The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew15:1–9

The Tradition of the Elders

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Matthew 15:1–9 — The Tradition of the Elders. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

1

Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tote Pharisaioi kai grammateis proserchontai tō Iēsou apo Hierosolymōn legontes

Word by word10 · parsed
ΤότεToteThenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
Matthew's loose then: a narrative seam, not a dated hour.
ΦαρισαῖοιPharisaioi[some] PhariseesG5330
√ Φαρισαῖος — a separatist, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
Φαρισαῖος: a separatist Strong's root sense is separatist, and the separating is the point of the whole unit. Ellicott lists what this same party had already charged: blasphemy (Matthew 9:3), eating with sinners (Matthew 9:11), neglect of fasts (Matthew 9:14), Beelzebub (Matthew 12:24), Sabbath-breaking (Matthew 12:2, 10). The new accusation is the sixth in a series.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
γραμματεῖςgrammateisscribesG1122
√ γραμματεύς — scribe, town-clerkNounNominative Masculine Plural
γραμματεύς: scribe, town-clerk The professional guardians and copyists of the text. Gill notes that scribes were found throughout the land but "those of Jerusalem were the chief," the men of greatest learning; Cambridge and Poole both read this group as a deputation from the Sanhedrin, comparable to the one sent to question John (John 1:19).
προσέρχονταιproserchontaicameG4334
√ προσέρχομαι — to approach, iVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Plural
προσέρχομαι: to approach Present tense, middle or passive form. The men who will accuse the disciples of ritual defilement draw near to the one whose presence is the true sanctuary. The same verb family will carry the Canaanite woman's approach later in this chapter, and the contrast of two approaches is one of Matthew 15's structural spines.
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦIēsouto JesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounDative Masculine Singular
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
ἹεροσολύμωνHierosolymōnJerusalemG2414
√ Ἱεροσόλυμα — Hierosolyma (iNounGenitive Neuter Plural
Ἱεροσόλυμα: Hierosolyma Note the form: a neuter plural, the Hellenized spelling of the city's name. Its weight here is jurisdictional. Poole sets out the machinery: the Sanhedrin sat in Jerusalem with inferior courts elsewhere, and "it was the great business of this court to take care that there should be no corruption in religion." The central court has come to Galilee to inspect.
λέγοντεςlegontes[and] askedG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
2

“Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands before they eat.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Dia ti sou hoi mathētai parabainousin tēn paradosin tōn presbyterōn gar ou niptontai autōn tas cheiras hotan esthiōsin arton

Word by word19 · parsed
ΔιὰDiaWhy {do}G1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
τίti. . .G5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
σουsouYourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
μαθηταίmathētaidisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
παραβαίνουσινparabainousinbreakG3845
√ παραβαίνω — to go contrary to, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
παραβαίνω: to go contrary to A rare verb (3 verses). The charge and the countercharge of v. 3 turn on the very same word, so the exchange is a duel over one verb: who is the real boundary-crosser. Its only other prominent New Testament use, of Judas leaving his place (Acts 1:25), gives the word its darkest color.
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
παράδοσινparadosintraditionG3862
√ παράδοσις — transmission, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
παράδοσις: transmission The neutral word for handed-down teaching, which Paul can use positively (2 Thessalonians 2:15) and Christ here negatively. Barnes records the rabbinic claim that two sets of law came from Sinai, one written and one oral, delivered by Moses to Joshua, Joshua to the judges, the judges to the prophets; Cambridge cites the saying that the words of the scribes are all weighty. The whole unit is an argument about which transmission binds.
τῶνtōnof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
πρεσβυτέρωνpresbyterōneldersG4245
√ πρεσβύτερος — olderAdjectiveGenitive Masculine Plural
πρεσβύτερος: older Formally a comparative adjective, the older ones. Cambridge and Gill both name the historical referents: Hillel and Shammai and the earlier doctors, not the sitting Sanhedrin. Jesus will contest even the antiquity, since Pulpit observes that he "gives them a more modern origin."
γὰρgarG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
οὐouvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
νίπτονταιniptontaiThey do not washG3538
√ νίπτω — to cleanse (especially the hands or the feet or the face)VerbPresent Indicative Middle3rd Person Plural
νίπτω: to cleanse the hands Middle voice, habitual present. Barnes concedes the practice began well ("They did this professedly for the sake of cleanliness. So far it was well") and turned superstitious in its quantities and repetitions. Nothing in the text says hand washing is wrong; the fault is its promotion to the rank of commandment.
αὐτῶνautōntheirG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
τὰςtasG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
χεῖραςcheirashandsG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
ὅτανhotanbeforeG3752
√ ὅταν — whenever (implying hypothesis or more or less uncertainty)Conjunction
Cambridge corrects the rendering: not "when" but whenever (ὅταν with subjunctive), a standing habit rather than one occasion.
ἐσθίωσινesthiōsinthey eatG2068
√ ἐσθίω — used only in certain tenses, the rest being supplied by G5315 (φάγω)VerbPresent Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
ἄρτονarton. . .G740
√ ἄρτος — bread (as raised) or a loafNounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἄρτος: bread The word BSB drops. It quietly ties this scene to the loaves on either side of it: the five thousand fed just before (Matthew 14), the four thousand just after (Matthew 15:32-39), and the children's bread offered to a Gentile in between (Matthew 15:26). The men who audit how hands touch bread stand between two miracles of bread.
3

Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho apokritheis eipen autois kai Dia ti hymeis parabainete tēn entolēn tou Theou dia hymōn tēn paradosin

