Now when the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. (For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles (and beds).) So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.’ You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” He went on to say, “How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘Whoever curses father or mother shall die.’ Yet you say, ‘If a person says to father or mother, “Any support you might have had from me is qorban”‘ (meaning, dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother. You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things.” (Mk 7:1-13)
Every society (even every community or family) has its own traditions. Some of these traditions pertain to purity laws. Ritual washing of hands before food, and of cooking vessels, was one key part of highly complex and developed system of purity regulations among Jews. In fact some of the followers were considered gentiles by scholars because of purity laws.
Some of these traditions went, at times, against the scriptures. Jesus gave an example of this: scripture demands the people to honour parents; but the Jews have made a tradition by which they offered to God (qorban) what was suppose to go to the parents. Because this tradition they need not do anything to the parents.
Jesus comes with the word of God and wanted the people to fulfil the word of God in their lives. He himself was the fulfilment of the word of God. When he began his public ministry he said that man does not live on bread alone but on the word of God. Jesus stressed the importance of the word of God over against the human traditions, though some of these traditions were pious activities.
