What Does Mark 7:4 Mean?
And when they come from the marketplace, unless they immerse themselves, they do not eat. And many other things there are, which they have received to hold, such as the immersions of cups, pitchers, bronze vessels, and couches.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.THE KEY
The verse’s hinge is the word pair: people immerse themselves, then hold fast what they received.
THE MEANING
You see cleansing reach from the body to the vessels around the table. The practice is received and kept, woven into a larger order rather than standing alone.
THE ROOT
βαπτίσωνται
baptisōntai
GROWS FROM
βαπτίζω
baptizō
To dip or immerse; the word also carries the sense of ceremonial washing.
“immerse themselves” in this verse is baptisōntai. The word carries the sense of dipping or immersing alongside the cleansing sense of “wash.” The same word family appears again for the cups and vessels, carrying one cleansing action from the person to the things used at the table.
ALSO GROWS
baptō: dip, plunge
βάπτω
This related verb makes the physical depth of the immersion sense visible.
baptismos: immersion, ceremonial washing
βαπτισμός
This noun names the washings of cups and vessels later in the verse, repeating the same word family.
κρατεῖν
kratein
GROWS FROM
κρατέω (krateō; stem κρατ-)
To seize, hold fast, or exercise strength.
“hold” in this verse is kratein. The verse does not merely say these customs are received; it says they are held fast. The verb brings the question of what is retained into the same scene as the repeated washings.
ALSO GROWS
kratos: strength, might, dominion
κράτος
This related noun shows the force carried by the word family: holding can involve strength or mastery.
krataioō: strengthen, make strong
κραταιόω
This related verb echoes the force in holding fast to practices.
THE PATTERN
Scriptural cleansing reaches bodies, vessels, and repeated practices.
For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet from it.Then he went down and immersed himself seven times in Jordan, according to the word of the man of God. And his flesh returned like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.They stand only in foods and drinks, in various immersions, and in the alignments of the flesh, laid upon them until the season of straightening.THE THREAD
For letting go of the commandment of God, you hold the handing down of men, like the immersions of pitchers and cups. And many things like these you do.The same verb, κρατέω (krateō), “hold fast,” returns here: people hold human tradition while laying aside God’s commandment. That shared root turns the list of washings into a question about what the practice is made to preserve.
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