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MARK 7:2 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Mark 7:1Mark 7:3
“And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.”
And saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed — the observation that triggers the controversy is dietary-ritual: the disciples are eating without washing their hands in the prescribed manner. The that is, unwashed is Mark's explanatory aside, communicating that he is writing for a Gentile audience unfamiliar with Jewish purity practices. The offense is not hygienic (unsanitary hands) but ritual: the Pharisaic tradition required handwashing before meals as an extension of the priestly purity requirements into everyday life.

Church Fathers on Mark 7:2

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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