Word by word18 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἀποκριθεὶςapokritheis[Jesus] repliedG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἀποκρίνομαι: to conclude for oneself Aorist passive participle in an active sense, the standard Gospel formula for a weighty reply. Poole observes what the form conceals: Christ could have answered their question directly, "but he must then either have incurred danger or odium; he therefore chooseth to answer them by another question, which struck at the root of the matter."
εἶπενeipen. . .G2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῖςautois. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ΔιὰDiawhyG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
τίti. . .G5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
ὑμεῖςhymeis{do} youG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 2nd Person Plural
Emphatic pronoun: you, over against the disciples just accused.
παραβαίνετεparabainetebreakG3845
√ παραβαίνω — to go contrary to, iVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
παραβαίνω: to go contrary to The identical rare verb they used in v. 2, now in the 2nd person plural. The accusers are tried by their own vocabulary, and the object is changed from tradition to commandment of God, so the verb keeps its force while the stakes are raised from human hedge to divine line.
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ἐντολὴνentolēncommandG1785
√ ἐντολή — injunction, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἐντολή: injunction Singular and definite, the commandment of God, set against the plural swarm of human ἐντάλματα in v. 9. Gill draws the practical conclusion: if keeping the elders' rules requires breaking God's precept, that is itself sufficient reason never to keep them.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
διὰdiafor the sake ofG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
διά (accusative): on account of The pivot of the whole indictment, repeated in v. 6. Ellicott: they "had inverted the right relation of the two, and made the tradition an end, and not a means."
ὑμῶνhymōnyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Plural
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
παράδοσινparadosintraditionG3862
√ παράδοσις — transmission, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
4

For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gar ho Theos eipen Tima ton patera kai tēn mētera kai Ho kakologōn patera ē mētera thanatō teleutatō

Word by word18 · parsed
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΘεὸςTheosGodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounNominative Masculine Singular
εἶπενeipensaidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
The aorist said treats Sinai as a finished, standing utterance, still in force and still God's own.
ΤίμαTimaHonorG5091
√ τιμάω — to prize, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
τιμάω: to prize, to set a price on Present imperative, and the keyword of the unit: it returns in v. 6 (the son who will not honor) and again in v. 8 (the people who honor with lips only). Geneva's gloss is the plainest: "By honour is meant every duty which children owe to their parents." Gill records that the rabbis themselves agreed honor meant food, drink and clothing, which removes any defense of ignorance.
τὸνton[your]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
πατέραpaterafatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
μητέραmēteramotherG3384
√ μήτηρ — a "mother" (literally or figuratively, immediate or remote)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
καίkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὉHoAnyone whoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
κακολογῶνkakologōncursesG2551
√ κακολογέω — to revileVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
κακολογέω: to revile A rare verb (4 verses), used elsewhere of speaking evil against Christ's name or way (Mark 9:39, Acts 19:9). Placing the reviling of a parent in that company is itself an argument: contempt for the parent God gave is of a piece with contempt for God. Gill stresses that the Mosaic penalty covered not only abusive speech but slighting and neglect.
πατέραpatera[his] fatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
μητέραmēteramotherG3384
√ μήτηρ — a "mother" (literally or figuratively, immediate or remote)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
θανάτῳthanatōvvvG2288
√ θάνατος — (properly, an adjective used as a noun) death (literally or figuratively)NounDative Masculine Singular
Dative of means: death is the instrument by which the life is to be ended, the Greek's way of rendering the Hebrew emphatic construction.
τελευτάτωteleutatōmust be put to deathG5053
√ τελευτάω — to finish life (by implication, of G979 (βίος)), iVerbPresent Imperative Active3rd Person Singular
τελευτάω: to finish life A 3rd person imperative, the language of judicial sentence. Poole notes Moses fortified the fifth commandment with a judicial law (Exodus 21:17, Leviticus 20:9) and a further threat in Proverbs 20:20, and that Paul calls it "the first commandment with promise" (Ephesians 6:2). A commandment guarded by death at one end and promise at the other is the last one a hedge of human rules should be allowed to cancel.
5

But you say that if anyone says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever you would have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de hymeis legete Hos an eipē tō patri ē tē mētri ho ean ōphelēthēs ex emou Dōron

Word by word17 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὑμεῖςhymeisyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 2nd Person Plural
The emphatic you again, now as the counter-legislator: God said, but you say.
λέγετεlegetesay thatG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
ὋςHosif anyoneG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
Indefinite relative with ἄν plus subjunctive: the grammar of a standing rule, which is why Gill can quote the actual Mishnaic formulae ("Conem, whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me") as nearly word-for-word matches to Christ's citation. He is quoting their case law, not caricaturing it.
ἂνan. . .G302
√ ἄν — (what-, where-, wither-, who-)soeverParticle
εἴπῃeipēsaysG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
τῷtōto [his]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
πατρὶpatrifatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounDative Masculine Singular
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
τῇtēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
μητρίmētrimotherG3384
√ μήτηρ — a "mother" (literally or figuratively, immediate or remote)NounDative Feminine Singular
ὃhoWhateverG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐὰνeanvvvG1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
ὠφεληθῇςōphelēthēsyou would have receivedG5623
√ ὠφελέω — to be useful, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Passive2nd Person Singular
ὠφελέω: to be useful, to profit Aorist passive subjunctive, second person: the profit is the parent's, and the vow annihilates it. Ellicott shows how the casuistry worked: consecration barred diversion to human use, yet the time of actually paying the vow "was left to his own discretion," so the son could keep the usufruct for life. The word for benefit thus names exactly what the vow withholds while pretending to give.
ἐξexfromG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
ἐμοῦemoumeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
ΔῶρονDōronis a gift devoted [to God]G1435
√ δῶρον — a presentNounNominative Neuter Singular
δῶρον: a present Nominative, standing alone and capitalized: the whole loophole in one syllable. Barnes stresses that Scripture itself requires vows to be paid (Psalm 76:11, Deuteronomy 23:21), so the abuse feeds on a real obligation; Christ "did not mean to condemn the practice of giving to God," only its use as a shield against a parent. A gift that makes God the accomplice of neglect is the precise inversion of sacrifice.
6

he need not honor his father or mother with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

ou mē timēsei autou ton patera ē autou tēn mētera kai ēkyrōsate ton logon tou Theou dia hymōn tēn paradosin

