And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;
Christ confronted the Pharisees and scribes for freeing a man from duty so that he was suffered to do nothing more for his father or mother, preventing the help he owed them. An undutiful child had only to pronounce Corban over his property as devoted to the temple, keeping it for his own use in life while it passed to temple service after death, and thus could dishonor and defraud his parents under cover of pretended devotion to God. In this they set aside the fifth commandment about honoring father and mother as of no consequence while exact in the traditions of the elders, teaching that temple devotion was more sacred than even parental support however great the need. It was hypocrisy that concealed neglect of duty under pretense of liberality, maintaining outward devotion while twisting God's plain command to the opposite of what it required. The verse shows laying aside the commandment of God to hold the tradition of men and making the word of God of none effect, which human traditions must never be allowed to do.
Context and Plain Sense
Mark 7:12 belongs to a confrontation over disregard for traditional precepts that encumbered the law of God. The ground of complaint against Christ was neglect of human requirements, especially ceremonial purification and washings before eating. Trifling distinctions and observances that God had not required turned attention away from the great principles of His law. It was spoken directly to a deputation of Pharisees and scribes who came to accuse Him after He stayed away from the Passover. They challenged Him because His disciples ate with unwashen hands and did not practice washings of cups, pots, brazen vessels and tables.
Its plain sense is that the leaders freed a man and suffered him to do nothing more for his father or mother. That meant preventing him from helping them and from doing what he ought and owed to them. Their sayings handed down from rabbi to rabbi nullified God's plain requirement and made the word of God of none effect, while they set aside the fifth commandment as of no consequence and strictly kept the traditions of the elders. Their man-made traditions thus obstructed an essential duty and denied a truth God had made plain by treating human rules as more important than honoring parents.
The Jewish teachers made many rules God had not commanded and required obedience to them as the word of God, even laying them on children, while their rules were contrary to the Bible. Jesus would not learn or obey what the rabbis taught but studied the Scriptures and did whatever the Bible said. When reproved for not doing as others did, He showed from the Bible the right way. The rabbis knew their rules were contrary to the Bible yet were angry at His refusal and complained of Him, so that He suffered blame from His parents and reproof from His brothers for setting Himself above the leaders. The leaders maintained an outward show of devotion while exploiting the poor and widows, and their teaching disguised failure to help parents as religious duty.
The Corban Device
The verse exposes how the fifth commandment to honor father and mother was set aside as of no consequence while the traditions of the elders were carried out with great exactness. The leaders taught that devotion of property to the temple was a duty more sacred than even the support of parents, so that however great the parents' necessity it was counted sacrilege to give father or mother any part of what had been consecrated. An undutiful child had only to pronounce Corban over his property, declaring that whatever help his parents might have received from him was a gift devoted to God, and he was then freed and suffered to do nothing more for them.
He could retain what was thus devoted for his own use during his lifetime, with it going to the temple service after his death, so he was at liberty both in life and in death to dishonor and defraud his parents under cover of pretended devotion to God. This was hypocrisy that concealed neglect of duty to father and mother under pretense of liberality to the temple. Teachers twisted God's plain command so that tradition led to the opposite of what the command required.
The rebuke of this evasion does not lessen man's obligation to present gifts and offerings to God.
Tradition Above Law
Mark 7:12 exposes a deliberate rejection of the commandment of God in order to keep human tradition, laying aside what God commanded to hold what men invented and thereby making the word of God of none effect. The tradition at issue kept a person from helping father or mother and so voided the law to honor parents, showing how religious teachers who claimed to know the law could lead others to disobey it through human teachings. The same disregard for the binding law of God is present in the religious world today, hiding the clear meaning of Scripture.
Rabbinical precepts were regarded as more sacred than the law itself, so that when they came into collision with the commandments given from Sinai, preference was given to the rabbinical precepts. Customs and maxims handed down from generation to generation through the rabbis were made all-essential and were regarded as of even more value and force than the Ten Commandments. The precepts and teachings of men were dwelt upon as of more value than the words of the living God and than a Thus saith the Lord. This human authority continually held back even Christ's own disciples from advancing, supplying their lack and becoming efficient workers and useful in service.
