What Does Matthew 15:3 Mean in the King James?
But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
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
A handed-down practice can become the very means by which you step across God’s command.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the moment a handed-down practice becomes the reason you step away from what God commands. The issue is not simply that a tradition exists; it is that it functions as the path by which the command is crossed. Jesus’ question makes that contradiction visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A religious practice does not become God’s command merely because it has been handed down and defended.
THE ROOT
παραβαίνετε
parabainete
GROWS FROM
βαίνω
bainō
to go or step
The compound verb pictures a step across or aside, giving “transgress” a sense of movement away from the command. Because Jesus says this happens by means of their tradition, the practice becomes the route of that step.
ALSO GROWS
bainō: to go or step
βαίνω
The verb beneath the compound makes the action a movement, not just an abstract mistake.
parabasis: transgression; a stepping across
παράβασις
This related noun makes the crossing image explicit and helps reveal what “transgress” carries here.
παράδοσις
paradosis
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
to give
The word carries the sense of something handed over and passed along; “tradition” includes an act of transmission, not only age or custom. Here, what is handed down becomes the means of stepping across God’s command.
ALSO GROWS
paradidōmi: to hand over or deliver
παραδίδωμι
This related verb shows the transmission contained in the word for tradition.
dosis: a giving
δόσις
This related noun keeps the root’s basic sense of giving in view: tradition is something given onward.
THE PATTERN
Humanly preserved religious practices can displace the command they claim to honor.
Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.THE THREAD
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.Colossians uses the same Greek noun, παράδοσις (paradosis, “tradition” or “handing down”), for a human framework that can take a person captive. Matthew shows that same handed-down thing becoming the means of stepping across God’s command, widening the connection from a particular practice to an entire way of thought.
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