The Life of Christ

Mk. 7:5-7 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?” 6 And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. 7 BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’”

Jesus refers to the Talmud as the “Precepts of Men.” They were certainly not the precepts of God!

• The Talmud was a collection of two books bound together.

• The first was the Mishnah, the Rabbis’ commentary on Old Testament Law.

• The second book was the Gemara, an additional commentary written to explain the Mishnah.

The Jewish leaders believed that when God gave Moses the written Law, He also gave him the Oral Law, or the Mishnah.

• They believe Moses then passed the Mishnah orally down to Joshua, who continued to pass it down until it reached the present- day Rabbis.

• This tradition goes on to say when the Oral Law finally arrived into the keeping of the Scribes and Pharisees, they wrote it down, and it became known as the Mishnah.

• The tragedy is that they believed the Mishnah was inspired even as the Torah.

• Jesus calls it nothing more than “Precepts of Men.”

Mk. 7:8-13 “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” 9 He was also saying to them, “You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. 10 For Moses said, ‘ HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER ’; and, ‘ HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER, LET HIM BE PUT TO DEATH ’; 11 but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, anything of mine you might have been helped by is Corban (that is to say, given to God),’ 12 you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; 13 thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”

The word "Corban" was an expression found in the Talmud.

• “Corban” means to “lay on the altar and be put entirely out of reach.”

• In this case, it allowed a man to dedicate his property to God but defer its transfer until after his death.

• Thus, any property so dedicated could not be used for supporting his parents and would be conveniently kept within that man’s possession until he died.

• This became a convenient legal way to neglect supporting one’s elderly parents, while still saving face with the Law.

Jesus disagrees and considered the practice of Corban a direct violation of the Fifth Commandment, the command to honor your father and mother.

• Jesus brings up this practice to prove how the Mishnah directly contradicts Moses’ Law and should therefore not be considered divinely inspired.

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