And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
Some of the disciples ate bread without performing the ceremonial handwashing required by rabbinic tradition and custom. Hands left unwashed in that sense were regarded as defiled, so the washing was treated as a matter of religious purity. That washing was a human religious precept and observance, not a command God had given.
The faultfinding shows how human traditions and petty rites had been raised above God's requirements, confusing the sacred with the common. The Pharisees and scribes, acting as spies, seized on this neglect to find fault with the disciples, using it as grounds for accusation to pursue their trap against Jesus.
Some of the disciples ate bread without performing the ceremonial handwashing required by rabbinic tradition and custom. Hands left unwashed in that sense were regarded as defiled, so the washing was treated as a matter of religious purity. That washing was a human religious precept and observance, not a command God had given.
The faultfinding shows how human traditions and petty rites had been raised above God's requirements, confusing the sacred with the common. The Pharisees and scribes, acting as spies, seized on this neglect to find fault with the disciples, using it as grounds for accusation to pursue their trap against Jesus.