What Does Mark 7:3 Mean in the King James?
For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Tradition is something handed down, and here the hands that wash belong to people holding fast what they have received.
THE MEANING
This verse shows inherited practice shaping an ordinary moment: washing before eating and holding to what the elders hand down. A community’s memory lives not only in its words, but in the gestures repeated at the table.
THE ROOT
παράδοσις
paradosis
GROWS FROM
δο-/δω- (do-/dō-), as in δίδωμι (didōmi)
The verb δίδωμι (didōmi) means “give”; παρά (para) adds the sense of passing something over. παράδοσις (paradosis) is what has been handed down.
“Tradition” can sound like an abstract custom, but παράδοσις (paradosis) carries the image of something handed over. The verse pairs that transmission with people actively holding what they have received.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: to give
δίδωμι
It is the giving seed in the word for what is handed down.
paradidōmi: to hand over, deliver
παραδίδωμι
It names the act of passing something from one person to another.
paradosis: what is handed over; tradition
παράδοσις
This is the received teaching or practice the verse says the people hold.
κρατοῦσιν
kratousin
GROWS FROM
κρατ-
krat-
The stem κρατ- (krat-) carries the sense of strength or power; κρατέω (krateō) means to hold fast or retain.
The verb adds an active grip to the verse: what is handed down is also kept. Its word family connects holding with strength, so this is a practice maintained with resolve.
ALSO GROWS
kratos: strength, power
κράτος
It shows the strength and force associated with the same stem.
enkratēs: self-controlled, master of oneself
ἐγκρατής
It carries the sense of having mastery or control, another expression of the stem’s force.
THE PATTERN
What a community receives, it preserves through repeated words and practices.
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.THE THREAD
For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.This verse repeats both roots: παράδοσις (paradosis), what is handed down, and κρατέω (krateō), to hold fast. It makes explicit the link Mark 7:3 places beside hand washing: a received practice is something people actively keep.
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