1
Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They asked him,
2
âWhy do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.â
3
Jesus replied, âAnd why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God?
4
For instance, God says, âHonor your father and mother,â and âAnyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.â
5
But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, âSorry, I canât help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.â
6
In this way, you say they donât need to honor their parents. And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition.
7
You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,
8
âThese people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.