Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Mark 7:1-23
69. Teaching about cleansing (Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23)A common practice of the Jews in Jesus’ time was the ceremonial washing of hands. They believed that those who came in contact with ‘unclean’ people or things had to pour water over their hands to cleanse themselves. This was not a command of the law of Moses but a tradition of the Pharisees (Mark 7:1-5). Jesus argued that such traditions not only caused people to misunderstand the law, but stopped them from doing the more important... read more
Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Mark 7:3-5
Mark 7:3-5. For the Pharisees, &c., except they wash their hands oft Greek, εαν μη πυγμη νιψωνται τας χειρας , except they wash their hands with their fist: or, as some render it, to the wrist. Theophylact translates it, unless they wash up to their elbows; affirming that πυγμη denotes the whole of the arm, from the bending to the ends of the fingers. But this sense of the word is altogether unusual. For πυγμη , properly, is the hand, with the fingers contracted into the palm, and... read more