The Tradition of the Elders
1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying, 2 “Why do your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat bread.” 3 He answered them, “Why do you also disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 5 But you say, ‘Whoever may tell his father or his mother, “Whatever help you might otherwise have gotten from me is a gift devoted to God,” 6 he shall not honor his father or mother.’ You have made the commandment of God void because of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, 8 ‘These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. 9 And they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrine rules made by men.’”
A delegation objects to unwashed hands, and he answers by showing them a rule of theirs that cancels a commandment.
1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying, 2 “Why do your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat bread.”
The delegation has come from the capital, which makes this an official inquiry rather than a local dispute. And the complaint is precise about its own ground: not the law, the tradition — a body of ceremonial washing that the law nowhere requires of ordinary meals.
The exchange is given in the earlier account with its explanation of the vow in question Mark 7:1–23. What matters is the shape of the answer, because it does not defend the disciples at all.
He answered them, “Why do you also disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition?
The question is returned with the same verb attached to a heavier object. They alleged a broken custom; he alleges a broken commandment, and then produces the case.
The commandment is the fifth Exodus 20:12, and honoring a father and mother in a society without pensions meant supporting them. The tradition allowed a man to declare his property a gift devoted to God and thereby to withhold it from his parents while continuing to use it himself Matthew 15:5–6. The result is a religious formula that releases a man from a duty God imposed, and it is not an abuse of the rule — it is the rule working as designed.
"You have made the commandment of God void because of your tradition." That is the charge, and it names the mechanism by which good rules go bad. Nobody voted to abolish the fifth commandment. A procedure was created that made keeping it optional, and the procedure was more respectable than the commandment it displaced.
"You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you" Matthew 15:7 Isaiah 29:13. The quotation lands on the gap between mouth and heart — these people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me — and closes with the verdict that makes the whole encounter more than an argument about hands. "They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrine rules made by men."
Worship is happening. It is careful, costly and sincere, and it is empty, because what is being taught as God's requirement was made by people. The test he applies is not whether a practice is ancient or reverent but whose commandment it is.
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