Charles Ellicott Commentary Mark 7:3

"(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands diligently, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders;" — Mark 7:3 (ASV)

For the Pharisees, and all the Jews.—For the sake of the same class of readers, St. Mark adds another explanatory note. The custom of which he speaks was not, he says, peculiar to the Pharisees as a sect; it had passed, through their influence, to the whole body of the people.

Oft.—The Greek manuscripts present two readings, one of which has this as its natural meaning; another, which means literally, "with the fist," and figuratively, "with might and main." The evidence is, on the whole, in favour of the former.