The leaders supplemented God's commandments with a mass of wholly human oral traditions conceived by narrow minds, for which God had given no commandment. They exalted that tradition above the commandments of God and taught it as more essential than the precepts of Jehovah. Minute particulars and senseless, unreasonable forms were made binding, such as just what ceremonies were to be observed in washing hands before eating. As unconverted men not sanctified through the truth, their ideas were perverse and self was interwoven in all they did, with no oneness with Christ and no active Christian fellowship, cherishing jealousy against all they supposed did not keep the letter of the law.
They taught for doctrines the commandments of men, weaving human traditions and maxims into the laws of God. They mingled human sayings with the precepts of heaven and presented them to the people as divine truth, giving the sayings of the rabbis handed down from century to century as a Thus saith the Lord when they were really the invention of human minds and the fruit of the tree of evil. Truth was thus mixed with such a mass of error that it was brought down to the very dust, men were confused in regard to the laws of God's government, and they honored God with the lips while the heart was far from Him and worshiped in vain. The same work of putting a forced, mystical meaning on God's Word because it condemns a chosen course, twisting it to advance apostasy, turning the people from the law to observe and exalt tradition, and drowning the voice of God by the commandments of men was still being done in 1898.
Jesus rejected traditions that lacked authority in Scripture, removed such human traditions from the law, and showed the enduring importance and binding authority of God's commandments. He exposed how human rules could be placed above God's word and prevent doing what God requires, including caring for parents and doing what is owed to them. In contrast to scribes who dwelt upon technicalities, He came to teach truth in its purity, to tear away the error enveloping the commandments, to show the true character and far-reaching claims of the law of Jehovah in its great principles as the first four and the last six commandments. His teaching was impressive and straightforward, direct and positive and spoken without uncertainty so that hearers never wearied of listening, contrasting with rabbinical teaching as greatly as His practical obedience contrasted with daily transgression.
Corruption and Prophetic Fulfillment
Lifting human requirements above divine law always produces corruption, fraud, deception and debasing iniquity. It turns minds away from God to fallible, erring and cruel men, and to the prince of darkness working through them. It disguises sin in a garb of sanctity, as when a religious tradition forbade help to father or mother and thereby set aside God's command.
That deceptive covering concealed the real tendency of Pharisaic doctrine, hiding neglect of duty to parents under pretense of liberality to the temple. Once accepted, it worked imperceptibly like leaven placed in meal, permeating and transforming character and life. It made it hard for the people to receive the words of Christ. The same influence works through those who explain the law to conform to their practices, not attacking it openly but putting forward speculative theories that undermine its principles and destroy its force.
The principle was fulfilled when the accession of the Roman Church to power marked the beginning of the Dark Ages, with darkness deepening as her power increased. Faith was transferred from Christ the true foundation for forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation to the pope and to the priests and prelates to whom he delegated authority. The people were taught to trust him as earthly mediator standing in the place of God, to be implicitly obeyed under threat of severest punishment to body and soul for any deviation, so that none could approach God except through him. Where the Scriptures are suppressed and man comes to regard himself as supreme, only fraud, deception and debasing iniquity can be expected. Forsaking the word of God for human tradition follows the same example condemned in Mark 7:8-13.
Papal leaders do the same when the claims of monasticism are urged above filial love and duty. They induce youth to enter a cloister without the knowledge or consent of parents and contrary to their commands. Parental claims are trampled under foot, hearts of children are steeled against parents, homes are made desolate, and parents are deprived of the society of sons and daughters. The same false religious requirement is met today when the sanctity of the fourth precept is set aside while traditions are eagerly grasped and enforced. God did not give the multitudinous ceremonies that occupied sacred time with no benefit while His commands were disregarded, and He has not commanded men to observe the first day of the week.
