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NOTES for Mar 7:5-16

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5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctines the commandments of men.
8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
10 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:
11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.
12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;
13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
14 And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:
15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
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Jesus clearly distinguishes between Tradition and traditions. His disciples are accused of eating bread without first performing the prescribed ritual washing of hands, although the Torah itself does not require such washing: it was only a tribute to tradition, and a late tradition at that, rooted in the practice of certain Pharisaic teachers.

Meanwhile, such late, purely human traditions, which gratified the religious pride of those who kept them, sometimes became the cause of an actual violation of the commandment, the destruction of the genuine Tradition. Formally, of course, such a violation was entirely justified: the first commandment is greater than the fifth, and the one who strives to keep the first commandment in its fullness is sometimes forced to violate the fifth commandment.

But in this case the issue is plainly something else: using the primacy of the first commandment as a basis for in fact refusing to help elderly parents. Of course, it often turned out to be easier to put a certain sum into the temple treasury than to care for one's parents, and such donations were profitable for the temple leadership as well. It is no surprise that eventually an "adequate" justification was found for this practice, which in essence contradicted the Torah.

But Jesus, of course, sees perfectly all the deceitfulness of the proposed justifications. And He connects it with the very attitude toward Tradition, treating it not as a guide on the path of righteousness that leads into the Kingdom, but as a manual for arranging one's life in moral and religious comfort. He expresses the distinctive feature of such an attitude in two phrases: what defiles a person is not what enters the mouth, but what comes out of the mouth. The external, religious side of life has no relation to spiritual purity. But what happens in the heart does have a relation to it. The most direct and immediate relation.

Other notes

 
For Mar 7:14-23
14 And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:
15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.
18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?
20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
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The very fact that the disciples ask Him to explain what the Lord said to the people and the Pharisees about defilement is striking: "Nothing that enters a person from outside can defile him; but what comes out of him, that defiles...  Read more

The very fact that the disciples ask Him to explain what the Lord said to the people and the Pharisees about defilement is striking: "Nothing that enters a person from outside can defile him; but what comes out of him, that defiles a person." The point is that the understanding of sin as filth or dirt, common in many religions and also ordinary in the Old Testament, starts from the idea that the source of this dirt is outside the person. By coming into contact, bodily or morally, with this dirt that exists apart from you, you become soiled and unpleasant in God's eyes. The very vivid image of a stinking, unwashed person became permanently linked in human consciousness with the violation of God's design.

This idea of an external source of the evil that defiles a person is important because it greatly reduces the measure of our responsibility. Indeed, can we condemn a person who has stepped in a cow patty? We can only feel sorry for him. The option of laughing at him is, of course, not being considered. Yet the Lord says that the source of the evil that defiles a person is in the person's heart. Therefore we ourselves bear full responsibility for the evil that we, and only we, let into this world, and for the fact that God sees us in such a repulsive state.

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For Mar 7:14-24
14 And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:
15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.
18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?
20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
24 And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.
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The Savior's words that nothing entering the mouth can defile a person are sometimes interpreted to mean that there is nothing in the world that is unclean in itself...  Read more

The Savior's words that nothing entering the mouth can defile a person are sometimes interpreted to mean that there is nothing in the world that is unclean in itself, and that nothing can harm a person except what comes out of his own heart. Yet Jesus is speaking about why nothing entering the mouth can defile a person: it passes through the person and is thereby cleansed. This statement, strange at first glance, turns out to be quite logical if we keep in mind the second part of the explanation, which speaks about what comes out of the heart. It presupposes that if a person's heart stops spewing into the world everything the Savior lists, then nothing unclean will be able to defile him.

Of course, Jesus speaks about uncleanness not in the sense of sinfulness, but in the sense in which the Torah speaks about it: as a special kind of psychophysiological and spiritual state that hinders communion with God and obstructs sanctification. It is in this sense that certain kinds of food are called unclean, or non-kosher, in the Torah. They are not bad in themselves, but they are not suitable for a person who wants to live a full spiritual life.

