What Does Mark 7:5 Mean?
And the separated ones and the scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the handing down of the elders, but eat bread with common hands?
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
Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?THE KEY
The elders’ tradition is what has been handed down, and here it becomes the measure by which the disciples’ way of walking is judged.
THE MEANING
This verse meets the reader where a received standard becomes the measure used to question another person’s faithfulness. The dispute names a specific custom, eating bread with unwashen hands, and shows how that custom shapes the expected pattern of conduct.
THE ROOT
παράδοσις
paradosis
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
The Greek verb δίδωμι (didōmi) means “give”; in the compound παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi), it means “hand over” or “transmit.”
“handing down” in this verse is paradosis. “Tradition” carries the sense of something handed on from one person to another. The question is about which received practice sets the standard for the disciples.
ALSO GROWS
paradidōmi: To hand over, deliver, or transmit.
παραδίδωμι
This related verb makes visible the act behind a tradition: someone passes it on.
dosis: A giving or gift.
δόσις
This noun shares the give-family and echoes the act of passing something into another’s hands.
περιπατοῦσιν
peripatousin
GROWS FROM
πατέω
pateō
The Greek verb πατέω (pateō) means “tread” or “step.”
“walk” in this verse is peripatousin. The verb holds literal walking and figurative conduct together. Here, an ordinary bodily action names the pattern the disciples are expected to follow.
ALSO GROWS
pateō: To tread or step.
πατέω
This is the physical action carried within the verb translated “walk.”
peripatos: A walk; figuratively, conduct or way of life.
περίπατος
This related form shows how walking can name a person’s pattern of conduct, fitting the verse’s question about how the disciples act.
THE PATTERN
A handed-down human standard can become a measure of devotion and a basis for questioning others.
And the Lord says, Because this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips give me weight, but their heart has gone far from me, and their awe of me is a command of men, trained.Watch lest anyone lead you off as spoil through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the handing down of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to the Anointed One.THE THREAD
So then, brothers, stand firm and grip the handed-over things you were taught, whether through word or through our letter.The same Greek noun, παράδοσις (paradosis), appears here as “traditions.” This verse uses it for teaching to be held, showing that the word names what is handed on; the question in Mark turns on which received practice governs the disciples.
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