The religious world follows the track of the Jews by upholding Sunday, a day without divine credentials. It clothes a false sabbath with sanctity and seeks to compel its observance by imprisonment and fines. Under the enemy's training zeal grows to heap reproach on those who keep God's commandments while thinking it service to God. Choosing to rest on Saturday in obedience to the fourth commandment rather than follow church tradition illustrates the principle that human traditions must not cancel God's word. The same disregard for the binding law, making it ineffective and rejecting its authority by twisting the Word to advance apostasy, exalting tradition and drowning the voice of God by the commandments of men, is present in the religious world today.
Present Duty and Warning
Human religious traditions must never be allowed to cancel God's word or override His will. Errors and traditions received from men must be given up in order to turn wholly to God and His word. An interpretation of Scripture that obstructs essential duty denies truth God has made plain, as when leaders prevented people from doing what they ought and owed for father and mother. Religious excuses that keep a person from doing what is owed to a parent disregard God's commandments and promote apostasy.
The verse warns against interpreting Scripture to fit human opinions and teaching traditions that displace its requirements. Human customs and traditions can displace God's word and its requirements, and this warning applies to education that gives human methods and teachings priority over Scripture. Attention to inherited tradition displaced the precious truths of God's Word and matters concerning salvation, as when Pharisaic tradition allowed a person to withhold help from father or mother and set aside the command to honor parents.
Christ came to teach truth in its purity and to tear away the error enveloping the commandments of God and show the true character of the law of Jehovah. He rescued truths from the rubbish of error, freed them from human exactions and traditions and bade them stand fast forever, preaching the Word pure and unadulterated and making truth shine in its original luster. He gathered up precious gems of truth given to patriarchs, prophets and apostles and replaced them in the framework of the gospel in their own divine brightness, though the Jews formed a confederacy to stand by old traditions in defiance of pure practical godliness and obstinately refused to give up misinterpretations that had become idols taught as sacred doctrines. In the sermon on the mount He showed the far-reaching claims and great principles of the law as the first four and the last six commandments, in contrast to scribes who dwelt upon technicalities after truth had been mixed with such a mass of error that it was brought down to the dust. His teaching was impressive and straightforward, direct and positive without uncertainty so hearers never wearied of listening, contrasting with rabbinical teaching as greatly as His practical obedience contrasted with daily transgression, while teachers who instructed children in customs, traditions, fables and their own sayings and opinions imparted so little heavenly light that they did not elevate, ennoble and strengthen the soul.
Those who present truth may face opposition from those who accept human theories and traditions in place of Scripture. Jesus exposed priests and rulers for making void the law of God by maxims and traditions, disregarding their forms and ceremonies, setting aside priesthood and rabbinical theology, exposing evil practices and calling sinners directly to God as merciful Father, and rulers counted this exposure as dishonor to their righteousness and irreparable hurt to their influence and authority. Unconverted men exalting human tradition above God's commandments and teaching tradition as more essential than the precepts of Jehovah made senseless forms and minute particulars binding, and over difference of opinion on those forms killed the world's Redeemer. Rejection of God's law through human commandments is connected with rejection of Christ. Even His disciples were constantly kept back from advancing, supplying lack of knowledge and becoming efficient workers by customs and maxims handed down through rabbis, made all-essential and regarded as of even more force than the Ten Commandments, so that precepts and teachings of men were dwelt upon as of more value than the words of the living God.
The only ground for unity is obedience to the commandments of God, the character of Christ's church is obedience, and the only message to be voiced combines the first, second and third angels' messages which require obedience to God's law. Teachers put a forced mystical meaning on God's Word because it condemned their course, making void His law by traditions and teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, and the same work twists the Word to advance apostasy, seeking to turn people from God's law to observe and exalt tradition and to drown God's voice by commandments of men. When religious teachers make God's law void by human tradition, as the Pharisees' tradition prevented helping father or mother and set aside the command to honor parents, they hide the clear meaning of Scripture.
