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MARK 7:6 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Mark 7:5Mark 7:7
“He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”
He replied, Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me — Jesus' response begins with the accusation of hypocrisy through the Isaiah 29:13 citation. The hypocrites are not people who consciously say one thing and do another but people whose external religious practice has become disconnected from internal reality. These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me is the diagnostic: the lips perform the worship while the heart remains at distance. The external tradition-observance has become a substitute for the internal orientation it was meant to express.

Church Fathers on Mark 7:6

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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Mark 7:6 — Community Reflections | HolyStudy