Mark 7:6-8

7:6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written:

‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart ¹  is far from me.

7:7 They worship me in vain,

teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.’ ² 

7:8 Having no regard ³  for the command of God, you hold fast to human tradition.” ⁴ 

Mark 7:13

7:13 Thus you nullify ⁵  the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like this.”

¹ tn The term “heart” is a collective singular in the Greek text.

² sn A quotation from Isa 29:13.

³ tn Grk “Having left the command.”

⁴ tc The majority of mss, mostly Byzantine ([A] ˹³ 33 Ï), have at the end of v. 8 material that seems to have come from v. 4 and v. 13: “the washing of pots and cups, and you do many other similar things.” A slight variation on the wording occurs at the very beginning of v. 8 in mostly Western witnesses (D Θ 0131^vid 28 565 it). Such floating texts are usually signs of scribal emendations. The fact that the earliest and most reliable mss, as well as other important witnesses (Ì⁴⁵ א B L W Δ 0274 ˹ 2427 co), lacked this material also strongly suggests that the longer reading is secondary.

⁵ tn Grk “nullifying.” This participle shows the results of the Pharisees’ command.