Matteo 15:3

3 Ma egli rispose loro: E voi, perché trasgredite il comandamento di Dio a motivo della vostra tradizione?

Matteo 15:3 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 15:3

But he answered and said unto them
Taking no notice of the tradition about eating bread without washing the hands, whether it was right or wrong; it being at most but an human tradition, of no moment and importance, whether it was broke or kept; he makes a very just recrimination, by putting another question to them,

why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
suggesting, that, if his disciples were guilty, they were not so guilty as they themselves were; that his disciples, at most, were but guilty of the breach of an human precept, whereas they were guilty of the breach of a divine command; and that it was strange, that men who were so scrupulous of breaking, and bore so hard on such as did transgress the traditions of the elders, could allow themselves to transgress the commandments of God; yea, to do this by, and while they were observing their own traditions: and which observation carries a full acquittance of the disciples from blame; for, if by keeping the traditions of the elders, they broke the commands of God, it was a very good reason why they should not observe them.

Matteo 15:3 In-Context

1 Allora s’accostarono a Gesù dei Farisei e degli scribi venuti da Gerusalemme, e gli dissero:

2 Perché i tuoi discepoli trasgrediscono la tradizione degli antichi? poiché non si lavano le mani quando prendono cibo.

3 Ma egli rispose loro: E voi, perché trasgredite il comandamento di Dio a motivo della vostra tradizione?

4 Dio, infatti, ha detto: Onora tuo padre e tua madre; e: Chi maledice padre o madre sia punito di morte; voi, invece, dite:

5 Se uno dice a suo padre o a sua madre: Quello con cui potrei assisterti è offerta a Dio,