Matthew 15:1-20 & Mark 7:1-23
These passages are parallel, so I would like to use Mark as a base, seeing it is the one I’ve heard the most in attempt to abolish the Law’s teaching on diet.
The context of the passage deals with the disciples of Yeshua eating bread without first washing their hands. We are not talking about when our Mother’s taught us as children to wash up before dinner. What we have is a tradition that was elevated to the status of a commandment in the eyes of the Pharisees.
The Pharisees asked Yeshua why His disciples did not live according to the traditionof the elders; something handed down for a period of time by elders of the faith that lived before them. Yeshua responded by reprimanding them for exalting traditions to commandment status, and also because they oftentimes ended up violating Torah (Law) in order to keep their traditions, (“and you do many other similar things” Mark 7:13).
He goes on to tell them that one of their traditions caused a violation of the fifth commandment. The Pharisees had come up with the idea of dedicating all of their belongings to the temple, which in turn meant they were not required to honor their parents materially (when their parents got old and feeble and unable to take care of them selves). Yeshua rebukes them, and says they revoke Yahweh’s commandment by their tradition. They were so wrapped up in the details of their tradition, that they viewed the temple as more important than their parents.
It’s important to see that Yeshua upholds Yahweh’s commandments. To rebuke the Pharisees for neglecting the fifth commandment, and then turn right around a neglect the dietary commandments, doesn’t make sense.
It is in this context that Yeshua makes his remarks in Mark 7:14-23. He tells the crowd that things coming from outside of a person do not defile the person. His point is this: not keeping the tradition of the elders (the ritual washing) does not cause a person to be defiled when they eat food.He is speaking to Judahites in a Hebraic setting. His listeners would understand him to be talking about eating food the Law taught was permissible, but eating this food with unwashed hands. This did not defile a person.
Yeshua goes on to say that the food doesn’t go to the person’s heart, but rather to his stomach, and then is eliminated, purging all meats (KJV, NKJV). His point is that the body takes in the nutrition needed from the food, but the digestive system purges out the toxins when a person relieves their self (goes to the bathroom).
Many of the newer Bible versions, although great translations for the most part, miss Yeshua’s point in Mark 7:19 by saying something like, “As a result, He made all foods clean.”* If this verse is teaching that Yeshua was permitting crab legs, catfish, and pork then he would have been a sinner and unable to be the anti-typical perfect Lamb, because He would be teaching it was permissible to violate Yahweh's law.
Also, if Yeshua was teaching His disciples that every animal was clean for food, why then, many years later, had Peter not gotten the message? In Acts 10:14 Peter remarks to Yeshua that he had never eaten anything common or unclean. Peter did not understand Yeshua’s teaching in Mark 7:19 to be permitting the eating of what the Law forbade.
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*There is a technicality in the Greek text of Mark 7:19 that accounts for the differences in translation, but let’s say that the translation “he declared all foods clean” should be preferred. In this case, the emphasis would be upon the word “foods” in a Hebrew context. In first century Judaism, food (meats) would only be defined by Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. So Yeshua would still be saying, “In this I declare all (our) food fit to be eaten, even if you haven’t ritually washed your hands.”
The context of the passage deals with the disciples of Yeshua eating bread without first washing their hands. We are not talking about when our Mother’s taught us as children to wash up before dinner. What we have is a tradition that was elevated to the status of a commandment in the eyes of the Pharisees.
The Pharisees asked Yeshua why His disciples did not live according to the traditionof the elders; something handed down for a period of time by elders of the faith that lived before them. Yeshua responded by reprimanding them for exalting traditions to commandment status, and also because they oftentimes ended up violating Torah (Law) in order to keep their traditions, (“and you do many other similar things” Mark 7:13).
He goes on to tell them that one of their traditions caused a violation of the fifth commandment. The Pharisees had come up with the idea of dedicating all of their belongings to the temple, which in turn meant they were not required to honor their parents materially (when their parents got old and feeble and unable to take care of them selves). Yeshua rebukes them, and says they revoke Yahweh’s commandment by their tradition. They were so wrapped up in the details of their tradition, that they viewed the temple as more important than their parents.
It’s important to see that Yeshua upholds Yahweh’s commandments. To rebuke the Pharisees for neglecting the fifth commandment, and then turn right around a neglect the dietary commandments, doesn’t make sense.
It is in this context that Yeshua makes his remarks in Mark 7:14-23. He tells the crowd that things coming from outside of a person do not defile the person. His point is this: not keeping the tradition of the elders (the ritual washing) does not cause a person to be defiled when they eat food.He is speaking to Judahites in a Hebraic setting. His listeners would understand him to be talking about eating food the Law taught was permissible, but eating this food with unwashed hands. This did not defile a person.
Yeshua goes on to say that the food doesn’t go to the person’s heart, but rather to his stomach, and then is eliminated, purging all meats (KJV, NKJV). His point is that the body takes in the nutrition needed from the food, but the digestive system purges out the toxins when a person relieves their self (goes to the bathroom).
Many of the newer Bible versions, although great translations for the most part, miss Yeshua’s point in Mark 7:19 by saying something like, “As a result, He made all foods clean.”* If this verse is teaching that Yeshua was permitting crab legs, catfish, and pork then he would have been a sinner and unable to be the anti-typical perfect Lamb, because He would be teaching it was permissible to violate Yahweh's law.
Also, if Yeshua was teaching His disciples that every animal was clean for food, why then, many years later, had Peter not gotten the message? In Acts 10:14 Peter remarks to Yeshua that he had never eaten anything common or unclean. Peter did not understand Yeshua’s teaching in Mark 7:19 to be permitting the eating of what the Law forbade.
———--
*There is a technicality in the Greek text of Mark 7:19 that accounts for the differences in translation, but let’s say that the translation “he declared all foods clean” should be preferred. In this case, the emphasis would be upon the word “foods” in a Hebrew context. In first century Judaism, food (meats) would only be defined by Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. So Yeshua would still be saying, “In this I declare all (our) food fit to be eaten, even if you haven’t ritually washed your hands.”