Mark Chapter 7
Starts like Mt 15 starts. They ask Jesus about washing before eating. There is additional explanation about these rules in parentheses. The Pharisees had built a whole "ritual" around what all had to be washed before you could eat. Not just hands, but cups, plates, couches and so on. This was all tradition, and they knew it was not Mosaic law.
2021 - Some interesting - very interesting things - are in the footnotes to the parentheses:
3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) [Mar 7:3-4 ESV]
First footnote has to do with "wash their hands properly". The footnote says the literal interpretation is "unless they wash their hands with a fist", indicating some kind of ceremony they went through before they would eat. We don't really know precisely what it meant, but it does seem to indicate a ritualization of something as trivial as washing hands before eating, and something that had no scriptural command behind it. The verse even says it is about tradition. Then in vs 4 there is a note about "unless they wash". The word that is actually used here is "unless they baptize". So did they have to immerse themselves before they ate if they'd been to the marketplace and been exposed to all those sinners? Other manuscripts say "unless they purify themselves". Perhaps these two together give us an understanding of how baptism - ritual immersion of the whole body - was understood at that time. It was a purification, washing off the dirt of the world before participating in....what? Lunch? It seems better understood as "starting clean" on a new task. This would explain why those disciples in Acts who'd been baptized into John still needed to be baptized into Christ. (Looking at the interlinear, the word baptizo is what is used in both the Morphological GNT and the Textus Receptus.)
2022 - Two forms of the word baptizo are used in vs. 4, coming from different Strong's numbers; G907 and G909, "baptizo" and "baptizmos". Surely that root would mean immerse in both cases. The first is a verb, the second a masculine noun. Here is that whole verse:
"4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.)" [Mar 7:4 ESV]
It is also interesting that the Scribes and Pharisees ask why Jesus' disciples do not follow the tradition of the elders. They don't ask why they violate the Law of Moses, they already know Moses didn't say this. This is an example of the "heavy burden" the Pharisees put on the people and lift no finger to make it easier. Can you imagine the common people all having a bathtub full of water so that they could wash every time they went to the market? This would have been impossible for many, and could even have turned them away from Judaism completely since they had no chance of doing it right.
2022 - This is assuming that they immersed their whole bodies. And the link between what they are doing to "purify" themselves and what John was doing at the Jordan and what we are to do now is unmistakable. If the Pharisees did completely immerse themselves when they came from the market, then likely only the rich, and/or only those with servants, would be able to take the time and energy to continually do so. These washings before eating may have been yet another way the Pharisees separated themselves from the common people. Which would mean that even in this, they were completely off the track of what the "rules" ought to be about.
2024 - This also would seem an unmistakable rebuttal to the traditions of the Catholic church. Many of the doctrines of the RCC are passed down from Pope to Pope, and observed not because the Bible commands it but because the traditions of the church demand it. Some of the RCC traditions are just like this - things that must be done, rituals that are to be observed, like the mass, that are not at all outlined in Scripture, nor commanded. The RCC also has doctrines that are based on tradition instead of Scripture. The perpetual virginity of Mary and the immaculate conception of Mary to name just two. Add the worship of the saints (though they deny this as worship). All these things, which they make NECESSARY to enter heaven, are tradition and not Scripture.
Jesus talks here also about them not honoring parents because they have twisted their laws to the point where they contradict the word. Tradition trumps scripture with them.
Then Mark tells us about what corrupts a man. Here, Jesus seems to be overthrowing the dietary laws of Moses. In fact, this is about so focusing on the letter of the law that we disregard the intent. The Rule becomes more important than the Ruler.
And he said to them, "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
Mark 7:18-19 ESV
Look in the parentheses. They seem to stretch what Jesus as really saying. He always kept the intent of the law, but not the letter.
2021 - No. Jesus is making it clear that the dietary rules of the Mosaic Law were to separate the culture of Israel from all other countries. Just like I read earlier today in the words of Balaam as he blessed Israel in Numbers 23:9b. So interesting that I read both these verses the same day using this new plan! The dietary rules made Israel a nation dwelling alone, so different from all others specifically for the purpose of making it undesirable to the daughters and sons of other nations who might intermarry. Jesus did keep the letter of the Law, but he understood the purpose of the dietary laws, not just the literal injunctions about diet.
2023 - Vss 20-23: 20 And he said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person." [Mar 7:20-23 ESV]. Jesus puts great emphasis here that ALL sin comes from within. We don't get to blame anyone else. No external factor is the cause of our sin. We sin because we want to sin. And this comes right after Jesus saying that nothing outside and going in can defile a man. That goes to the stomach and passes right on out. But what comes out of the heart...that defiles. All sin is from within.
Then Mark's account of the Syrophonecian woman asking for healing for her daughter. Here, Jesus puts it this way:
And he said to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."
Mark 7:27 ESV
So not that the gospel is exclusive, but that it is not yet offered to Gentiles. Like his early miracles, it was just not time yet. 2020 - Yes, I think this is important additional information about what Jesus meant. The children first, then the pets, but the pets are in the picture.
Jesus heals a deaf man with a speech impediment. He tells them to keep it quiet. They do not do so. His fame continues to increase. These things he does are unprecedented both in magnitude and number. Mass miracles are nowhere else in the Bible.