Word by word20 · parsed
οὐouvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
The οὐ μὴ pair with a future is the idiom of prohibition, not of forecast.
τιμήσειtimēseihe need not honorG5091
√ τιμάω — to prize, iVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τιμάω: to prize, to set a price on The same verb as the Sinai imperative of v. 4, now in the future and under a double negative. The tradition takes God's imperative and negates its exact word, which is why the case is decisive rather than merely regrettable.
αὐτοῦautouhisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
πατέραpaterafatherG3962
√ πατήρ — a "father" (literally or figuratively, near or more remote)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
αὐτοῦautouG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
μητέραmēteramother [with it]G3384
√ μήτηρ — a "mother" (literally or figuratively, immediate or remote)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiThusG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἠκυρώσατεēkyrōsateyou nullifyG208
√ ἀκυρόω — to invalidateVerbAorist Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
ἀκυρόω: to invalidate A rare, legal verb (3 verses). Paul uses it of what cannot be done to a covenant: the law given four hundred and thirty years later does not annul the promise (Galatians 3:17). What God's own law will not do to God's promise, these rulings do to God's commandment. Geneva adds the limit that keeps the charge from despair: they destroyed its authority as far as they could, "for otherwise the commandments of God stand fast in the Church of God."
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
λόγονlogonwordG3056
√ λόγος — something said (including the thought)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
λόγος: something said Not "text" but utterance. The escalation from commandment (v. 3) to word (v. 6) sets up the Isaiah citation, where the failure is finally located not in a rule kept badly but in a heart at a distance from the speaker.
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ΘεοῦTheouof GodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounGenitive Masculine Singular
διὰdiafor the sake ofG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
On account of your tradition, repeating v. 3: the same preposition, the same inversion of end and means.
ὑμῶνhymōnyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Plural
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
παράδοσινparadosintraditionG3862
√ παράδοσις — transmission, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
7

You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you:

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

hypokritai Ēsaias eprophēteusen kalōs peri hymōn legōn

Word by word7 · parsed
ὑποκριταίhypokritaiYou hypocritesG5273
√ ὑποκριτής — an actor under an assumed character (stage-player), iNounVocative Masculine Plural
ὑποκριτής: an actor under an assumed character Vocative, with no verb: a naming, not an argument. Gill defends the severity by citing a rabbinic saying preserved in their own literature, that if the world's hypocrites were divided into ten parts, nine would belong to Jerusalem. Pulpit locates the specific pretence: they claimed zeal for God's glory while "really influenced by covetousness and avarice." The word is theatrical, and the Corban ruling is its script.
ἨσαΐαςĒsaiasIsaiahG2268
√ Ἡσαΐας — Hesaias (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐπροφήτευσενeprophēteusenprophesiedG4395
√ προφητεύω — to foretell events, divine, speak under inspiration, exercise the prophetic officeVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
προφητεύω: to speak under inspiration Aorist: the prophecy was spoken once, in the eighth century, and lands here. Benson draws the hermeneutical principle from 2 Peter 1:20, that the reproofs of sin in Scripture "were designed to be applied to similar persons and practices to the end of the world." That principle, not a claim of predictive reference, is what licenses the quotation.
καλῶςkalōscorrectlyG2573
√ καλῶς — well (usually morally)Adverb
καλῶς: well, usually morally Emphatic first word of the clause: finely did Isaiah prophesy of you. Strong's notes the moral coloring, and the adverb cuts two ways at once, certifying the prophet (his aim was true) while indicting the hearers (they are the target he hit). The same adverb carries Mark's grave irony at Mark 7:9, "Full well ye reject the commandment of God," which Ellicott calls a touch of "grave and earnest irony, in the truest and best sense of that word."
περὶperiaboutG4012
√ περί — properly, through (all over), iPreposition
ὑμῶνhymōnyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Plural
λέγωνlegōnG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
8

‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

houtos Ho laos tima me tois cheilesin de autōn Hē kardia apechei porrō ap’ emou

Word by word15 · parsed
οὗτοςhoutosTheseG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
λαὸςlaospeopleG2992
√ λαός — a people (in generalNounNominative Masculine Singular
λαός: a people The covenant term, singular. Gill catalogues what this people genuinely did: prayed publicly and constantly, owned the one living God, boasted in him, brought sacrifices of thanksgiving. The verse does not accuse them of neglecting worship; it accuses worship that is all outward and therefore hollow.
τιμᾷtimahonorG5091
√ τιμάω — to prize, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τιμάω: to prize, to set a price on Third occurrence of the unit's hinge verb, now with God as its object. The logic is tight: a people that has learned to price its parents at nothing has learned to price God at nothing too, and the lip-honor of v. 8 is the same coin as the Corban vow of v. 5. Barnes: "God requires the heart, and that they have not rendered."
μεmeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
τοῖςtoiswith theirG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Plural
χείλεσίνcheilesinlipsG5491
√ χεῖλος — a lip (as a pouring place)NounDative Neuter Plural
χεῖλος: a lip, as a pouring place Strong's notes the image of a pouring place, an edge. Honor reaches the rim and no further. The lips are the organ of the vow in v. 5 as well, which is where a single spoken word cancelled a lifetime of duty.
δὲdebutG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
αὐτῶνautōntheirG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἩHēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
καρδίαkardiaheartsG2588
√ καρδία — the heart, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
καρδία: the heart Singular, the whole inner person as the seat of will and affection, not merely feeling. This is the fulcrum of the chapter: the discourse that follows (Matthew 15:18-19) locates defilement in what proceeds out of the heart, so the prophet's word here supplies the diagnosis that Christ's own teaching will then expound.
ἀπέχειapecheiare farG568
√ ἀπέχω — (actively) to have out, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἀπέχω: to have out, to hold off An active verb with a rare adverb (πόρρω, 4 verses). The distance is maintained, not suffered. Its one striking companion use is of the far country in a parable of a son and a father (compare Luke 15:20, where the son is still a long way off), which fits a unit whose whole quarrel is about sons, fathers and distance.
πόρρωporrō. . .G4206
√ πόῤῥω — forwards, iAdverb
ἀπ’ap’fromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
ἐμοῦemouMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
9

