Charles Ellicott Commentary Mark 7:5

"And the Pharisees and the scribes ask him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled hands?" — Mark 7:5 (ASV)

With unwashen hands.—The better manuscripts give, “with defiled hands,” the word being the same as before. It was probable that the Pharisees would use the stronger word in their question, equally probable that a transcriber might think it better to substitute that which was the more easily understood.