Mark 7:8 — “Laying Aside the Commandment of God”: Has the Rebuke Been Shortened?

“Laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men.” — Mark 7:8

The heart of verse 8 is secure: “Laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men.” The Textus Receptus then adds the familiar examples—washings of pots and cups—and concludes, “many other such like things ye do.” The critical text ends before that illustration.

Because the same vessels appeared in verse 4, critics see an obvious expansion. A copyist could carry the list forward to make Jesus’ rebuke more explicit. The longer words also appear in different positions in parts of the tradition, a pattern often associated with a roaming gloss.

Repetition as accusation

Mark has just narrated the customs. Jesus now names them as examples of a larger exchange: divine command is released while human tradition is gripped. Repeating the pots and cups is therefore not idle duplication. The narrator described the practice; Christ exposes its spiritual use.

The last clause is especially important. “Many other such like things ye do” prevents readers from reducing the controversy to two vessels. Corban follows immediately as a graver example. The washings are the visible edge of a habit that can finally make God’s word ineffective.

The scattered position of the longer material weighs against careless certainty, but it can reflect attempts to restore words absent from one line of descent. A marginal recovery does not prove a marginal invention. The repeated endings and familiar vocabulary also make accidental omission possible once a scribe reaches the complete phrase “tradition of men.”

The passage must not be used to condemn tradition merely because it is old. Jesus himself participates in ordinary customs and appeals to Moses. The conflict concerns tradition made authoritative against God’s command. Church practice remains ministerial; it may serve Scripture but cannot repeal it.

The location of the longer clause should be preserved in apparatus notes. Material that appears before the main sentence in one family and after it in another often signals marginal movement. It can be a gloss, but it can also be a restoration placed where a corrector found space. Presence, absence, and position are three separate data fields, and reducing them to a binary checkbox throws away evidence.

The full received ending gives the rebuke its movement from concrete examples to a general diagnosis. Its relationship to verse 4 explains why copyists could add it, but also why Mark could intentionally repeat it. With broad ecclesiastical support and a coherent rhetorical role, it should remain—while the location variants are honestly noted as evidence requiring further collation.

Sources and further reading

• F. H. A. Scrivener, ed., The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (Cambridge, 1894).
• Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition (Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010), text and apparatus.
• Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed., notes on the stated passage.
• Isaiah 29:13; Mark 7:1–13; Colossians 2:8.