They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de sebontai me Matēn Didaskontes didaskalias entalmata anthrōpōn

Word by word8 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
σέβονταίsebontaiThey worshipG4576
√ σέβομαι — to revere, iVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Plural
σέβομαι: to revere Middle voice: worship as something the worshipper performs upon himself as much as offers. Gill lists what was performed, prayer in the synagogues, the reading of Moses and the prophets, the rituals of the ceremonial law, the offerings of the temple, and then says it was all to no purpose, "since the heart was wanting."
μεmeMeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Singular
ΜάτηνMatēnin vainG3155
√ μάτην — folly, iAdverb
μάτην: folly, to no purpose A rare adverb (2 verses), and the most textually contested word in the unit (see the divergence). Henry compresses the whole doom into it: "In vain do they worship me. It will neither please God, nor profit themselves; they trust in vanity, and vanity will be their recompence." Poole glosses it "idly, and unprofitably, and to no purpose: I will not account what they do," which is the sharpest sense: not worship that fails to satisfy, but worship God refuses to credit.
ΔιδάσκοντεςDidaskontesthey teachG1321
√ διδάσκω — to teach (in the same broad application)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
Present participle: the teaching is continuous, an institution rather than an incident.
διδασκαλίαςdidaskalias[as] doctrineG1319
√ διδασκαλία — instruction (the function or the information)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
διδασκαλία: instruction The word Paul will use for sound doctrine, here for the opposite. The cognate pairing with the participle makes the offense grammatically visible: teaching teachings, a closed circuit with no word of God in it.
ἐντάλματαentalmata[the] preceptsG1778
√ ἔνταλμα — an injunction, iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
ἔνταλμα: an injunction Rare (3 verses), and the fulcrum of the unit's closing contrast: God's one broad ἐντολή (v. 3) against men's many narrow ἐντάλματα. Paul takes up this exact rare noun against ascetic rule-making, "which all perish with the using, after the commandments and doctrines of men" (Colossians 2:22), the same two lexemes joined the same way. Pulpit notes this is Christ's own designation of rabbinical tradition.
ἀνθρώπωνanthrōpōnof menG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounGenitive Masculine Plural
ἄνθρωπος: man The last word of the quotation and of the unit, in the genitive: the source that disqualifies. Everything hangs on whose word it is.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The court comes down from Jerusalem — 15:1-2

⚙ Matthew's first word is a loose then (Τότε), and his verb is a present: προσέρχονται, they are coming to Jesus. Who comes matters. Cambridge and Poole both read the party as a deputation, comparable to the one the Sanhedrin sent to interrogate John (John 1:19); Gill notes that scribes were everywhere in the land but those of Jerusalem "were the chief," the most learned and the most expert in custom; Poole sets out the institution behind them, the supreme court that sat in Jerusalem with inferior courts elsewhere, whose "great business" was to see that religion stayed uncorrupted. Ellicott adds the history: this same party had already charged Jesus with blasphemy (Matthew 9:3), with eating alongside sinners (Matthew 9:11), with neglecting fasts (Matthew 9:14), with Beelzebub (Matthew 12:24), with Sabbath-breaking (Matthew 12:2, 10). The sixth charge is the smallest and the most revealing.

⚙ The charge is built on one rare verb. παραβαίνουσιν (G3845, in only 3 verses) means to step alongside and past, to cross a line. Barnes explains what line they had in mind: a second law, claimed to have come from Sinai unwritten and handed down from Moses to Joshua, from Joshua to the judges, from the judges to the prophets. Cambridge quotes the rabbinic estimate, that the words of the law are weighty and light but all the words of the scribes are weighty. And Ellicott specifies the offense with precision: "They shrank not from dirt, but from defilement." Pulpit records that under these rules the infringement of any one of a multitude of regulations "endangered a man's ceremonial purity," and that all of it had been built upon the plain enactments of Leviticus 11 in defiance of the interdiction, "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you" (Deuteronomy 4:2).

ii. The same verb turned around — 15:3

⚙ Christ does not answer the question. Poole sees exactly why: a direct answer "must then either have incurred danger or odium; he therefore chooseth to answer them by another question, which struck at the root of the matter." The counter-question reuses their own interrogative (Διὰ τί) and their own rare verb (παραβαίνετε), adds an emphatic ὑμεῖς, and swaps the object: not the tradition of the elders but τὴν ἐντολὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ. JFB names the manoeuvre: "The charge is retorted with startling power." Ellicott calls it an argumentum ad hominem and draws the inference the Pharisees would least want: if their casuistry stands in direct opposition to God's commandment, then in itself "it had no binding authority as a rule of life."

⚙ Everything hinges on one preposition. διὰ with the accusative means on account of, for the sake of. Ellicott corrects the older rendering here, and Pulpit notes that translators "often mistake" this construction as though it meant "by means of." The tradition is not the tool of the transgression; it is the motive. Ellicott's summary is the cleanest statement of the whole indictment: they "had inverted the right relation of the two, and made the tradition an end, and not a means." Pulpit is careful to add a guard, and so should we: Christ "does not condemn such symbolical acts, even as he himself washed the disciples' feet before the last Supper." The target is the inversion, not the water.

iii. Corban: the one word that closed a hand — 15:4-6

⚙ The test case is chosen with care. The commandment cited (Τίμα τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὴν μητέρα, Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16) is, as Poole notes from Ephesians 6:2, the first commandment with a promise, and the one Moses fortified with a judicial death penalty (Exodus 21:17, Leviticus 20:9) and Proverbs reinforced with a threat (Proverbs 20:20). Cambridge notes the striking difference between the two Gospels: Matthew has "God commanded" where Mark has "Moses said," and Pulpit takes the pair as Christ's own testimony to the divine origin of the Mosaic code. And the meaning of honor was not in dispute between the parties: Pulpit documents the material sense from 1 Timothy 5:3 and 5:17, and Gill quotes the rabbis themselves asking "What is this honour?" and answering that a man must give his parent food, drink and clothing, buckle his shoes, lead him in and bring him out. Nobody in the room denied it.

