Tradition and Command

1Then Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem come to Jesus, saying,

2Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.

3But he answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”

4For God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’

5But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have benefited from me is a gift to God,”’

6he certainly need not honor his father. And you have nullified the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

7Hypocrites, Isaiah rightly prophesied about you, saying:

8This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

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