Mark 7:1 — Community Reflections

MARK 7:1 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.”

The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus — the Jerusalem delegation returns, as in chapter 3 when Jerusalem scribes made the Beelzebul accusation. The centralization of the opposition from the capital city communicates the escalating institutional response to Jesus' Galilean ministry. Gathering around Jesus is the posture of interrogation and surveillance, not learning — these are not students seeking wisdom but evaluators seeking grounds for accusation.

Church Fathers on Mark 7:1

The people of the land of Gennesareth, who seemed to be unlearned men, not only come themselves, but also bring their sick to the Lord, that they may but succeed in touching the hem of His garment. But the Pharisees and Scribes, who ought to have been the teachers of the people, run together to the Lord, not to seek for healing, but to move captious questions.
Bede · 8th century · in Marc., 2, 29

For the disciples of the Lord, who were taught only the practice of virtue, used to eat in a simple way, without washing their hands; but the Pharisees, wishing to find an occasion of blame against them, took it up; they did not indeed blame them as transgressors of the law, but for transgressing the traditions of the elders.
Theophylact · 11th century

Wonderful is the folly of the Pharisees and Scribes; they accuse the Son of God, because He keeps not the traditions and precepts of men. But 'common' is here put for unclean; for the people of the Jews, boasting that they were the portion of God, called those meats common, which all made use of.
Jerome · 4th century · Hier. in Matt., 15

Read all 10 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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