What Does Matthew 15:2 Mean in the King James?
Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
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
The accusation joins two movements: tradition is something handed over, and transgression is a step beyond its boundary.
THE MEANING
An ordinary act, eating without washing hands, becomes a test of whether the disciples honor what has been handed down. The verse reveals how a received practice can become the boundary by which a person is judged. Its pressure lands wherever custom is treated as the measure of faithfulness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A practice does not become God’s command simply because it has been handed down and used to judge a visible act.
THE ROOT
παράδοσιν
paradosin
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
To give; in παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi), to hand over or deliver.
“tradition” in this verse is paradosin. Παράδοσις (paradosis) means a handing over: a teaching or practice received and passed along. The word names how the practice travels, not whether its source makes it authoritative.
ALSO GROWS
paradidōmi: To hand over; deliver.
παραδίδωμι
This verb makes the act of transmission visible: what is called tradition has been passed from one person to another.
dosis: A giving; a gift.
δόσις
This related word keeps the root’s basic act of giving in view; the verse’s tradition is something given over, not authority guaranteed by its age.
παραβαίνουσιν
parabainousin
GROWS FROM
βαίνω
bainō
To step or go; with παρά (para, beside), the compound pictures stepping beside or beyond.
The Greek verb pictures a step in relation to a boundary, while “transgress” gives that movement a legal and moral shade. Beside the word for what has been handed down, it shows how the accusation treats a received practice as a line the disciples have crossed.
ALSO GROWS
anabainō: To go up; ascend.
ἀναβαίνω
This compound uses the same root for stepping or going, with a prefix that gives the movement an upward direction.
katabainō: To go down; descend.
καταβαίνω
The same root can describe ordinary movement in the opposite direction; here παρά gives the step its sense of crossing beside a boundary.
THE PATTERN
A received practice gains its authority from what it carries forward, not merely from being passed down.
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.Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.THE THREAD
But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?The verse repeats the same Greek verb for “transgress” and the same noun for “tradition,” then shifts the boundary from the elders’ practice to God’s command. The shared wording turns the question back on the standard being used to judge.
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