Bob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Mark 7:9

Bob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Mark 7:9 - 7:13

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Bob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Mark 7:9 - 7:13

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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mar_7:9-13

⁹ He was also saying to them, "You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. ¹⁰For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, is to be put to death'; ¹¹but you say, 'If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God),' ¹²you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; ¹³thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that."

Mar_7:9

NASB     "You are experts at setting aside"

NKJV     "All too well you reject"

NRSV     "You have a fine way of rejecting"

TEV      "You have a clever way of rejecting"

NJB      "How ingeniously you get around"

This is cutting sarcasm, much like Joh_3:10.

Mar_7:10 "Moses said" The parallel of Mat_15:4 has, "God said." This shows God's inspiration behind Moses' words.

▣ "'honor'" This is a quote from the Ten Commandments recorded in Exo_20:12 and repeated in Deu_5:16. It is from a Hebrew commercial word "to give due weight to" (BDB 457), which means to recognize the worth of something.

Mar_7:11 "if" This is a third class conditional sentence, which speaks of potential action. Jesus is referring to contemporary ways of circumventing God's Law (cf. Mar_7:12).

▣ "'your father and your mother'" This shows the required respect for both parents.

▣ "'he who speaks evil of father or mother'" This is a quote from Exo_21:17. Dishonor brought severe judgment. The rabbis had set this verse aside by means of their traditions.

▣ "'Corban'" This was a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew (not Aramaic) "gift" given to God (i.e., or to the Temple, cf. NKJV). Jesus shows one example of how the Jewish religionists of His day circumvented the intent and stated laws of the OT by their Oral Traditions. They had devised many loopholes in their Oral Traditions (cf. Mat_5:33-34; Mat_23:16-22).