Bq – Yeshua on the Handling of Food Mark 7: 1-15

Yeshua on the Handling of Food
Mark 7: 1-15

Yeshua on the handling of food DIG: According to Jewish tradition, what did the apostles do wrong? What three areas did Yeshua find so hypocritical about the Pharisees and their traditions? How does the quote from Isaiah address the issue at hand? What is the source of true uncleanness? Why can’t external things defile a person? What is the meaning of Yeshua’s parable? Why didn’t the talmidim understand it? Why was it easier to follow religious rules rather than to develop an intimate relationship with ADONAI?

REFLECT: Which of your family traditions would be difficult to change? What traditions do you follow that are part of your religious heritage? What do you do to appear holy? When are you most likely to uphold outward religious tradition rather than honor God in your heart? What is wrong with measuring spirituality by outward actions? How can you make sure traditions and outward actions do not replace true holiness? What can you do to have a pure heart?

Yeshua Messiah took issue with the Oral Law and declared
that no food could be rendered ritually unclean by being eaten with unwashed hands.

Yeshua’s popularity sparked envy and concern among the religious leaders of His time. The troublemaking Rabbi was breaking too many rules. His talmidim were ignoring traditions held for centuries. A huge collection of rules for living had gradually developed that was supposed to reflect the central teaching of ADONAI’s Word. Many of these, however, turned out to be subtle ways to deflect and actually contradict His commands, as Messiah pictures here.

By the time of our Savior, the tradition of the elders or the Oral Law (see the commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Ei – The Oral Law), had become equal with Scripture in the eyes of the Jews. In fact, to some Jews it had even become greater than the TaNaKh. The rabbis taught that it was more punishable to act against the words of the Scribes, than the words of the Scriptures. They had many other sayings that, in effect, said the same thing. The rabbis had a saying, “He that says something he did not hear from his rabbi causes the Sh’khinah glory to depart from Israel.” They also said, “He that contradicts his rabbis is he that will contradict the Sh’khinah glory. He that would speak against his rabbi is he that would speak against God.” Shockingly, the rabbis said, “My son, give my people words of the rabbis, then give them the words of the Torah.” In that same line of thinking, the rabbis taught that to study the Scriptures was neither good nor bad. But to study the Oral Law was a good habit that brought reward.¹⁷⁶

Dear Heavenly Father, You alone are holy and worthy of my complete worship. No person can come anywhere near how special and wonderful You are. Only You, God, are my perfect Lord, Master and Father whom I desire to please. When anyone or anything else is put as first place in someone’s life, they are doing the evil that You warn against doing. They traded the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen  (Romans 1:25). How sad it is, when one sinner leads another into sin causing them both to be judged for their wrong. Though they know God’s righteous decree – that those who practice such things deserve death – they not only do them but also approve of others who practice the same (Romans 1:32). It is so foolish to worship the traditions of men. What a joy it is to focus on You for you alone are Holy, Almighty, All Powerful, and All Wise, and You also are our Forgiving Savior and Loving Father! Wow! There is none holy as ADONAI, for there is none besides You, nor is there any rock like our God (First Samuel 2:2). I love to meditate on Your so many magnificent and wonderful qualities! In Holy Yeshua’s name and power of His resurrection. Amen

After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill Him (John 7:1). From now to the end of His public ministry, hostility to Messiah continued to grow. As the hatred of His opponents deepened, it meant that Yeshua could no longer move openly. We have already seen two major areas of confrontation between Yeshua and the Jewish leadership concerning the Oral Law: fasting (see The Life of Christ Dq – When You Fast, Put Oil on Your Head and Wash Your Face) and the proper ways of keeping the Sabbath (see The Life of Christ Cs – Jesus Heals a Man at the Pool of Bethesda), (see The Life of Christ Cv – The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath), and (see The Life of Christ Cw – Jesus Heals a Man With a Shriveled Hand). Here we see a third major confrontation over hand washing.

And some Pharisees and some of the Torah-teachers who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Yeshua. Mark begins his account of this confrontation with the word and, or the Greek work kai. This connects what follows very loosely with what went on before; namely, contrast between the phenomenal popularity of the people and the extraordinary hostility of pharisaic Judaism. They saw some of his talmidim eating bread with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed (Mark 7:1-2). Bread is plural in the Greek, and is preceded by the definite articles. The article points to some particular bread known by the Pharisees and the Lord. The plural number speaks of loaves of bread. The reference evidently was to the talmidim eating some of the bread preserved in the baskets from the mountainside near the town of Bethsaida (see The Life of Christ Fn – Jesus Feeds the 5,000). There was no specific opportunity at that time to wash their hands, which would have been a good thing to do. But it was a much more serious issue with the Pharisees because they were thinking only in terms of their traditions.

