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Mark 7:4
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2 Now1 when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with aunwashed hands, they found fault.  
3 For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands1 in a special way, holding the atradition of the elders.  
4 When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches.
5 aThen the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?”  
6 He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you ahypocrites, as it is written:
b‘This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me. 
7 And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
8 For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men —the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”  
9 He said to them, “All too well ayou reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.  
10 For Moses said, a‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, b‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’  
11 But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, a“Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”—’ (that is, a gift to God),  
12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother,
13 making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
14 aWhen He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear Me, everyone, and bunderstand:  
15 There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that adefile a man.  
Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
<< Mark 7:3   Mark 7:5 >>


Mark 7:4

From the marketplace (ap agorav). Ceremonial defilement was inevitable in the mixing with men in public. This agora from ageirw to collect or gather, was a public forum in every town where the people gathered like the courthouse square in American towns. The disciples were already ceremonially defiled.

Wash themselves (baptiswntai). First aorist middle subjunctive of baptizw, dip or immerse. Westcott and Hort put rantiswntai in the text translated "sprinkle themselves" in the margin of the Revised Version, because Aleph, B, and some of the best cursives have it. Gould terms rantiswntai "a manifest emendation," to get rid of the difficulty of dipping or bathing the whole body. Meyer says: "The statement proceeds by way of climax: before eating they wash the hands always. When they come from market they take a bath before eating." This is not the place to enter into any controversy about the meaning of baptizw, to dip, rantizw, to sprinkle, and ecxew, to pour, all used in the New Testament. The words have their distinctive meanings here as elsewhere. Some scribes felt a difficulty about the use of baptiswntai here. The Western and Syrian classes of manuscripts add "and couches" (kai klinwn) at the end of the sentence. Swete considers the immersions of beds (baptismouv klinwn) "an incongruous combination." But Gould says: "Edersheim shows that the Jewish ordinance required immersions, baptismouv, of these vessels." We must let the Jewish scrupulosity stand for itself, though "and couches" is not supported by Aleph, B L D Bohairic, probably not genuine.




Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Mark 7:4:

Acts 16:19
Titus 1:14
Hebrews 6:2
Hebrews 9:10
Hebrews 9:19

 

<< Mark 7:3   Mark 7:5 >>

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