7:1 Then {1} came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.
(1) None resist the wisdom of God more than they that should be wisest, and they resist because of their zeal for their own traditions: for men please themselves in superstition more than in any other thing, that is to say, in a worship of God fondly devised by themselves.
7:1 Making Void the Law of God
SUMMARY OF MARK 7:
The Scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem. Eating with Washed Hands. Making Void the Law of God by Tradition. What Defileth a Man. In the Borders of Tyre and Sidon. The Syrophoenician Woman. Healing in Decapolis.
Then came together unto him the Pharisees. This sharp controversy, which contains the sharpest rebuke that Christ had thus far paid to the Pharisaical system, is recorded also by Mt 15:1-20, where see notes. Mark, for the benefit of Gentile readers, adds a few words concerning Jewish customs.
Which came from Jerusalem. Probably formally sent by the Sanhedrin to investigate the work and teaching of Jesus.
7:1 Coming from Jerusalem - Probably on purpose to find occasion against him. Mt 15:1.
7:1-13 One great design of Christ's coming was, to set aside the ceremonial law; and to make way for this, he rejects the ceremonies men added to the law of God's making. Those clean hands and that pure heart which Christ bestows on his disciples, and requires of them, are very different from the outward and superstitious forms of Pharisees of every age. Jesus reproves them for rejecting the commandment of God. It is clear that it is the duty of children, if their parents are poor, to relieve them as far as they are able; and if children deserve to die that curse their parents, much more those that starve them. But if a man conformed to the traditions of the Pharisees, they found a device to free him from the claim of this duty.
