This confrontation played an important part in Jesus' decision to withdraw from Galilee again (v. 24; cf. 2:1-3:6). Along with mounting popularity (6:53-56) came increasing opposition from the Jewish religious leaders. This section is essentially another block of Jesus' teaching. It revealed Jesus further and continued the preparation of the disciples for what lay ahead of them. In Mark's narrative, the words "unclean"(vv. 2, 5, 15, 18, 20, 23) and "tradition"(vv. 3, 5, 8, 9, 13) are key.
7:1-2 For a second time Mark recorded a delegation of religious leaders coming from Jerusalem to investigate Jesus (cf. 3:22). The writer interpreted what ceremonially impure hands were for his Gentile readers. The scribes and Pharisees were not objecting because the disciples were eating with dirty hands but because they had not gone through the accepted purification rites before eating with their hands.
7:3-4 These verses do not appear in Matthew's parallel account. They explain pharisaic tradition for those unfamiliar with it such as Mark's original Gentile readers. In Jesus' day the Jews communicated the traditions of the elders orally from generation to generation. About 200 A.D. the rabbis compiled these into the Mishnah, which became the basis for the Talmud (c. 425 A.D.). The Pharisees customarily washed themselves after visiting themarketplace to rid themselves of the defilement that contact with Gentiles produced. Most Jews regarded breaking these traditions as sin.
7:5 The critics asked Jesus for an explanation of His disciples' conduct because, as their teacher, He was responsible for them. They suspected that the disciples' failure to wash properly indicated that Jesus disregarded all the traditions of the elders. Walking is a Hebrew figure of speech meaning habitual conduct. It occurs frequently in John's Gospel and in Paul's epistles.
In replying Jesus did not explain or justify His disciples' conduct. Instead He addressed the issue of the source of religious authority (vv. 6-13) and the issue of the nature of defilement (vv. 14-23).
7:6-7 Jesus boldly called His critics hypocrites. They professed to honor God with their behavior, but they really did not honor Him in their hearts. What Isaiah said about the hypocrites in his day fit these critics exactly. They stressed precepts to the exclusion of principles.
7:8-9 Jesus contrasted the commands of God and the traditions of men. The rabbis had built a fence around the law by erecting their dos and don'ts to keep the Israelites from breaking the law. However rather than protecting it their legalistic requirements distorted and even contradicted the law. This is always the problem that accompanies attempting to legislate obedience to God's Word. Legalism means making laws that God has not made and treating them as equally authoritative as God's Word. The Pharisees had even abandoned God's commandments in favor of their oral traditions that came from men.
7:10-13 Jesus cited an example of how his critics used human traditions to set aside divine imperatives. They professed to honor Moses through whom God commanded the Israelites to honor their parents and threatened disobedience with death (Exod. 20:12, 16). Honoring parents manifests itself in financial support and practical care if necessary. Mark interpreted the word "corban,"a gift devoted to God, for his Gentile readers. This word is Greek, but it transliterates a Hebrew word that the Jews used when they dedicated something to God. Jewish tradition permitted people to declare something they owned as dedicated to God. This did not mean that they had to give it to the priests or even give up the use of it themselves. However it freed them from giving it to someone else, even a needy parent.
Jesus claimed the authority to reorder social relationships. He said a son's responsibility to provide for his parents superseded the legal option of corban.173
Note that Jesus equated what Moses said (v. 10) with the Word of God (v. 13). He also attributed Mosaic authorship to the Torah, something many liberal modern critics of the Bible deny. Jesus' enemies failed to recognize the difference between inspired and uninspired instruction. The "you"in verse 11 is in the emphatic first position in the Greek text indicating a strong contrast between God's view and the critics'. They had not only rejected God's Word (v. 9), but they had even invalidated it, that is, robbed it of its authority (v. 12). Mark added Jesus' words that this was only one example of how these Pharisees and scribes had voided the authority of what God had revealed by their traditions (v. 13).
Jesus continued His response to the critics by focusing on the particular practice that they had objected to (v. 5). The question of what constituted defilement was very important. The Jews had wandered far from God's will in this matter because of their traditions.
7:14-15 [16] What Jesus had to say was so important that He urged the crowd present to listen carefully to His words. His response so far had been to His critics primarily.
Verse 15 states the general principle. It clarifies what does not and what does cause uncleanness. Food does not, but thoughts do. Obviously Jesus was speaking morally and spiritually, not medically and physiologically. Jesus clarified the intent of the Mosaic laws regarding clean and unclean food (Lev. 11; Deut. 14). The Jew who ate unclean food became unclean because he or she disobeyed God's Word, not because the food made him or her unclean.
Verse 16 is of questionable authenticity. Later copyists may have added it as a result of reading 4:9 and or 4:23. It may be genuine since many early manuscripts contain it. Most modern translators judged it a later addition to the text.
7:17 Jesus had finished His response to His critics and His teaching of the multitude. He went into the house nearby with His disciples. There they asked Him a question that indicated that they had not understood what He meant. What He had said was revolutionary when He said it. They probably could not believe that He really meant what He had said. In Mark's Gospel a house was a common setting where Jesus taught His disciples privately (cf. 9:28, 33; 10:10).
7:18-19 The disciples had heard and seen enough to have been able to understand Jesus' meaning. Their "hardness of heart"is a prominent theme in 6:31-8:26 (cf. 6:52; 8:14-21).
Mark interpreted the significance of Jesus' teaching for his Gentile readers. Mark meant that Christians need not observe the dietary restrictions of the Mosaic Law (cf. Rom. 14:14; Gal. 2:11-17; Col. 2:20-22). This was a freedom that Jewish Christians struggled with for many years during the infancy of the church (cf. Acts 10; 11; 15). Later revelation clarified that Jesus terminated the entire Mosaic Law as a code (Rom. 10:4; et al.).
"This statement ["Thus He declared all foods clean"] clearly has its eye on a situation such as developed in the Pauline mission churches in which questions of clean and unclean foods (cf. Acts 10:9-16; 11:5-10 and see Rom 14:13ff.) and idol-meats became live issues (as we know from I Cor 8:10). This chapter in Mark 7 is perhaps the most obvious declaration of Mark's purpose as a Christian living in the Graeco-Roman world who wishes to publicize the charter of Gentile freedom by recording in the plainest terms Jesus' detachment from Jewish ceremonial and to spell out in clear tones the application of this to his readers."174
If Peter did influence Mark's writing, it is interesting that the disciple who struggled with unwillingness to abandon the dietary laws should have spoken out so strongly for their termination. Mark apparently got the material for his Gospel mainly from Peter's sermons, as mentioned earlier. Thus it appears that Peter finally learned this lesson.
"These ceremonial regulations in the law had a function as symbolically teaching the reality and importance of moralpurity. They demanded an external separation which pointed to the need for an inner heart condition of separation unto God. But these external regulations in themselves did not convey the purity of heart to which they pointed. They were the shadow and not the substance (Heb. 10:1). When they found their fulfillment in Christ, these ceremonial foreshadowings became obsolete."175
7:20-23 Jesus repeated and became more specific so the disciples would understand Him. The list of sins proceeds from six actions to six attitudes (cf. Rom 1:29-31; Gal. 5:19-23). Matthew's record included only six sins. Evil thoughts are the ground out of which the evil actions and attitudes grow.
This controversy with the Pharisees and the scribes was a factor that led Jesus to withdraw from Galilee a third time (cf. 4:35-36; 6:31-32).