Christ confronted the Pharisees and scribes for freeing a man from duty so that he was suffered to do nothing more for his father or mother, preventing the help he owed them. An undutiful child had only to pronounce Corban over his property as devoted to the temple, keeping it for his own use in life while it passed to temple service after death, and thus could dishonor and defraud his parents under cover of pretended devotion to God. In this they set aside the fifth commandment about honoring father and mother as of no consequence while exact in the traditions of the elders, teaching that temple devotion was more sacred than even parental support however great the need. It was hypocrisy that concealed neglect of duty under pretense of liberality, maintaining outward devotion while twisting God's plain command to the opposite of what it required. The verse shows laying aside the commandment of God to hold the tradition of men and making the word of God of none effect, which human traditions must never be allowed to do.
Context and Plain Sense
Mark 7:12 belongs to a confrontation over disregard for traditional precepts that encumbered the law of God. The ground of complaint against Christ was neglect of human requirements, especially ceremonial purification and washings before eating. Trifling distinctions and observances that God had not required turned attention away from the great principles of His law. It was spoken directly to a deputation of Pharisees and scribes who came to accuse Him after He stayed away from the Passover. They challenged Him because His disciples ate with unwashen hands and did not practice washings of cups, pots, brazen vessels and tables.
Its plain sense is that the leaders freed a man and suffered him to do nothing more for his father or mother. That meant preventing him from helping them and from doing what he ought and owed to them. Their sayings handed down from rabbi to rabbi nullified God's plain requirement and made the word of God of none effect, while they set aside the fifth commandment as of no consequence and strictly kept the traditions of the elders. Their man-made traditions thus obstructed an essential duty and denied a truth God had made plain by treating human rules as more important than honoring parents.
The Jewish teachers made many rules God had not commanded and required obedience to them as the word of God, even laying them on children, while their rules were contrary to the Bible. Jesus would not learn or obey what the rabbis taught but studied the Scriptures and did whatever the Bible said. When reproved for not doing as others did, He showed from the Bible the right way. The rabbis knew their rules were contrary to the Bible yet were angry at His refusal and complained of Him, so that He suffered blame from His parents and reproof from His brothers for setting Himself above the leaders. The leaders maintained an outward show of devotion while exploiting the poor and widows, and their teaching disguised failure to help parents as religious duty.
The Corban Device
The verse exposes how the fifth commandment to honor father and mother was set aside as of no consequence while the traditions of the elders were carried out with great exactness. The leaders taught that devotion of property to the temple was a duty more sacred than even the support of parents, so that however great the parents' necessity it was counted sacrilege to give father or mother any part of what had been consecrated. An undutiful child had only to pronounce Corban over his property, declaring that whatever help his parents might have received from him was a gift devoted to God, and he was then freed and suffered to do nothing more for them.
He could retain what was thus devoted for his own use during his lifetime, with it going to the temple service after his death, so he was at liberty both in life and in death to dishonor and defraud his parents under cover of pretended devotion to God. This was hypocrisy that concealed neglect of duty to father and mother under pretense of liberality to the temple. Teachers twisted God's plain command so that tradition led to the opposite of what the command required.
The rebuke of this evasion does not lessen man's obligation to present gifts and offerings to God.
Tradition Above Law
Mark 7:12 exposes a deliberate rejection of the commandment of God in order to keep human tradition, laying aside what God commanded to hold what men invented and thereby making the word of God of none effect. The tradition at issue kept a person from helping father or mother and so voided the law to honor parents, showing how religious teachers who claimed to know the law could lead others to disobey it through human teachings. The same disregard for the binding law of God is present in the religious world today, hiding the clear meaning of Scripture.
Rabbinical precepts were regarded as more sacred than the law itself, so that when they came into collision with the commandments given from Sinai, preference was given to the rabbinical precepts. Customs and maxims handed down from generation to generation through the rabbis were made all-essential and were regarded as of even more value and force than the Ten Commandments. The precepts and teachings of men were dwelt upon as of more value than the words of the living God and than a Thus saith the Lord. This human authority continually held back even Christ's own disciples from advancing, supplying their lack and becoming efficient workers and useful in service.
