Expositor's Bible Commentary 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)

To the question of why his disciples acted as they did, Jesus answered by quoting Isa 29:13, preceded by his own comment: “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites.” A “hypocrite” (GK 5695) is someone whose worship is merely outward and not from the heart. Jesus did not mean that Isaiah had in mind the Pharisees and the teachers of the law when he originally wrote these words but that Isaiah’s denunciation of the religious leaders of his day fitted those of Jesus’ day. Their outward appearance of piety was a lie, because it was not accompanied by a life of total commitment to God. Jesus went on to equate neglect of true holiness with submission to rabbinic traditions made by humans.