THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK - Chapter 7 - Verse 3

Verse 3. Except they wash their hands oft. The word oft means frequently, often. The word translated oft has been rendered various ways. Some have said that it means "up to the wrist;" unless they wash their hands up to the wrist. Others have said, "up to the elbow." There is evidence that the Pharisees had some such foolish rule as this about washing, and it is likely that they practised it faithfully, But the word probably means, diligently, accurately, carefully. Unless they wash their hands carefully, or according to rule, etc.

The tradition. What had been handed down, not what was delivered by writing in the law of Moses, but what had been communicated from father to son, as being proper and binding. The elders. The ancients, not the old men then living, but those who had lived formerly.

{1} "hands oft" or, "diligently" "Gr. with the fist" Theophylact, "up to the elbow"

{m} "tradition" Ga 1:14; Colossians 2:8,22,23