Jesus and Tradition

Jesus undermined the religious rationale for dietary restrictions. With his arrival, the old rituals and traditions are becoming irrelevant – Mark 7:1-23.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jerusalem is the headquarters of the opposition to Jesus, especially the priestly authorities of the Temple. As his popularity increased, he experienced growing conflicts with the priestly establishment, the Pharisees, and the Scribes, and his enemies began to plot his destruction.

Controversy erupted over what constitutes ceremonial uncleanness. In the seventh chapter of Mark, the Greek term translated as “unclean” more correctly means “common” (‘koinos’). It refers not to something that is immoral or filthy, but to that which is for common use in contrast to that which is sacred and dedicated exclusively to the service of God.

[Old Books - Photo by Chris Lawton (Bristol, UK) on Unsplash]

With the arrival of the Nazarene, the era of fulfillment commenced, and many of the old ways of doing things were no longer relevant, or even appropriate, including dietary restrictions. Thus, Jesus presented a radical challenge to the traditional ways of doing things.

• “And there are gathered together to him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, and they saw that some of his disciples ate their bread with defiled, that is, unwashed, hands. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands diligently, eat not, holding the Tradition of the Elders; and when they come from the marketplace, except they bathe themselves, they eat not; and many other things there are, which they have received to hold, washings of cups, and pots, and brass vessels.) And the Pharisees and the scribes ask him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the Tradition of the Elders, but eat their bread with defiled hands?” - (Mark 7:1-5).

Some of the rituals and regulations for maintaining ritual purity had been developed by the religious authorities after Moses gave the Torah to Israel. Moreover, many of the practices of the Scribes and Pharisees described in the gospel accounts are not found in the Mosaic Law. They were later interpretations and additions.

According to the Mosaic Law, for example, only priests are required to wash before entering the Tabernacle. For other Israelites, the washing of hands is required only if a man touches a bodily discharge, including human excretions (semen, menstrual blood, spit, excrement), women after childbirth, corpses, lepers, and certain classes of people - (Exodus 30:19, 40:13, Leviticus 15:11, 22:1-6).

Previously, in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus had contact with tax collectors, lepers, Gentiles, menstruating women, and dead bodies. In the Levitical system, washing hands and the body to deal with ceremonial pollution had nothing to do with hygiene and everything to do with restoring ritual purity - (Mark 1:40, 2:13, 5:1, 5:25, 5:35).

The bed was especially susceptible to ritual pollution due to the night secretions of the body (semen and menstrual blood). The risk of contamination was high in the “marketplace.” This is why the passage also refers to “bathing” after a man returned from the market.

In the present passage, the dispute is over the washing of hands before eating. But the Torah does not require Israelites to do so before a meal. That practice is based on later interpretations preserved in the oral traditions of the rabbis, the so-called ‘Tradition of the Elders’.

The Pharisees were imposing requirements from the Law that apply to priests ministering in the Temple to the everyday life of all Jews. What Jesus criticizes is the ‘Tradition of the Elders’, the added interpretations of the religious authorities.

“YOUR TRADITIONS”

The question raised by his opponents concerns the condition of the man who eats (“Why do your disciples eat with unclean hands?”). The term “marketplace” points to the real concern of Christ’s critics. Anything from the public sphere could easily render a man “unclean” due to the improper handling of food and other items by less devout Jews, and any interaction with Gentiles.

• “And he said to them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honours me with their lips, But their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men. You leave the commandment of God, and are grasping the tradition of men. And he said to them, Full well do you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.  For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother; and, He that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death. But you say, If a man will say to his father or his mother, That wherewith you might have been profited by me is Corban, that is to say, Given to God; you no longer suffer him to do anything for his father or his mother; negating the word of God by your tradition, which you have delivered. And many such like things you do” - (Mark 7:6-13).

Jesus uses two strong Greek verbs (“having negated the ordinance of God; grasping the tradition of men”). His opponents were making the ordinance of God void by their teachings, but they were, in fact, clinging desperately to human traditions rather than the commandments delivered to Israel by Moses; in this case, to honor and care for your parents.

The Greek term translated as “Corban” is from a Hebrew word that refers to offerings and things set aside exclusively for sacred use. Some Jews dedicated property to sacred use in order to deny its use to their parents or other family members. In this way, they avoided their family obligations. Any property declared ‘korban’ (κορβαν) passed to the Temple on the man’s death, rather than to his family - (Exodus 20:12, 21:17).

• “And Jesus called to him the multitude again, and said to them, Hear me, all of you, and understand. There is nothing from without the man that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man” – (Mark 7:14-15).

A Greek clause in the passage that is of special relevance consists of four words: ‘katharizōn panta ta brōmata’, meaning, “cleansing all the foods.” Consuming unclean foods did not defile a man. All things eaten went into the stomach and ended up in the latrine. Thus, the body itself separates the pure from the impure.

This statement does not reject the Levitical food regulations, and the question of their continuing validity is not the issue here. But Christ’s pronouncement does remove the religious rationale for dietary restrictions, and this saying of his may very well be behind some of the later pronouncements by the Apostles about food regulations. For example:

• “Let not him that eats set at nought him that does not eat. And let not him that eats not judge him that eats, for God has received him” - (Romans 14:3).

• “If you died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances? Handle not, taste not, Touch not; all which things are to perish with the using, after the precepts and doctrines of men?” - (Colossians 2:20-22).

What differentiates the holy from the unholy are the actions and intentions produced by the heart. It is moral action and willful decisions that render us “clean” or “unclean,” not external rituals, what foods we consume, or, for that matter, how closely we observe the Hebrew calendar and annual feast days – (See Galatians 4:9-10).

[PDF Copy]

SEE ALSO:

• The Son's Authority - (Jesus is the ‘Son of Man’ foreseen by Daniel, the Messiah with absolute authority over the peoples and nations of the Earth)

• Forgiving Sins - (Jesus healed a paralytic. By doing so, he demonstrated the authority of the Son of Man to discharge the stain of sin – Mark 2:1-12)

• Lord of the Sabbath - (In response to Jewish religious leaders, Jesus demonstrated that the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath Day - Mark 2:23-3:6)

• Jésus et la Tradition - (Jésus a sapé la justification religieuse des restrictions alimentaires. Avec son arrivée, les anciens rituels et traditions perdent de leur pertinence - Marc 7:1-23)