Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 15:5

"But ye say, whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is given [to God];" — Matthew 15:5 (ASV)

It is a gift—Mark (Mark 7:11) provides the Hebrew term, Corban, which was applied to anything consecrated—theoretically to God, but practically to the service or decoration of the Temple. In Matthew 27:6, the Temple treasury itself is called the Corban.

The casuistry of the scribes in this matter seems so monstrous at first that it is difficult to understand how any intelligent interpreter of the Law could have approved of it, except that the teachings of scholastic and Jesuit moralists present equally striking instances of perverted ingenuity.

The line of reasoning that led them to such a startling conclusion seems to have been this: diverting something consecrated to God for lesser human uses is sacrilege. Therefore, a man who declared his property as Corban was bound not to spend it on supporting even his closest relatives. However, the timing for fulfilling this vow was left to his own discretion, and no one had the right to hold him accountable for any delay.

With this loophole, the Corban practice became an easy method for evading natural obligations. It could be used to block the claims of the closest family members, even while the man continued to enjoy the use of his property and postpone fulfilling his vow until the very end of his life. Indeed, it seems this casuistry went even further, suggesting the consecration could be merely temporary—blocking the claims of a specific person and then expiring when that person passed away.