And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. Full well - Καλως, - a strong irony. How noble is your conduct! From conscientious attachment to your own traditions ye have annihilated the commandments of God!
That ye may keep - But στησητε, that ye may establish, is the reading of D, three others, Syriac, all the Itala, with Cyprian, Jerome, and Zeno. Griesbach thinks it should be received instead of the other. God's law was nothing to these men, in comparison of their own: hear a case in point. "Rabba said, How foolish are most men! They observe the precepts of the Divine law, and neglect the statutes of the rabbins!" Maccoth, fol. 22.