The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders — the explanatory parenthetical (verses 3–4) is extensive for Mark, who typically moves quickly. The tradition of the elders is the oral law — the body of rabbinic interpretation and application of the Torah that the Pharisees treated as binding alongside the written Torah. The ceremonial washing is not prescribed in the Torah itself but is part of the tradition the Pharisees elevated to Torah-level authority.

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