⚡WEB · Mark 7:3
What does Mark 7:3 mean?
"(For the Pharisees and all the Jews, don’t eat unless they wash their hands and forearms, holding to the tradition of the elders."
— Mark 7:3 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered together to him, having come from Jerusalem.
Now when they saw some of his disciples eating bread with defiled, that is unwashed, hands, they found fault.
(For the Pharisees and all the Jews, don’t eat unless they wash their hands and forearms, holding to the tradition of the elders.
They don’t eat when they come from the marketplace unless they bathe themselves, and there are many other things, which they have received to hold to: washings of cups, pitchers, bronze vessels, and couches.)
The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why don’t your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unwashed hands?”
He answered them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
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