⚙ Then one word undid it. Δῶρον stands in the Greek as a bare nominative, and JFB keeps its abruptness: "or simply, 'A gift!'" Ellicott and Barnes identify it with Mark's Corban (Mark 7:11), and Gill produces the actual formulae from the tractates, "Conem, whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me," so nearly identical to Christ's citation that Gill can say it is "exactly the same form as here." Ellicott reconstructs the reasoning honestly, including the part that makes it almost plausible, since diverting consecrated property to human use is sacrilege, and then names the flaw: "the time of fulfilling the vow of consecration was left to his own discretion," so "the man might retain the usufruct of his property, and defer the fulfilment of his vow to the last hour of life." Cambridge adds the two cruelties that complete it: the words worked "even when pronounced in spite and anger against parents who needed succour," and they did not actually oblige the son to give the money to God at all.

⚙ The grammar of v. 6 is harsher than the English. Pulpit shows that οὐ μὴ τιμήσει is "prohibitory rather than predictive," meaning "he is forbidden to honour," which matches Mark's added line, "ye suffer him no more to do aught for his father." Then comes the verdict verb: ἠκυρώσατε (G208, in 3 verses), a legal term for stripping a thing of its force, in the aorist. Benson feels the outrage in it, that the thing annulled was "a commandment written with his own finger on the tables of stone." JFB grants the principle the Pharisees abused and then draws the line: "To dedicate property to God is indeed lawful and laudable, but not at the expense of filial duty." Barnes insists on the same balance, recalling that Christ commended a widow who gave all her living (Mark 12:44). Two voices then keep the passage from despair and from dishonesty at once. Geneva: they destroyed the commandment's authority as far as they could, "for otherwise the commandments of God stand fast in the Church of God." And Cambridge, on the acquittal clause the Greek does not contain: "It is as if the indignation of Jesus did not allow him to utter the words of acquittal. The silence is more eloquent than the utterance."

iv. Lips near, heart far — 15:7-9

⚙ The naming comes first, with no verb: ὑποκριταί, stage-players. Barnes defines it as "the concealment of some base principle under the pretence of religion"; Pulpit identifies the base principle here as covetousness and avarice dressed as zeal for God's glory; Gill, remarkably, defends the severity out of the tradition's own literature, citing a saying that nine of ten portions of the world's hypocrisy belonged to Jerusalem. Benson qualifies himself in the same breath, and the qualification should be kept: hypocrisy "is, however, the prerogative of Him who searches the heart, and knows what is in man, to pronounce who are hypocrites." The verdict in this unit is Christ's, spoken by the one who can see the heart he is diagnosing. It is not a template for our use on each other.

⚙ Then Isaiah 29:13, named as Isaiah's, aimed at a present you. Benson supplies the principle of application from 2 Peter 1:20: the Scripture's reproofs "were designed to be applied to similar persons and practices to the end of the world." Barnes is more careful still, and his care is worth preserving: Isaiah "did not mean particularly to speak of the nation in the time of Christ, but he spoke of them as having a national character of hypocrisy," so the words fit. Ellicott catches the effect on the hearers: as at Matthew 13:14, "the mirror is held up once more," and they see themselves anticipated. The textual facts must be stated plainly, because three sources state them. Cambridge: the quotation "does not follow precisely either the LXX. version or the Hebrew text." Pulpit: it is from the Septuagint with a slight variation at the end, and the Hebrew of v. 9 reads "their fear of me is a commandment of men which hath been taught them." Gill: the words in vain are not in the Hebrew of Isaiah at all, and he lays out the three explanations offered, a later insertion, a variant reading behind the Septuagint (so Grotius), or Christ's own explanatory addition, entirely agreeable to the sense. We do not know which. The word stands in Matthew's Greek; its road out of Isaiah is uncertain, and pretending otherwise would be the very fault this unit indicts.

⚙ The verb τιμάω now sounds for the third time, and that repetition is the argument. God commanded honor to parents (v. 4); the ruling forbade it (v. 6); and now the lips render honor to God (v. 8) while the heart holds itself off (ἀπέχει πόρρω). Gill's inventory of what this people did genuinely perform, public prayer, the reading of Moses and the prophets, the temple offerings, makes the verdict sharper rather than softer. Poole gives Μάτην its full weight: "idly, and unprofitably, and to no purpose: I will not account what they do." Henry compresses the doom into a sentence: "It will neither please God, nor profit themselves; they trust in vanity, and vanity will be their recompence." And the last words locate the source of the whole failure, ἐντάλματα ἀνθρώπων, men's injunctions taught as doctrine, which Ellicott distinguishes precisely from God's one broad commandment. Cambridge sets the unit in its largest frame: these verses "sum up the great controversy of the N. T., that between the religion of the letter and external observances and the religion of the heart."

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Offered as a fallible reading, to be tested against the text. The scandal of this unit is not that these men were lax but that they were meticulous, and their meticulousness had a machine in it. Trace the machine: a rule is added to guard a commandment; the rule acquires the commandment's authority; the rule then requires an exception; the exception swallows the commandment. Ellicott's reconstruction of the Corban logic shows every gear turning, and no step in it looks wicked from the inside. This is why Christ answers a question about hand washing with a case about starving parents: he is not changing the subject, he is showing where the small thing ends. Henry saw the first turn of the wheel, that addition to God's law is a reflection on God's wisdom, "as if he had left out something which was needed, and which man could supply."

