beds.(b)
5 So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law
asked Jesus, "Why is it that your disciples do
not follow the teaching handed down by our
ancestors, but instead eat with ritually unclean
hands?"
6 Jesus answered them, "How right Isaiah was
when he prophesied about you! You are
hypocrites, just as he wrote: 'These people,
says God, honour me with their words, but
their heart is really far away from me.
7 It is no use for them to worship me, because
they teach human rules as though they were
my laws!'
8 "You put aside God's command and obey
human teachings."
The Things That Make a Person Unclean
14 Then Jesus called the crowd to him once
more and said to them, "Listen to me, all of
you, and understand.
15 There is nothing that goes into you from the
outside which can make you ritually unclean.
Rather, it is what comes out of you that makes
you unclean.
21 For from the inside, from your heart, come the
evil ideas which lead you to do immoral
things, to rob, kill,
22 commit adultery, be greedy, and do all sorts of
evil things; deceit, indecency, jealousy,
slander, pride, and folly -
23 all these evil things come from inside you
and make you unclean.
Footnotes
Mark 7:4 anything that comes from the market
unless they wash it first;
or
anything after they come from the market
unless they wash themselves first.
Mark 7:4 Some manuscripts do not have and
beds.
*************************
Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary'
(Kingsway)
The Teaching of the Ancestors
Clean and Unclean
Mark 7.1-8, 14-15, 21-23
The Jews had many religious traditions which they followed.
Many of these were oral traditions;
that is, they were the traditions of men.
They were not written in the Old Testament.
One such tradition was the washing of hands before eating.
The Jews didn't wash to clean the dirt from their hands.
The washing was only a sign that their hands were ritually "clean."
They believed that if they ate with unclean hands, their food would
be made "unclean."
For the same reason, the Jews also ritually washed their cups,
pitchers and kettles. Not only that, when the Jews went to the
crowded bazaars they often accidentally touched non-Jews -
that is, Gentiles - and thus became "unclean."
Therefore, they had to ritually bathe before they ate.
There were hundreds of such rules.
The Pharisees and teachers of the law accused Jesus' disciples
of not obeying the traditions of the elders.
Jesus knew their hypocrisy.
They cleaned the outside of their bodies, but their hearts
remained unclean, that is, proud and unloving.
They repeated eloquent prayers with their lips,
but they did not worship and honour God from their hearts.
They were indeed hypocrites.
In verses 6-7 Jesus quotes from Isaiah 29:13.
13 The Lord said,
"These people claim to worship me, but their
words are meaningless,
and their hearts are somewhere else.
Their religion is nothing but human rules
and traditions, which they have simply
memorised."
If our thoughts, desires, and actions are unclean, our hearts
will be unclean also. It is these things which make us truly unclean.
Jesus gives some examples of things coming out of a man's heart
that make him unclean.
All these sins arise first as evil desires in man's heart.
Other versions are available here
Return to the Home Page
Contact the Rector
The Revd.
Nic.Edwards
The Rectory,
Church Lane,
BUGBROOKE,
Northampton,
NN7 3PB
Land Line: 01604 - 815496
(Can be accessed from the mobile device)
Mobile: .....
E-mail:
thebeneficeofbhkandr at gmail dot com
Contact the Benefice Office
Sunday School Rooms, Church Lane,
BUGBROOKE, Northampton, NN7 3PB
Land Line: 01604 830373
E-mail:
thebeneficeofbhkandr at gmail dot com
Mon., Tues., Wed,, Thur., Fri.
9:00am to 11:30am
For Baptism bookings (Christenings)
to arrange an appointment please contact
the Benefice Office.
For Wedding bookings:
please contact the Benefice Office to arrange
an appointment.
Who Made This?
Seeing as you asked, if you can give helpful
advice or report factual corrections and
'deliberate mistakes',email:-
regparker3 at gmail dot com
Email addresses shown using words in an
attempt to avoid 'spam',
Type the email address replacing 'at' with '@',
and 'dot' with '.'
|