Mark 7:2-9

2They had been watching Jesus' disciples. Some of the disciples did not wash their hands before they ate a meal. That is to say, they did not wash them in the right way.

3(The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat food until they have washed their hands carefully. They do this because of what their leaders taught them.

4When they come from the market place, they always wash themselves carefully. Unless they do this, they do not eat anything. Their leaders also gave them rules about how they should wash cups, pots and metal bowls.)

5The Pharisees and the teachers of God's Law said to Jesus, ‘Your disciples do not obey the things that our leaders taught many years ago. Your disciples have not washed their hands in the right way. They are eating their food with unclean hands. That is not right.’

6Jesus said to them, ‘You are hypocrites! What God's prophet Isaiah wrote about you long ago is true: God says, “These people say good things about me, but they do not really want to obey me.

7They say that I am great. But what they say has no purpose. They teach their own rules, which I did not give to them.” ’

8Jesus then said, ‘You have stopped obeying God. Instead you obey the ideas that men teach.’

9He said to them, ‘You refuse to obey God's rules, because then you can keep your own ideas!