⚙ The unit's own vocabulary makes the diagnosis. One verb, τιμάω, runs through it three times: commanded at Sinai, forbidden by the ruling, counterfeited by the lips. A religion that has learned to price a mother at nothing has, by the same act, learned what its worship of God is worth, and Isaiah's oracle simply reads the invoice back. Note also where the money went. Geneva's gloss says the bluntest thing any voice here says: "under this form of religion, they gathered all to themselves." Poole, less guardedly, calls the Pharisees a generation with "a share in the gifts" and therefore "very zealous and diligent in persuading people to make such oblations." These are the older commentators' judgments, not ours, and they cannot be proved from Matthew's text; but they name the mechanism honestly, that a rule benefiting its makers is the rule most likely to be defended as ancient.

⚙ The Reformation read this passage against Rome, and the brief preserves that reading in the sources: Poole's parallel about the papists, Geneva's "the Pharisees of our time." That application is theirs and is polemical. The harder application is the one nobody makes about themselves. The test the passage gives is not whether we keep customs; Pulpit is right that Christ washed feet and did not abolish symbol. The test is what happens when a custom and a commandment collide, and which one bends. Where our practice makes a plain duty to a flesh-and-blood person impossible, and we have a pious reason ready for why, we are standing in this text and not reading it. And the remedy the text implies is the one it never states outright: a heart brought near, which is the promise of the new covenant and the reason the discourse in Matthew 15:18-19 moves from hands to hearts. Isaiah's oracle sets the diagnosis on the table. It does not cure. What it does is make plain that nothing which begins outside the heart can.

Every human rule that overrules God begins as a fence around God's commandment and ends as a gate out of it. (⚙ synthesis, not a verse.)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The same scene in Mark: tradition, and the verb for annulling it verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ Mark 7:1-23 reports this confrontation at greater length, and every commentator in the brief sends the reader there: Benson ("See notes on Mark 7:1-23"), Poole, Barnes, JFB and Pulpit all supply their detail from Mark. The Verifier confirms the verbal overlap rather than merely the subject: Mark 7:13 shares παράδοσις (G3862) with this unit twice over, and with it the rare legal verb ἀκυρόω (G208), found in only 3 verses of the New Testament. Mark 7:9 shares παράδοσις and ἐντολή, and Mark 7:10 shares πατήρ, μήτηρ and the rare κακολογέω (G2551, 4 verses) plus τελευτάω. Mark preserves the Hebrew word itself, Corban, which Matthew renders as Δῶρον, and adds the clause that proves the ruling was prohibitory and not merely permissive: "ye suffer him no more to do aught for his father or his mother." Both are Greek texts of one event, so the shared lexemes are a genuine verbal link.

Mark 7:9 · Mark 7:10 · Mark 7:13

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes across the synoptic parallel, including the rare G208 ἀκυρόω (in 3 vv) and G2551 κακολογέω (in 4 vv), plus G3862 παράδοσις (in 13 vv) twice and G1785 ἐντολή, G3962 πατήρ, G3384 μήτηρ, G5053 τελευτάω. Greek to Greek, same event in a parallel Gospel.

Isaiah's oracle held up as a mirror structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Verses 8 and 9 quote Isaiah 29:13, named in the text as Isaiah's own prophecy. The link is explicit and needs no lexical proof, but it cannot be tiered verbal here: the Isaiah source is Hebrew and this citation is Greek, so no shared Strong's number can be computed across the Testaments. Three facts from the brief must travel with this thread. Cambridge: "The quotation does not follow precisely either the LXX. version or the Hebrew text." Pulpit: it is from the Septuagint with a slight variation at the end, where the Hebrew reads "And their fear of me is a commandment of men which hath been taught them." Gill: the words in vain (Μάτην) are absent from the Hebrew, and he reports three competing accounts of their presence here, a later insertion, a variant reading behind the Septuagint (Grotius), or Christ's own explanatory addition. Barnes limits the claim of reference honestly: Isaiah spoke of a standing national character, and the words therefore apply. Ellicott and Gill both note that the Jewish commentators themselves read the whole Isaiah prophecy as spoken of that nation.

Isaiah 29:13

basis: Explicit citation named in the text ("Isaiah prophesied correctly about you") of Isaiah 29:13. Cross-Testament, Greek quoting Hebrew, so no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed and no verbal tier is claimed; the sourced record (Cambridge, Pulpit, Gill) states that the wording matches neither the Hebrew nor the LXX exactly.

The commandment cited, and the penalty that guarded it structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Two Mosaic texts are quoted side by side in v. 4: "Honor your father and mother" (Exodus 20:12, repeated at Deuteronomy 5:16) and "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death" (Exodus 21:17, with its parallel at Leviticus 20:9). The brief's voices agree on the identifications: Benson cites Exodus 21:17 and Leviticus 20:9 by name, Barnes gives Exodus 20:12 and Exodus 21:17, JFB gives Deuteronomy 5:16 and Exodus 21:17, and Poole assembles all four along with Proverbs 20:20 as a further threat and Ephesians 6:2 as Paul's designation of it as the first commandment with promise. Note what the pairing does: the commandment is quoted together with its judicial sanction, so the Corban ruling is not shown merely to neglect a precept but to nullify a capital statute. These are Hebrew sources quoted in Greek, so the link is explicit citation rather than a computable verbal one.

Exodus 20:12 · Deuteronomy 5:16 · Exodus 21:17 · Leviticus 20:9

basis: Explicit OT quotations in the BSB text of v. 4: Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:16 (Honor your father and mother), Exodus 21:17 and Leviticus 20:9 (the penalty for reviling a parent), each named by the brief's voices (Benson, Barnes, JFB, Poole). Cross-Testament, so no shared Strong's lexeme exists and no verbal tier is claimed.

