1
Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked,
2
"Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!"
3
Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?
4
For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' 1 and 'Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.' 2
5
But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is 'devoted to God,'
6
they are not to 'honor their father or mother' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
7
You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8
" 'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules' 3 "