and they saw some of His disciples eating with hands that were defiled—that is, unwashed.
Parallel translations
- WEB Now when they saw some of his disciples eating bread with defiled, that is unwashed, hands, they found fault.
- KJV And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
- NKJV Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault.
- NASB and saw that some of His disciples were eating their bread with unholy hands, that is, unwashed.
- NLT They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The leaders criticized Jesus' disciples for eating with ceremonially unwashed hands. The complaint concerned ritual tradition, not hygiene.
Overview
The Pharisees objected that the disciples ate without the ceremonial hand-washing prescribed by their tradition. This was not about cleanliness but ritual purity invented by the elders. Their fault-finding reveals hearts more concerned with external rules than with the inward righteousness God requires.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Acts 10:28He said to them, “You know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with a foreigner or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.
- Rom 14:14I am convinced and fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.
- Matt 7:3–5Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?
- Dan 6:4–5Thus the administrators and satraps sought a charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find no charge or corruption, because he was trustworthy, and no negligence or corruption was found in him.
- Acts 10:14–15“No, Lord!” Peter answered. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
- Matt 23:23–25Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
- Acts 11:8‘No, Lord,’ I said, ‘for nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
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Christ at the center
Mark drives urgently to the cross, showing Jesus the Son of God as the suffering Servant who 'came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'
How Mark 7:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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