ἔνταλμα: the rare word for a man-made injunction verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ The last line of the Isaiah citation supplies a rare noun, ἔνταλμα (G1778), which the Verifier finds in only 3 verses of the New Testament. Two of the three are here and at Colossians 2:22, where Paul turns the same word against ascetic rule-making, "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch," precepts "which all perish with the using, after the commandments and doctrines of men." Paul joins it to the same second lexeme, διδασκαλία (G1319), exactly as Matthew does. Mark 7:7 is the third, the synoptic parallel, and it also shares the very rare μάτην (G3155, in 2 verses). Pulpit notes the Colossians connection at v. 9 independently. The verbal chain is genuine and entirely within Greek texts; what it does not settle is whether Paul reached the word through Matthew, through Mark, or straight from the Greek Isaiah, which is the more likely route and the honest thing to say.

Mark 7:7 · Colossians 2:22

basis: Verifier: shared rare Greek lexemes G1778 ἔνταλμα (in 3 vv, of which this unit, Mark 7:7 and Colossians 2:22 are all three) and G1319 διδασκαλία (in 21 vv), plus G3155 μάτην (in 2 vv) with Mark 7:7. Greek to Greek throughout; the shared source behind all three is the Greek Isaiah.

ἀκυρόω: what men did to the commandment, and what the law cannot do to the promise verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ The verdict verb of v. 6 is rare: ἀκυρόω (G208, in 3 verses), a legal term for stripping a thing of its binding force. Its other uses are Mark 7:13, the parallel, and Galatians 3:17, where Paul argues that the law given four hundred and thirty years after the promise does not annul that promise. Set the two side by side and the irony is structural: what God's own law is incapable of doing to God's promise, human tradition managed to do to God's commandment. The Verifier records the shared lexeme; both texts are Greek, so the link is verbal, though the shared word is used on opposite sides of the argument, which is the whole point of noting it. Geneva supplies the necessary limit: the nullification reached as far as their power reached and no further, "for otherwise the commandments of God stand fast in the Church of God."

Galatians 3:17

basis: Verifier: shared rare Greek lexeme G208 ἀκυρόω (in 3 vv, all of them this unit, Mark 7:13 and Galatians 3:17). Greek to Greek verbal link, not a quotation: the contrast of usage is the interpretive claim and is marked as ⚙ synthesis.

παραβαίνω: the rare verb of stepping across, and where it leads verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ The accusation and the counter-accusation both turn on παραβαίνω (G3845), which the Verifier counts in only 3 verses. Its one other significant occurrence is Acts 1:25, of Judas, from whose place in the apostolate he turned aside. The lexical link is real and lies within Greek texts. The interpretive weight I hang on it is ⚙ and should be tested: a word used twice in one exchange over hand washing, and once more over the loss of an apostleship, suggests that Scripture treats stepping across a line as a single kind of act whose scale is set by what line it is. Nothing in the brief's voices draws this connection, and nothing in the text says these Pharisees stand where Judas stood.

Acts 1:25

basis: Verifier: shared rare Greek lexeme G3845 παραβαίνω (in 3 vv), recorded twice for Acts 1:25. Greek to Greek verbal link only; the thematic reading built on it is ⚙ synthesis and unsupported by the brief's voices, so it is stated as such.

Where did "in vain" come from? A second Isaiah oracle, proposed and unproven flagged: verify source

⚙ The adverb Μάτην (G3155, in 2 verses) is the one word of the citation with no counterpart in the Hebrew of Isaiah 29:13, as Gill states outright. Among the explanations he canvasses is that Christ, speaking of the same people and the same fault, drew the phrase from another oracle of the same prophet, Isaiah 1:11, and joined it here "for explanation sake." That earlier oracle is the classic indictment of sacrifice God will not credit, which fits this unit's verdict on worship exactly. But the link is a conjecture, offered by Gill among three competing accounts (a copyist's insertion, a variant Greek reading behind the Septuagint per Grotius, or Christ's own gloss), and he decides among them by saying "there is no need to suppose either of these." So the thread is recorded and flagged: the motif is real, the derivation is contested, and cross-Testament wording cannot be checked by shared Strong's numbers in any case.

Isaiah 1:11

basis: Provenance contested. Gill proposes Isaiah 1:11 as a possible source of the phrase ⟨in vain⟩ (G3155 μάτην, in 2 vv), which is absent from the Hebrew of Isaiah 29:13, but lists two rival explanations and declines to settle. Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed and no verbal tier is possible.

The fifth commandment carried into the apostolic church structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The commandment this unit defends is not left behind in the Gospels. The Verifier links Ephesians 6:2, Luke 18:20 and Mark 10:19, each sharing ἐντολή (G1785), πατήρ (G3962) and μήτηρ (G3384) with this unit. These are common words, so the shared lexemes establish a shared subject and not a quotation: hence the structural tier. What the grouping shows is that the commandment Corban evaded is the one Jesus recites to the rich ruler as a live requirement and the one Paul presses on children in a Gentile congregation, calling it, as Poole notes, the first commandment with promise. The duty was never a Jewish ceremony to be outgrown; it survives into the church's own instruction.

Ephesians 6:2 · Luke 18:20 · Mark 10:19

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1785 ἐντολή (in 61 vv), G3962 πατήρ (in 367 vv), G3384 μήτηρ (in 78 vv). All common words, so the basis supports a shared motif (the fifth commandment in force) and no quotation claim is made, even though the texts are Greek to Greek.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The one who says "God said" and then says "you nullified" ancient/widely-held

⚙ Look at where Jesus stands in this argument. He does not appeal to a rabbi against the rabbis. He quotes Sinai as God said, where Mark's parallel has Moses said, a difference Cambridge records and Pulpit reads as Christ's own testimony to the divine origin of the Mosaic code. He then pronounces the legal verdict himself, in the aorist: ἠκυρώσατε, you have annulled the word of God. And when he reads Isaiah's oracle, the Me of that oracle, the one whose lips-honor is empty and from whom the heart holds off, is spoken out of his own mouth over the men standing in front of him. Ellicott sees the mirror being held up; what the mirror is held by is not commented on. The one who cites the commandment is the one who gave it, and the one who reads the indictment is the one against whom the offense was committed. Barnes puts the standing principle plainly: "God only has a right to declare what shall be done in his service." That right is exercised here by Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee.

