Matthew 15:1-20 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Reader Related Verse
Bible Comments

The Washing of Hands and the Traditions of the Elders (Mark 7:1-23 *). Mt. is again briefer than Mk. He omits the parenthetical explanation Mark 7:3 f. and the technical term Corban, turns the statement of Mark 7:9 into a question (Matthew 15:3), and puts the quotation from Isaiah as a climax after the Corban passage. He also substitutes God (Matthew 15:4) for Moses (Mark 7:10) to heighten the antithesis with But you say (Matthew 15:5), and mouth (Matthew 15:11; Matthew 15:17 f.) for man (Mark 7:15; Mark 7:18; Mark 7:20), thus removing the ambiguity which was the ground of the subsequent explanation, and making the explanation tautologous. He abbreviates the list of evils (Matthew 15:19), and omits the difficult phrase making all meats clean (Mark 7:19). On the other hand he inserts Matthew 15:12-14, perhaps from Q (cf. Luke 6:39).

In addition to what is said on the Corban question in the notes on Mark 7, attention may be drawn to a suggestion by J. H. A. Hart in Jewish Quarterly Review, July 1907. He takes Mark 7:9 literally, not satirically: ye do well to leave the commandment, etc. Jesus commends the Pharisees for insisting that, when a man has made a vow to God, he should pay it though his parents suffer. As for setting aside the command, He Himself did it, as in the Sermon on the Mount, and as the prophets and psalmists had set aside the whole system of sacrifices. Here the fifth commandment is set aside by Corban. A man could lay his conflict of duties before the scribes; some would take one view, some the other. Jesus allies Himself here with the stricter school. It was hard on the parents, and none knew this better than Jesus did. But He had vowed His life, and we remember His words about forsaking father and mother. There is evidence of tense emotion in the broken construction of Mark 7:11.

Matthew 15:13. The plants are the Pharisees. Jesus announces their ruin and that of their system and their followers. Cf. Matthew 3:10, Luke 13:6-9; John 15:1-8.

Related Commentaries of Matthew 15:1

Matthew 15:1-20

1 Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,

2 Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.

3 But he answered and said unto them,Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

4 For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.

5 But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;

6 And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,

8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

10 And he called the multitude, and said unto them,Hear, and understand:

11 Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

12 Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?

13 But he answered and said,Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.

14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

15 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable.

16 And Jesus said,Are ye also yet without understanding?

17 Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?

18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.

19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.