Mark 7:4 — Community Reflections

MARK 7:4 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“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.”

When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles — the marketplace contact with Gentiles or non-observant Jews could create ritual impurity; the washing upon return is the decontamination ritual. The many other traditions suggest that the handwashing controversy is the representative case of a broader system of purity regulation that the Pharisees applied to everyday domestic life.

Church Fathers on Mark 7:4

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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