The leaders supplemented God's commandments with a mass of wholly human oral traditions conceived by narrow minds, for which God had given no commandment. They exalted that tradition above the commandments of God and taught it as more essential than the precepts of Jehovah. Minute particulars and senseless, unreasonable forms were made binding, such as just what ceremonies were to be observed in washing hands before eating. As unconverted men not sanctified through the truth, their ideas were perverse and self was interwoven in all they did, with no oneness with Christ and no active Christian fellowship, cherishing jealousy against all they supposed did not keep the letter of the law.
They taught for doctrines the commandments of men, weaving human traditions and maxims into the laws of God. They mingled human sayings with the precepts of heaven and presented them to the people as divine truth, giving the sayings of the rabbis handed down from century to century as a Thus saith the Lord when they were really the invention of human minds and the fruit of the tree of evil. Truth was thus mixed with such a mass of error that it was brought down to the very dust, men were confused in regard to the laws of God's government, and they honored God with the lips while the heart was far from Him and worshiped in vain. The same work of putting a forced, mystical meaning on God's Word because it condemns a chosen course, twisting it to advance apostasy, turning the people from the law to observe and exalt tradition, and drowning the voice of God by the commandments of men was still being done in 1898.
Jesus rejected traditions that lacked authority in Scripture, removed such human traditions from the law, and showed the enduring importance and binding authority of God's commandments. He exposed how human rules could be placed above God's word and prevent doing what God requires, including caring for parents and doing what is owed to them. In contrast to scribes who dwelt upon technicalities, He came to teach truth in its purity, to tear away the error enveloping the commandments, to show the true character and far-reaching claims of the law of Jehovah in its great principles as the first four and the last six commandments. His teaching was impressive and straightforward, direct and positive and spoken without uncertainty so that hearers never wearied of listening, contrasting with rabbinical teaching as greatly as His practical obedience contrasted with daily transgression.
Corruption and Prophetic Fulfillment
Lifting human requirements above divine law always produces corruption, fraud, deception and debasing iniquity. It turns minds away from God to fallible, erring and cruel men, and to the prince of darkness working through them. It disguises sin in a garb of sanctity, as when a religious tradition forbade help to father or mother and thereby set aside God's command.
That deceptive covering concealed the real tendency of Pharisaic doctrine, hiding neglect of duty to parents under pretense of liberality to the temple. Once accepted, it worked imperceptibly like leaven placed in meal, permeating and transforming character and life. It made it hard for the people to receive the words of Christ. The same influence works through those who explain the law to conform to their practices, not attacking it openly but putting forward speculative theories that undermine its principles and destroy its force.
The principle was fulfilled when the accession of the Roman Church to power marked the beginning of the Dark Ages, with darkness deepening as her power increased. Faith was transferred from Christ the true foundation for forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation to the pope and to the priests and prelates to whom he delegated authority. The people were taught to trust him as earthly mediator standing in the place of God, to be implicitly obeyed under threat of severest punishment to body and soul for any deviation, so that none could approach God except through him. Where the Scriptures are suppressed and man comes to regard himself as supreme, only fraud, deception and debasing iniquity can be expected. Forsaking the word of God for human tradition follows the same example condemned in Mark 7:8-13.
Papal leaders do the same when the claims of monasticism are urged above filial love and duty. They induce youth to enter a cloister without the knowledge or consent of parents and contrary to their commands. Parental claims are trampled under foot, hearts of children are steeled against parents, homes are made desolate, and parents are deprived of the society of sons and daughters. The same false religious requirement is met today when the sanctity of the fourth precept is set aside while traditions are eagerly grasped and enforced. God did not give the multitudinous ceremonies that occupied sacred time with no benefit while His commands were disregarded, and He has not commanded men to observe the first day of the week.
