He answered them, “Why do you also disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition?
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 3. Why do you also. The Jews understanding the saying of the prophets, “wash yourselves and be clean,” in a carnal manner, they made a precept of not eating without first washing their hands. Ven. Bede.—The traditions here alluded to, and which they call the oral law, were respected equally with the written law, by all the Jews, except the sect of Caraites; they were collected in seventy-two books, and composed the cabbala, and were kept by Gemaliel and other heads of the sanhedrim, till the destruction of Jerusalem. About 120 years after this, Rabbi Judas composed a book of them, called Mishna, or second law; afterwards two supplements and explanations were given, that is the Talmud of Jerusalem, and the Talmud of Babylon. By these the Jews are still governed in ecclesiastical matters.