What's the Big Deal About Eating Bread with Unwashed Hands?

Now that it has been established that the parenthetical phrase of Mark 7:19 is an addition to our English Bibles and it cannot serve as the conclusion of the passage, it is important to uncover the true meaning of Mark 7:1-23. See Previous:

Let's begin with the first section of that passage.

Mark 7:1-13 (KJV)
¹ Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.
² And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
³ For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.
⁴ 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.
⁵ Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
⁶ 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.
⁷ Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
⁸ For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
⁹ And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
¹⁰ For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:
¹¹ But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.
¹² And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;
¹³ Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

Scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem apparently had come to check out the stories and accounts that they had received regarding Yeshua. As they watched Yeshua and His disciples they were horrified to see that some of the disciples ate bread with unwashed hands (verse 2). In verses 3 and 4 Mark explained the traditions of the elders that these scribes and Pharisees held to.

These traditions had been passed down from generation to generation supposedly starting from the days of Moses. They were not written down but were orally transmitted. The point of these traditions was to fill in the details of the written Torah. The sages did not want the people to accidentally transgress the laws of God, so they made hedges to protect the people that would help keep them from actual disobedience of the Torah. Although the idea and intent were good, the Oral Law had often been treated as if it were as important as the written Torah. This is the attitude of the scribes and Pharisees who came to see Yeshua.

Why did some of the disciples not wash their hands? This seems to indicate that the Oral Law was not always observed the same by all the people. An example of Yeshua following the traditions of the Oral Law can be found in Matthew 14:19 where He said a blessing before feeding the 5,000. That is a tradition. The commandment is to say a blessing after eating (Deuteronomy 8:10).

Since the washing of hands before eating bread (which is a clean food) was a tradition, the Pharisees and scribes were out of line by raising that tradition up to the level of the Torah. Instead of directly stating this to the scribes and Pharisees, Yeshua called the men hypocrites and quoted Isaiah 29:13 (verses 6 and 7).

Isaiah 29:13 (KJV)
¹³ Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

Yeshua told the scribes and Pharisees via Isaiah that they gave God lip service, but that their hearts were far from God. They taught the traditions as if they were the commandments of God. He went on then to ask the men why they rejected the Laws of God (Torah) by their traditions (verse 9).

In verses 10 through 13 Yeshua explained a tradition where the scribes and Pharisees found a way to avoid having to honor their parents by not supplying an animal for their parents' use but claimed that the animal was going to be used for sacrifice, thereby freeing them from the obligation of providing for their parents. By doing this these men made the Word of God (Law of God) of none effect. In other words, they were using tradition to circumvent observance of God's Law. They were raising tradition to a level above the Law of God.

The point of this first section of Mark 7 has nothing to do with making all foods clean. It is a discussion on the proper place of tradition, nothing more and nothing less. Next time the second part of Mark 7:1-23 will be discussed.