The Nugget:
Mark 7:9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
My Comment:
The wicked make the Scriptures of none effect through their traditions (The New Topical Textbook, subheading under the main heading “The Scriptures,” page 240).
Jesus spoke of tradition several times. In the New Testament Jesus always condemns tradition each time He mentions it by name.
Tradition is a very slippery word. Different groups, and different individuals, use the term but often with different meaning. I believe the term “tradition” as it is used by Jesus has reference to additions to what the Bible itself states or contains, additions made by man in the name of religion.
The Bible teaches it alone is the Word of God. No one has the authority to add to or subtract from what the Bible teaches (Isaiah 8:20; Proverbs 30:6; Revelation 22:18, 19).
The Bible teaches that it is a complete revelation, to which no further revelation will be added (Jude 1:3).
The Bible teaches that it contains all that we are required to know about spiritual things (2 Timothy 3:15), and that it equips us perfectly to do what God wants us to do for Him (2 Timothy 3:16, 17).
I fully grant that in some religious circles this is a very controversial subject, and others will strongly disagree with what I have said. I reply, “Chapter and Verse, Please.” Anyone who carefully reads the New Testament in a plain text Bible will clearly understand that in terms of what Jesus Himself explicitly taught, tradition has a very bad name.
Some will claim, like the Roman Catholics do, that since the Bible itself states it does not record everything Jesus said (John 20:30; John 21:25), we must look to the tradition preserved by the Roman Catholic Church outside of the Bible to learn “the rest of the story.” Tradition is preserved in the writings of the Church Fathers, the writings of early Christians after the time the New Testament was written. But the early writers do not claim to be writing divinely inspired revelation from God, and they quote the New Testament as authoritative Scripture, but do not regard their own or the writings of each other on the same level as the New Testament records. Furthermore, there are no additional words of Christ recorded outside the record we have in the New Testament.
Any claim from any church, no matter how ancient, to have preserved “unwritten tradition” from the Apostolic period is bogus.
Remember I said that the word “Tradition” is a very slippery word. When one uses the word “Tradition” but uses it in a way which actually represents distinct meanings for the word as if the word meant just one and the same thing all along, one is committing the logical fallacy of equivocation. I believe that Roman Catholics are guilty of this practice because Roman Catholics understand Tradition to mean the development of Christian doctrine over time–thus a changing content which results in new content. This permits the introduction of new practices and changing doctrine in their church. This contradicts the teaching of the Bible (Jude 1:3) which speaks of an unchanging and complete body of doctrine delivered once for all to the saints.
Notice the issue Jesus points out about tradition: those who hold to tradition “reject the commandment of God” (Mark 7:9) so that they may keep their own tradition. I think this is very evident in the teaching and practice of the Roman Catholic Church, because that church insists upon the equal authority of tradition and Scripture, and utterly rejects the doctrine of going by the Bible alone.
For those who desire to DIG DEEPER into this subject:
(1) Consult the cross references given in Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible on page 1086 for Mark 7:9.
(2) Consult the cross references given in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge on page 1108 or in Logos 5 Bible software for Mark 7:9.
(3) Lacking access to those two resources, consult the cross references for this passage as I have developed them as given below:
Mark 7:9. Full. 2 K 16:10-16. Is 24:5. 29:13. Je 44:16, 17. Da 7:25. 11:36. Mt 15:3-6. 2 Th 2:4. well. FS60A, +Ge 3:22. ver. Mk 7:6. James 2:19. reject. or, frustrate. or, set aside. ver. Mk 7:13. Ps 119:126. +*Je 8:9. Mt 23:14-33. *Lk 7:30. Ro 3:31. Ga 2:21. 3:15g. He 10:28g. the commandment of God. ver. Mk 7:8. Hab 1:4. keep your own tradition. ver. +Mk 7:3. 1 K 18:27. Ec 7:29.
mk 7.9 And he said unto them, full well ye reject the commandment of
God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
cross refs.
mt 15.8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth
me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
mt 15.9 but in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men.