Perhaps this was so before the coming into the world of the Messiah, who brought the Kingdom with Him. The Kingdom is where the concepts of cleanness and uncleanness truly become irrelevant, because the fullness of relationship with God there is completely different and cannot be compared with what existed before.

For a resident of the Kingdom, nature remains nature. Until a person's full transfiguration, his physiology remains what it was before. But it no longer has the same influence on a person's spiritual state that it once had. The process of digestion no longer interferes in spiritual life. On one condition: if the heart is pure and no filth comes from it. Just as it should be for a resident of the Kingdom.

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For Mar 6:54-7:8
54 And when they were come out of the ship, straightway they knew him,
55 And ran through that whole region round about, and began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he was.
56 And whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole.
1 Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.
2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.
4 And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.
5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctines the commandments of men.
8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
Hide
Jesus' conversation with the Pharisees about washing hands is a fine illustration of the essence of that conflict between Jesus and part of the Pharisaic brotherhood which eventually led many Pharisees to outright hatred of the One whom, as it seemed to them, they had awaited so eagerly...  Read more

Jesus' conversation with the Pharisees about washing hands is a fine illustration of the essence of that conflict between Jesus and part of the Pharisaic brotherhood which eventually led many Pharisees to outright hatred of the One whom, as it seemed to them, they had awaited so eagerly. In this case, of course, the issue is not hygiene, not the need to wash one's hands before eating, but precisely ritual washing, without which, as some Pharisaic teachers believed, one could not touch the bread that was about to be broken and blessed. Believing Jews did not and do not eat bread without blessing it in a special way.

It should be noted that this washing was not so much the fulfillment of Torah norms as a tribute to tradition. The Torah, which indeed requires washing for those taking part in a temple sacrifice, says nothing about the need for washings before blessing food in general or bread in particular at home. But evidently, for some, perhaps quite significant, part of the Pharisees, refusal to follow this and other similar late and secondary traditions was equivalent to apostasy from God. And Jesus responds rather sharply to the accusations against His disciples, as usual the disciples are not accused directly, with all responsibility being placed on the Teacher. He does not enter into any discussions with His opponents about tradition. He merely reminds them of Isaiah's words about true and false worship of God, that honoring God with words does not mean honoring Him with the heart.

What, then, does He mean? After all, such "excessive" piety, at first glance, does not especially hinder genuine piety. One can, of course, be faithful to God without washing one's hands, but washing one's hands would seem unable to hinder such faithfulness either. And yet Jesus sees the situation differently. The matter is probably not only that "excessive" piety so often becomes an occasion for pride and self-assertion at the expense of one's neighbor.

The matter is, above all, in the spiritual roots of such "piety." The point is that a person who does not want his relationship with God to deepen and intensify, and who fears such deepening, is often inclined to replace it with excessive religiosity, which gives rise to "super-piety." The person unwilling to go "inward," to deepen his relationship with God, will inevitably go "outward," along the path of increasing the number of religious rites and religious obligations. And the more numerous they become, the fewer the chances of returning to the path of movement "inward." Jesus, of course, understands this perfectly well. And He condemns the movement "outward" in the most decisive way. For by moving that way, one will never come to the Kingdom.

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For Mar 7:1-23
1 Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.
2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.
4 And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.
5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctines the commandments of men.
8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
10 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:
11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.
12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;
13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
14 And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:
15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.
18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?
20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
Hide
Today's reading brings us back again to a question that kept arising in Jesus' conversations with the Pharisees: the question...  Read more

Today's reading brings us back again to a question that kept arising in Jesus' conversations with the Pharisees: the question of revelation and religious tradition. It concerns the norms and rules of ritual purity accepted among a certain part of the Pharisees. The washings mentioned in the text of the passage are undoubtedly connected with rules mentioned in the Old Testament, for example in Leviticus, but judging by the evangelist's description, their number had increased substantially compared with the Old Testament prescriptions. This exaggerated attention to questions of ritual purity was apparently connected with the fact that, for the Pharisees who followed these rules, ritual purity was the chief condition of a full spiritual life. At the same time, exaggerated attention to the observance of some norms could quite well be combined with neglect of others, and this neglect found its theological justifications even when a direct violation of one of God's Ten Commandments was involved (vv. 9-13). Here Jesus evidently encounters a phenomenon that is, sadly, characteristic of any religious tradition: as these traditions develop and become more complex, over time they often begin to obscure the core connected with their birth and original formation. In the end it can even happen that the truth revealed by God is pushed into the background by theological concepts created by inventive theologians. Jesus Himself answers the question about purity by pointing to the human person: whether a person is clean or not depends precisely on that person's spiritual condition, or, in biblical language, on the condition of his heart (vv. 18-23). Here, of course, the matter is no longer external, ritual purity, but inner purity, which determines the quality of spiritual life. And if a person's heart is clean, then nothing from outside can defile him.

