About Mark: You will notice in this section how Mark inserts in verses 3 & 4 an explanation of Jewish customs for his Roman readers. The Christian message was already spreading far and wide, and many Christian communities would soon be formed around the Mediterranean world. Mark comments on how the teaching of Jesus affected Jewish traditions which regarded pork as unclean. According to Mark, Jesus taught that uncleanness lay within the human heart, and food going into the stomach would not affect their relationship with God.
After several centuries of rampant growth, it became necessary for the Church to identify the writings that authentically represented the message of Jesus. This became known as the canon (measure) of the New Testament.
By this time none of the original documents remained. They were represented in thousands of copies. With constant recopying, occasional differences occurred, which were themselves recopied. Where such differences exist, scholars attempt to recover the original. This is ongoing work.
Even in the 20th century more early fragments were unearthed. In the section below, you will see that the words of verse 16 have been omitted. When chapter and verse numbers were inserted in the 16th century, the texts of the day contained here "Let anyone with ears to hear listen." With additional textual information now at hand, modern translators think this phrase was not in Mark's original at that place (though it is correct at Mark 4:9 & 4:23).
This is typical of the kind of textual variations that occur. They indicate the nature of textual variations due to the human processes of transmission through the centuries, but are of no consequence to the reliability of the New Testament as a trustworthy account of the life and teaching of Jesus.
Bible: Mark 7:1-23, The Tradition of the Elders
Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, andbronze kettles.) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?" 6 He said to them, "Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.' 8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition."
9 Then he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! 10 For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.' 11 But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, 'Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban' (that is, an offering to God)-- 12 then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this."
14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile." 16
Comment: CARDIAC CONTAMINATION
WE SAW YESTERDAY that the disciples were bothered by mental confusion and hardness of heart. These are closely linked. "Do you still not perceive or understand, are your hearts hardened?" (8:17). And these will always be of concern to Christian disciples in a way that didn't seem to affect the crowds - simply out to get what they could from Jesus. Neither had it concerned the Pharisees up to this point. When life is governed by rules, regulations, and tradition, who needs to bother about attitudes of the heart, wrestlings of the mind, being close toGod in mind and heart and soul?
And so while the Pharisees called the disciples to account about their observance of the traditions and regulations (7:5), Jesus here calls the Pharisees to account over the state of their understanding and heart. Jesus himself resorts to Jewish tradition, "the gospel as it is written in Isaiah" (see note on Mk.1:1-2), showing how God wants the worship of people who are close to God in their hearts (7:6-7). Sometimes tradition can displace the commandments of God which are designed to keep people close to him. And when there is a choice, we frequently abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition (8-13).
Although this conversation commences with the Pharisees (7:1), and continues with the crowd (14), it climaxes with the disciples (17). There are some radical Christian ideas here. Food, going in, has nothing to do with holiness or defilement. Neither the manna bread like they'd seen in the feeding miracle, nor the pork that Mark's Roman Christian readers enjoyed, would affect their holiness, since it remained only in the digestive tract. In this respect all foods are "clean" (19). It is the heart that defiles. It is evil intentions (21) that are the problem. It is what comes out of the unclean heart that contaminates; whether by unclean actions (fornication ... adultery) or by destructive attitudes (avarice ... folly).
Discipleship today: Tradition is neutral. After all, Jesus appeals to Isaiah, which like all Scripture was preserved for its recognition as a treasured social heritage. For the same reason Christianity can be regarded as a "tradition". But distortions readily arise.
It is so easy for following generations to receive only the traditional forms, but not the original meanings from which the forms derived. That had happened with many Jewish customs in Jesus' day, and he referred them back to original texts and original meanings. You may face the same situation.
Many people encounter Christian traditions which distort the original meaning. But right now you are doing what Jesus did. You are reading the original text of Christianity in this Gospel of Mark. And you may find it conflicts both with modern ways of thinking about the goodness and badness in people, and with your understanding of Christian tradition. The Christian tradition is frequently spoofed for commercial appeal in film and television by presenting the clergy in slighting stereotypes. In the clamour of alternative views, Jesus calls you to heed his explanation of the human situation in general, and of your own situation in particular.
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