Mark 7:1-12 ▼

1 Then the Pharisees, with certain Scribes who had come from Jerusalem, came to Him in a body.

2 They had noticed that some of His disciples were eating their food with 'unclean' (that is to say, unwashed)

3

4 and when they come from market they will not eat without bathing first; and they have a good many other customs which they have received traditionally and cling to, such as the rinsing of cups and pots and of bronze utensils, and the washing of beds.)

5 So the Pharisees and Scribes put the question to Him: "Why do your disciples transgress the traditions of the Elders, and eat their food with unclean hands?"

6 "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites," He replied; "as it is written, "'This People honour Me with their lips, while their hearts are far away from Me:

7 But idle is their devotion while they lay down precepts which are mere human rules.'

8 "You neglect God's Commandment: you hold fast to men's traditions."

9 "Praiseworthy indeed!" He added, "to set at nought God's Commandment in order to observe your own traditions!

10 For Moses said, 'Honour thy father and thy mother' and again, 'He who curses father or mother, let him die the death.'

11 But *you* say, 'If a man says to his father or mother, It is a Korban (that is, a thing devoted to God)

12 And so you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or mother,