The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ritual washing, holding to the tradition of the elders (Mark 7:3), or the Oral Law. The word elders referred to the members of the council (see The Life of Christ Lg – The Great Sanhedrin). In early times the rulers of the people were chosen from the elderly men. The washing was done with the fist clenched. The person rubbed one hand on the arm up to the elbow with the other hand clenched. The “hand” was considered from the tip of the fingers to the elbow. Then that person would rub using the palm of the other hand with the other clinched, so as to make sure that the part that touched the food would be ritually clean.¹⁷⁷

When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. It was acceptable to touch ritually unclean things, but the Oral Law said they needed to wash their “hands” from the elbow to the fingertips before eating. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles (Mark 7:4). The Jews were careful to wash their hands before eating anything. They wouldn’t eat the smallest seed until they washed their hands first, even though Moses never commanded it.

Orthodox Jews today observe hand washing before meals. The rationale for it has nothing to do with hygiene but is based on the idea that “a man’s home is his Temple,” with the dining table his altar, the food his sacrifice and himself as the priest. Since the TaNaKh requires priests to be ritually clean before offering sacrifices on the bronze Altar, the Oral Law requires the same before eating a meal.¹⁷⁸

To give you an idea of just how radically they were about this, here is what the Oral Law says about hand washing. The rabbis taught that it was better to have to walk four miles to water, than to be guilty of neglecting to wash their hands. They also said that the one who neglects hand washing is as bad as a murderer. Along that same line of thinking, they said the one who neglects hand washing is like one who goes to a prostitute. They also said that three sins bring poverty after them, and one of them is neglecting hand washing (In other words, if you don’t want to die poor, wash your hands before you eat).¹⁷⁹

The Sages inferred from the mitzvot of the Torah that food could be rendered ritually unclean by being handled with unwashed hands. Their reasoning came from the Torah, which says that humans can become ritually unclean and even ritually contaminating. For example, someone who has touched a corpse not only becomes ritually unclean, but anyone he touches thereafter also would be rendered ritually unclean. In addition, the Torah specifies that the meat of certain animals is ritually unclean and therefore forbidden for consumption, whereas others are ritually clean and therefore permissible. The Torah also tells us that otherwise ritually clean food can be rendered ritually unclean if the carcass of a ritually unclean animal falls into it or touches it (see Bk – Ritually Clean and Unclean Animals).

The Oral Law took these basic Torah concepts and combined them for what would seem to be a logical conclusion. In the Oral Law we learn that touching bread with ritually unclean hands rendered the bread unclean. According to such a mitzvah, a ritually unclean person handling otherwise ritually clean food, rendered that food ritually unclean and therefore unkosher. Thus, if you were ritually unclean (for whatever reason) and went to eat a peanut-butter sandwich with ritually unclean hands, that sandwich would be rendered ritually unclean by your touch. Suddenly, the peanut-butter sandwich would be as ritually unclean as a ham. This was a tradition of the Pharisees, but it was not Torah from Sinai.¹⁸⁰

But when Yeshua didn’t follow the traditions of men He was viciously attacked. So the Pharisees and Torah-teachers asked Messiah, “Why do Your talmidim break the tradition of the elders instead of washing their hands before they eat” (Mark 7:5)? It is worth noting that the Pharisees and Torah-teachers never had a single opportunity to accuse Yeshua of violating the Torah, because He kept it perfectly (see my commentary on Exodus Du – Do Not Think That I Have Come to Abolish the Torah and the Prophets). Every argument they had, without exception, was over the Oral Law. This was the basis of His rejection. Then Jesus points out three areas where pharisaic Judaism was a sham.

First, He said the true nature of the traditions of men was hypocrisy. He replied: Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules (Mark 7:6-7; Isaiah 29:13). Legalism gives the outward sense of spirituality, or of being religious. They appear to be spiritual or religious because they live a legalistic lifestyle. They believe they are honoring and worshiping God by trying to keep this set of human rules.

Secondly, sometimes to keep the traditions of men, they actually had to ignore a divine commandment. You have [abandoned] the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men (Mark 7:8). Yeshua admits to breaking the Oral Law, and, as we shall see later, He goes out of His way to break it.