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For Mar 7:1-23
1 Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.
2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.
4 And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.
5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctines the commandments of men.
8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
10 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:
11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.
12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;
13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
14 And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:
15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.
18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?
20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
Hide
Jesus turns the dispute about tradition in a completely unexpected direction. The washings mentioned in the text were one of those expanded interpretations...  Read more

Jesus turns the dispute about tradition, about handed-down practice, in a completely unexpected direction. The washings mentioned in the text were one of those expanded interpretations of the norms and rules of ritual purity, of which many appeared in the Second Temple period. A cleansing washing, even of the hands alone after returning from the marketplace, was one of these newly established rules.

There was a desire here for a kind of "super-purity": anything could happen in the marketplace, all kinds of people are encountered there, and there is enough uncleanness of every sort. So it was better, just in case, to perform a washing, even a partial one, even only of the hands, before sitting down at the table where one would have to break, and therefore bless, the bread. Meanwhile all these traditions, as Jesus testifies, could not prevent essential distortions connected with spiritual life, with such fundamental things as keeping the commandments. The Savior Himself gives an example of such a violation: promise to donate to the Temple what is needed to help elderly parents, and you no longer have to help them, since God is more important.

Formally everything is correct and pious, but in substance it is a violation of the fifth commandment. How is that possible? Jesus gives the answer immediately, reducing it to an aphoristic formulation: a person is defiled not by what enters him, but by what comes out of him. Other Gospels speak directly of a person's mouth. The point is evidently, on the one hand, the food that enters a person and, on the other hand, words. Of course, behind words there are always intentions, and it is those intentions that defile a person. In the Kingdom this is really so, because the fallen world and its elements no longer have their former power over a person.

Why, then, do people so often shift the emphases of spiritual life from what is primary to what is secondary? Jesus answers this question too. He says that what a person eats does not defile him. On the contrary, if a person lives a normal, full spiritual life, he is able to sanctify any food that enters his body. As for what comes out of the body, the intentions and words, that is exactly where the question is decided: will a person preserve purity or be defiled? This is understandable. Physically, a person is what he eats, but only physically; spiritually, he is what his soul desires and strives for. Where the treasure is, there the heart is also. If a person does not have a normal spiritual life, then of course every kind of uncleanness will cling to him. In that case, however, no cleansings will help, just as no medicines help someone who has no immunity at all. Jesus reminds the people listening to Him of all this as of things fundamental to spiritual life.

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For Mar 7:1-13
1 Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.
2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.
4 And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.
5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctines the commandments of men.
8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
10 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:
11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.
12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;
13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
Hide
We remember how Matthew the Evangelist quotes the Lord Jesus' words that "heaven and earth will pass away sooner than...  Read more

We remember how Matthew the Evangelist quotes the Lord Jesus' words that "heaven and earth will pass away sooner than one stroke of the law" (Matt. 5:18). What, then, is the opposition between Christ and the Pharisees? It seems that for the Pharisees the law is a set of commandments by doing which a person can please God, draw closer to Him, and fulfill His will for humanity. This is the approach of any religious consciousness for which the essence of God's relationship with a person consists in performing certain actions that God commands people to carry out. A familiar approach, is it not? What does Christ say about the law? In His interpretation, love for parents is higher than an offering to the temple, and purity of heart is more important than purity of hands. This is what the Law of Moses is directed toward. Therefore, in order to live according to God's law, one must be more attentive to the heart and to relationships with God and people than to the fulfillment of laws or rules.

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