And honors not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment of God void by your tradition.
All Commentaries on Matthew 15:6 Go To Matthew 15
Jerome
AD 420
Wonderful infatuation of the Pharisees and Scribes! They accuse the Son of God that He does not keep the traditions and commandments of men.
But the hands that are to he washed are the acts not of the body, but of the mind; that the word of God may be done in them.
Since ye because of the tradition of men neglect the commandment of God, why doye take upon you to reprove my disciples, for bestowing little regard upon the precepts of the elders, that they may observe the commands of God? "For God hath said, Honour thy father andthy mother.” Honour in the Scriptures is shown not so much in salutations and courtesies as in alms and gifts. “Honour,” says the Apostle, “the widows who are widows indeed;” here ‘honour’ signifies a gift. The Lord then having thought for the infirmity, the age, or the poverty of parents, commanded that sons should honour their parents in providing them with necessaries of life.
For the Scribes and Pharisees desiring to overturn this foregoing most provident law of God, that they might bring in their impiety under the mask of piety, taught bad sons, that should any desire to devote to God, who is the true parent, those things which ought to be offered to parents, the offering to the Lord should be preferred to the offering them to parents.
And thus the parents refusing what they saw thus dedicated to God, that they might not incur the guilt of sacrilege, perished of want, and so it came topass that what the children offered for the needs of the temple and the service of God, went to the gain of the Priests.
Or it may briefly have the following sense; Ye compel children to say to their parents, What gift soever I was purposing to offer to God, you take and consume upon your living, and so it profits you; as much as to say. Do not so.
