Tell me.....were you there? How many ate with washed hands and did they wash ritualistically ? Was that the Law?
The Law prescribed that the priests wash their hands and their feet at the copper basin located between the sanctuary and the altar before ministering at the altar or entering the tent of meeting. (Exodus 30:18-21)
The Law also stated that in case someone slain was found and it was impossible to ascertain who the murderer was, the older men of the city nearest the slain person were to take a young cow, one that had never been worked with or had never pulled a yoke, to a torrent valley of running water and there break its neck. After this, the older men were to wash their hands over the young cow, denoting their innocence in regard to the murder. (Deuteronomy 21:1-8)
Also, according to the Law, a person was rendered unclean if touched by someone with a running discharge who had not rinsed his hands. (Leviticus 15:11)
Pilate vainly tried to clear himself of bloodguilt in connection with the death of Jesus by washing his hands before the people. But in this way he really could not escape responsibility for Jesus’ death, since he, not the howling mob, had the authority to determine the judgment. (Matthew 27:24)
The scribes and Pharisees took issue with Jesus Christ concerning his disciples’ overstepping the traditions of men of former times by not washing their hands when about to eat a meal....but this involved no ordinary hand washing for hygienic purposes...it was a full on ceremonious ritual. “The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands up to the elbow.” (Mark 7:2-5; Matthew 15:2)
The Babylonian Talmud (Sotah 4b) puts the one eating with unwashed hands on the same plane as one having relations with a harlot, and it states that the one lightly esteeming hand washing will be “uprooted from the world.”
Will I ever find anything like that in God's Law or in Jesus' actions? Or was all that window dressing the ideas of men added to the ideas of other men?
Was there anything in God's law that forbade the simple washing of hands? Was there ever a need to turn it into a ritual in the first place?
The Pharisees were not referring to the hand washing as a sanitary measure. As a ritual, the rabbis required that water be poured over their hands prior to eating. I believe that It was also debated which vessels were to be used for the pouring, which kind of water was suitable, who should pour, and how much of the hands should be covered with water....so. how far did this need to go? Seriously.....?
Jesus’ reaction to all these man-made laws was simple. He told the first-century Jewish religious leaders.......
He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” (Mark 7:6-8)
And you imagine that God requires all that? Why would he? All this mindless ritual seems to denote someone with OCD...not the commands of an intelligent Creator. Are there not more important things to concern yourself about? Why would God insist on these kinds of rituals unless all he cared about was performance? I can think of much more productive ways to spend my time.
I guess that is how you prefer to read it, but it seems to me that as long as the Levites were following the Law in their recommendations, then their advice could be followed. It wasn't an excuse to expand and to keep on expanding what they might like the Law to include.....when was it to stop?
Like I said...where was it to stop? At what point was the nit-picking to come to a halt? Was killing a flea on the Sabbath "hunting"? Was grasping a handful of grain while passing through a field on the Sabbath "harvesting and threshing"? At what point do Jews say to themselves...."this is ridiculous....why am I doing all this"?
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