Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Mark 7:4

"and [when they come] from the market-place, except they bathe themselves, they eat not; and many other things there are, which they have received to hold, washings of cups, and pots, and brasen vessels.)" — Mark 7:4 (ASV)

Mark felt it necessary to explain to his Gentile readers the Jewish custom of ceremonial handwashing, a custom based on the “tradition [GK 4142] of the elders,” a great mass of oral tradition that had arisen about the law. Its purpose was to regulate a person’s life completely, and it was passed on from one generation to the next one as binding regulations. Mark gives an example of the custom. After being in the marketplace and coming into contact with Gentiles or even nonobservant Jews, the Pharisees would wash themselves to ensure their ritual cleanness.