And honors not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment of God void by your tradition.
Read Chapter 15
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
De Cons. Ev., ii, 49: The Evangelist thus constructs the order of his narrative, “Then came unto him,” that, as appeared in the passage over the lake, the order of the events that followed that might be shewn.
cont. Adv. Leg. et Proph., ii, 1: Christ here clearly shows both that that law which the heretic blasphemes is God’s law, and that the Jews had their traditions foreign to the prophetical and canonical books; such as the Apostle calls “profane and vain fables.”.
cont. Faust., xvi, 24: The Lord here teaches us many things; That it was not He that turned the Jews from their God; that not only did He not infringe the commandments, but convicts them of infringing them; and that He had ordained no more than those by the hand of Moses.
Quaest. Ev., i, 16: Otherwise; “The gift whatsoever thou offerest on my account, shall profit thee;” that is to say, Whatsoever gift thou offerest onmy account, shall henceforth remain with thee; the son signifying by these words that there is no longer ...
In Marc., 7, 1: Taking carnally those words of the Prophets, in which it is said, “Wash, and be ye clean,” they observed it only in washing the body; hence they had laid it down that we ought not to eat with unwashen hands.
And he shall not honour; that is, assist his father or his mother. It is doubtful whether these may not be the words of the Pharisees; but they rather seem the words of our Saviour Christ, especially seeing that in St. Mark, Christ himself adds: And, farther, you suffer him not to do any thing for his father or mother, making void the word of God by your tradition. (Witham)
Ap. Anselm: In this interpretation the sense will be, What I offer to God will profit both you and myself; and therefore you ought not to take of my goods for your own needs, but to suffer that I offer them to God.
ap. Anselm: Or the sense may be, “Whosoever,” that is, of you young men, “shall say,” that is, shall either be able to say, or shall say, “to his father or mother,” O father, the gift that is of me devoted to God, shall it profit thee?as it were an exclamation of surprise; you ought not to take it that you may not incur the guilt of sacrilege. Or, we may read it with this ellipsis, "Whosoever shall say to his father” he shall do the commandment of God, or shall fulfil the Law, or shall be worthy of life eternal.
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 ...
But some do also otherwise interpret, It is a gift, by whatsoever you might be profited by me; that is, I owe you no honor, but it is a free gift from me to you, if indeed I do honor you. But Christ would not have mentioned an insult of that sort.
And Mark again makes this plainer, by saying, It is Corban, by whatsoever you might be profited by me; Mark 7:11 which means, not a gift and present, but properly an offering.
Having then signified that they who were trampling on the law could not be justly entitled to blame men for transgressing a command of certain elders, He points out this same thing again from the prophet likewise. Thus, having once laid hold of them severely, He proceeds further: as on every occasion He does, bringing forward the Scriptures, and so evincing Himself to be in accordance with God.
Observe, how they are taken in their own question. They say not, ‘Why do they transgress the Law of Moses?’ but, “the tradition of the elders;” whence it is manifest that the Priests had introduced many new things, although Moses had said, “Ye shall not add ought to the word which I set before you this day, neither shall ye take ought away from it;” and when they ought to have been set free from observances, then they bound themselves by many more; fearing lest any should take away their rule and power, they sought to increase the awe in which they were held, by setting themselves forth as legislators.
Christ made no excuse for them, but immediately brought a counter charge, hewing that he that sins in great things ought not to take offence at the slight sins of others. "He answered and said unto them, Why do yealso transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? "He says not that they do well to transgress that He may not give room for calumny; nor on the other hand does ...
The men of Gennezareth and the less learned believe; but they who seem to be wise come to dispute with Him; according to that, “Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” Whence it is said, “Then, came to him from Jerusalem Scribes and Pharisee.”
They were faulty for two reasons; because they had come from Jerusalem, from the holy city; and because they were elders of the people, and doctors of the Law, and had not come to learn but to reprove the Lord; for it is added, "Saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?”.
Of what kind these traditions were, Mark shows when he says, “The Pharisees and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not.” Here then also they find fault with the disciples, saying, “For they wash not their hands when they eat bread.”.
Or the Pharisees found fault with the Lord’s disciples, not concerning that washing which we do from ordinary habit, and of necessity, but of that superfluous washing which was invented by the tradition of the elders.
. The Pharisees were accusing the disciples of transgressing the commandment of the elders, but Christ shows that the Pharisees were transgressing the law of God (See Ex. 20:12; 21:16). For they were teaching sons to give nothing to their parents but to offer whatever they had to the treasury of the temple. There was a coffer in the temple in which he who so wished could put money, and the contents were distributed to the poor. So the Pharisees first persuaded sons not to give anything to their parents but to offer it instead to the treasury of the temple, and then taught them to say, "O my father, the help that you seek from me is a gift, that is, it is offered to God." And then the Pharisees and the sons would divide the money among themselves, and the parents were being left uncared for in their old age. The money lenders had the same practice. For if one of them would lend money to someone who proved to be a bad debtor who did not pay back what was owed, then the money lender would...
