Matthew 15:1-8

1 Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They asked him,

2 “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.”

3 Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God?

4 For instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’

5 But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’

6 In this way, you say they don’t 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 ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

Footnotes

• [a] Exod 20:12 ; Deut 5:16 .
• [b] Exod 21:17 (Greek version); Lev 20:9 (Greek version).
• [c] Greek their father; other manuscripts read their father or their mother.