⚙ Cambridge frames the passage as the summary of the whole New Testament controversy, "between what St Paul calls 'the righteousness which is of the law and the righteousness which is of God by (or grounded upon) faith,' Php 3:9." That framing, which the brief's voices supply and do not invent, makes this scene an early statement of the gospel's dividing line rather than a dispute about hygiene.

Mark 7:6 · Isaiah 29:13 · Philippians 3:9

The heart far off, and the promise of a heart brought near ancient/widely-held

⚙ The oracle Christ quotes is a diagnosis without a cure: the lips are near, and the heart ἀπέχει πόρρω, holds itself far off. Barnes states the demand the diagnosis implies: "God requires the heart, and that they have not rendered." Nothing in this unit renders it. But the diagnosis is Isaiah's own, and the prophets who make it also make the promise that answers it: a law written on the heart and a covenant not like the one broken (Jeremiah 31:33), a heart of stone removed and a heart of flesh given (Ezekiel 36:26). The line of argument runs on within this very chapter, where Christ moves the whole question of defilement from the hands to the heart and its issues (Matthew 15:18-19). Benson draws the pastoral edge from his own text: "if the heart be not given to God, all outward worship is no better than a mockery of him." Read redemptive-historically, this unit is the arraignment for which the new covenant is the remedy, and the Corban case is the proof that no external rule can reach the fault.

Jeremiah 31:33 · Ezekiel 36:26 · Matthew 15:18-19

The Son who honored his mother from the cross novel

⚙ This reading is offered as novel and should be weighed as such: none of the brief's voices makes it, and it rests on the repetition of one verb rather than on any statement of the text. The unit's hinge word is τιμάω, sounded three times: commanded of sons at Sinai (v. 4), forbidden to sons by the Corban ruling (v. 6), counterfeited by lips that keep the heart away (v. 8). The one speaking is a son with a mother in Galilee, and the Gospels record him providing for her at the last possible moment and at the greatest possible cost, committing her to a disciple's household while dying (John 19:26-27). Where the tradition taught sons to make provision impossible by a word of dedication, he made provision by a word from the cross, in the hour when his whole estate was three nails and a seamless robe. If that reading holds, the fifth commandment in this chapter is not only defended in argument but paid in full by the one defending it. I do not find this connection in the sourced commentary here, and I do not press it further than the shared verb allows.

John 19:26-27

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

⚙ Text. The Greek of v. 1 is not settled in word order: Pulpit records that the Sinaitic, B and other manuscripts read "Came to Jesus from Jerusalem scribes and Pharisees," which he judges to represent the fact correctly, and which BSB follows. At v. 6 the clause "he shall be free" has no Greek behind it; Ellicott notes the italics of the older versions and Cambridge argues the silence is deliberate. Also at v. 6, the object of the annulling verb is the word of God in the text used here, while Benson, Poole, Geneva and JFB all comment on a reading with the commandment; that variant is visible in their wording and is not resolved by anything in this brief.

⚙ The Isaiah citation (vv. 8-9) is the unit's principal textual uncertainty, and three independent voices flag it. Cambridge: the quotation follows neither the LXX nor the Hebrew precisely. Pulpit: it is Septuagintal with a variation at the end, against a Hebrew that reads "And their fear of me is a commandment of men which hath been taught them." Gill: Μάτην ("in vain") is not in the Hebrew, and he lays out three explanations without deciding among them, a later insertion into Matthew, a variant reading behind the Septuagint (so Grotius), or an explanatory phrase added by Christ himself, possibly drawing on Isaiah 1:11. This synthesis takes no position; the word stands in the Greek of Matthew, and its route from Isaiah is genuinely unknown here.

⚙ Sources and their limits. Gill's long entries quote rabbinic tractates (Kiddushin, Nedarim and others) in eighteenth-century transliteration with his own citations; his Corban formulae are close verbal parallels to v. 5 and are the strongest historical evidence in this brief, but they come through his hands and his hostility. Barnes' comparison of Corban to the Polynesian taboo is nineteenth-century ethnography and should be read as illustration only. Poole's and Geneva's applications to "the papists" and "the Pharisees of our time" are Reformation polemic, preserved here because they are part of the sourced record, not endorsed by it. Barnes and Gill both draw on notes at Isaiah 29:13 and Matthew 7:5 that are not in this brief, so their reasoning there is partly out of view. Two entries in the brief are capped (Poole at 15:2, Gill at 15:5 and 15:6) and the omitted portions were not consulted; the quotations used here come from the visible text.

⚙ Thread bases. Every verbal tier in this unit rests on Verifier-computed shared Strong's lexemes between Greek texts, with the rarest lexemes named: G208 ἀκυρόω (3 verses), G1778 ἔνταλμα (3 verses), G3845 παραβαίνω (3 verses), G3155 μάτην (2 verses), G2551 κακολογέω (4 verses). The two cross-Testament threads (Isaiah 29:13; Exodus 20:12 with Deuteronomy 5:16, Exodus 21:17 and Leviticus 20:9) are explicit quotations named in the text or by the voices, and are tiered structural because no Strong's number can be shared across Hebrew and Greek; the citation is certain, the lexical mechanism is not available. The Acts 1:25 thread carries a real rare lexeme but an unsupported interpretation, and says so in its own body. The Ephesians 6:2 group rests on common words only and claims nothing more than a shared subject.

⚙ What is machine work. All ⚙ material here is fallible: the literal renderings, the divergence notes, the word notes, the movements, the sola reading and the christological readings, including the deliberately marked novel one at John 19:26-27. The parses, Strong's numbers, glosses, thread bases and every quoted sentence come from the brief. Where I have inferred, I have tried to say so in the sentence that does the inferring.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)