Human Traditions and God’s Commandments
1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying,
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"Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat {a meal}."
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So he answered [and] said to them, "Why do you also break the commandment of God because of your tradition?
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For God said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'The one who speaks evil of father or mother {must certainly die}.'
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But you say, 'Whoever says to his father or his mother, "Whatever {benefit you would have received} from me [is] a gift [to God],"
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need not honor his father,' and you make void the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
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Hypocrites! Isaiah correctly prophesied about you saying,
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'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far, far away from me,
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and they worship me in vain, teaching [as] doctrines the commandments of men.'"