So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.”

Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,

‘These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship is a farce,
    for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’[a]

For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”

Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition. 10 For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’[b] and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’[c] 11 But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’[d]

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Footnotes

  1. 7:7 Isa 29:13 (Greek version).
  2. 7:10a Exod 20:12; Deut 5:16.
  3. 7:10b Exod 21:17 (Greek version); Lev 20:9 (Greek version).
  4. 7:11 Greek ‘What I would have given to you is Corban’ (that is, a gift).

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