The religious world follows the track of the Jews by upholding Sunday, a day without divine credentials. It clothes a false sabbath with sanctity and seeks to compel its observance by imprisonment and fines. Under the enemy's training zeal grows to heap reproach on those who keep God's commandments while thinking it service to God. Choosing to rest on Saturday in obedience to the fourth commandment rather than follow church tradition illustrates the principle that human traditions must not cancel God's word. The same disregard for the binding law, making it ineffective and rejecting its authority by twisting the Word to advance apostasy, exalting tradition and drowning the voice of God by the commandments of men, is present in the religious world today.
Present Duty and Warning
Human religious traditions must never be allowed to cancel God's word or override His will. Errors and traditions received from men must be given up in order to turn wholly to God and His word. An interpretation of Scripture that obstructs essential duty denies truth God has made plain, as when leaders prevented people from doing what they ought and owed for father and mother. Religious excuses that keep a person from doing what is owed to a parent disregard God's commandments and promote apostasy.
The verse warns against interpreting Scripture to fit human opinions and teaching traditions that displace its requirements. Human customs and traditions can displace God's word and its requirements, and this warning applies to education that gives human methods and teachings priority over Scripture. Attention to inherited tradition displaced the precious truths of God's Word and matters concerning salvation, as when Pharisaic tradition allowed a person to withhold help from father or mother and set aside the command to honor parents.
Christ came to teach truth in its purity and to tear away the error enveloping the commandments of God and show the true character of the law of Jehovah. He rescued truths from the rubbish of error, freed them from human exactions and traditions and bade them stand fast forever, preaching the Word pure and unadulterated and making truth shine in its original luster. He gathered up precious gems of truth given to patriarchs, prophets and apostles and replaced them in the framework of the gospel in their own divine brightness, though the Jews formed a confederacy to stand by old traditions in defiance of pure practical godliness and obstinately refused to give up misinterpretations that had become idols taught as sacred doctrines. In the sermon on the mount He showed the far-reaching claims and great principles of the law as the first four and the last six commandments, in contrast to scribes who dwelt upon technicalities after truth had been mixed with such a mass of error that it was brought down to the dust. His teaching was impressive and straightforward, direct and positive without uncertainty so hearers never wearied of listening, contrasting with rabbinical teaching as greatly as His practical obedience contrasted with daily transgression, while teachers who instructed children in customs, traditions, fables and their own sayings and opinions imparted so little heavenly light that they did not elevate, ennoble and strengthen the soul.
Those who present truth may face opposition from those who accept human theories and traditions in place of Scripture. Jesus exposed priests and rulers for making void the law of God by maxims and traditions, disregarding their forms and ceremonies, setting aside priesthood and rabbinical theology, exposing evil practices and calling sinners directly to God as merciful Father, and rulers counted this exposure as dishonor to their righteousness and irreparable hurt to their influence and authority. Unconverted men exalting human tradition above God's commandments and teaching tradition as more essential than the precepts of Jehovah made senseless forms and minute particulars binding, and over difference of opinion on those forms killed the world's Redeemer. Rejection of God's law through human commandments is connected with rejection of Christ. Even His disciples were constantly kept back from advancing, supplying lack of knowledge and becoming efficient workers by customs and maxims handed down through rabbis, made all-essential and regarded as of even more force than the Ten Commandments, so that precepts and teachings of men were dwelt upon as of more value than the words of the living God.
The only ground for unity is obedience to the commandments of God, the character of Christ's church is obedience, and the only message to be voiced combines the first, second and third angels' messages which require obedience to God's law. Teachers put a forced mystical meaning on God's Word because it condemned their course, making void His law by traditions and teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, and the same work twists the Word to advance apostasy, seeking to turn people from God's law to observe and exalt tradition and to drown God's voice by commandments of men. When religious teachers make God's law void by human tradition, as the Pharisees' tradition prevented helping father or mother and set aside the command to honor parents, they hide the clear meaning of Scripture.