Thirdly, sometimes to keep the traditions of men, they had to reject a divine commandment. Then He immediately gives an example of their hypocrisy. Yeshua’s response was both simple and forceful as He answered their question with irony and biting sarcasm when He asked: Why do you break the command of God by your tradition? They made God’s Word null and void, and stumbled untold many. For God said through Moses, “Honor your father and mother,” and in conjunction with that mitzvah, the Torah also states that anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death (Mark 7:9-10). At that point, it was still the commandment for breaking the Torah. But the Mishnah declared, “He who curses his father or mother is not guilty unless he specifically curses them with the name of ADONAI” (Sanhedrin 7. 8). Although these are clear Torah commands that any rabbi would surely respect, Messiah points out how, by means of a theological debate, the Oral Law skirted around the original intent of the commandment.

But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is “devoted to God” or Corban (Mark 7:11). Yeshua was referring to the Oral Law when He responded with the phrase but you say, instead of the familiar wording it is written. At any time a Pharisee would wave his hand above his head and say the magic word: Corban, which meant dedicated to the Temple treasury, then anything he owned at that time became devoted, or set aside, for God. That meant he could do one of two things with his Corban. He could give all of it, or part of it, to the Temple treasury, or he could keep it for his own private use. What he could not do with it was to give it away for someone else to use.

Moshe said: Honor your father and mother (see my commentary on Exodus Do – Honor Your Father and Your Mother). The implication of that commandment was that children were responsible for the welfare of their older parents when they became incapable of taking care of themselves. That was what the Jews believed Moses meant when he gave that commandment. But the Pharisees were extremely reluctant to share their wealth with anyone who was not a Pharisee. The problem was their parents were not Pharisees. To skirt around the issue, if a Pharisee saw his father approaching, knowing he might ask for something, he would merely wave his hand above his head and say: Corban. When his father stated his need, the son would say, “Golly gee dad, I wish you would have asked me earlier. I have just declared all of my possessions to be Corban.” That was why Yeshua said: Then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you (Mark 7:12-13). Then Yeshua pointed out that this was not something new. He quoted a verse from the TaNaKh in which Isaiah rebuked some of his generation as well. These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules (Matthew 15:8-9).¹⁸¹

Here is another example of their hypocrisy. The Torah said: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. On that day you shall not do any work (Exodus 20:8-11). But many of the Pharisees wanted to be at the Temple, or would have to carry out business in different towns. So to get around this, the school of Sophim said, “Alright, we cannot go more than a Sabbath day’s journey from where we live. So how do we define where our home is?” They defined a “home” was where your possessions were. This solved the problem! They would send out slaves standing a mile apart each holding one of his possessions. As a result, each mile was his “home.” They did many things like that.¹⁸²

We are reminded here that Yeshua came as the Meshiach for Isra’el and, as such, a prophetic voice to correct the errors of His generation. So in that sense, Messiah called His generation (and really every generation) to a purer understanding of the Torah even if it means giving up some of the traditions of men that have accumulated over time. The Talmudic tradition is of great value and interest to both Jewish and Gentile believers today, especially in the context of understanding the Gospels that were written in the first century. In spite of that, there are times when the tradition of the elders must take a subordinate position to the written Word of God, just as Yeshua Messiah taught here.¹⁸³

We know that external behavior and measurements are both highly inaccurate. Looks deceive as often as they convey the truth. But that’s how we tend to judge other people until it occurs to us that Ha’Shem is neither impressed nor fooled by appearances. But God looks at the heart, and He’s the expert at cleaning hearts. Being pure in ADONAI’s sight doesn’t mean we are perfect; but it means that we take steps to make sure that the internal and external aspects of our lives are consistent. King David would say: Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from Me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me (Psalm 51:10-12; also see Second Corinthians 4:16-18; Hebrews 12:14).¹⁸⁴

At this juncture, Yeshua turned the discussion away from the Pharisees to the crowd around Him. Again Messiah taught the masses by the use of a parable so that only those of faith could understand Him. Not even His disciples understood at first (see The Life of Christ Ez – The Private Parables of the Kingdom in a House). He called the crowd to Him and said: Listen to Me, everyone, and understand this. What goes into someone’s mouth (like food) does not make them ritually unclean, but what comes out of their mouth (like the Oral Law), that is what defiles them (Mark 7:14-15).