The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 317

o\.o,'.., t-0 "wash," usually the body, and therefore in the middle voice "to bathe." (2) Again, in ver. 4, a different kind of washing must be meant by JJ..,,.../aau,-r,11. Olshausen and others refe.r the washing which it implies, not to the Pharisees themselves, but to the articles of food bought in,and brought from, market; and explain the middle voice con- ~i~tently with its usual meaning, that is to say, in the signification of washing (or them- Jelves. This rendering soaroely deserves the serious consideration given t-0 it, and is to be rejected nnhesit.a.tingly. It must, as we think, refer to the men themselves. The washing of ver. 3 is partial, only including the hands; it was the ordinary custom with the Jews of that day before partaking of food; but in case they had been to the market or bazaar, and had come into contact with the crowd that resorted thither, it was scarcely possible to escape defilement of some kind in mixing with that motley multitude, and therefore a more general washing, extending to the whole body, became a ceremonial necessity. The other reading <,l=la...,.,.cu),denoting ''to sprinkle" or "cleanse by sprinkling," is properly regarded as a gloss ; the word /fan-/tro,,,.,.,.., in the absence of regimen, is quite unrestricted as to mode, signifying "wash themselves,'' as it is rendered in the Revised Version. There is (3) a slight diversity about the connection of the words lrb 11-yopiis, which are joined by Krebs and Kuinoel to laBlouai, in the sense of ea.ting of things bought in the market, like the construction which occurs in ver. 28 of this sa.me chapter, where the dogs are said to ea.tof the crumbs (laBI .. l,,,rb .,.;;,,, ,j,1xlo,11); while &-yopa is admitted to have in the classics the signification of provisions bought in the market, as in the phrase l,,-yopb rape')(_ov. Thie, however, appears a straining both of the sense and construction, the plain rendering being "after market," or, as the English has it, "when they came from the market;" thus bi> liE!,rvou means "after supper." 3 . ..&.<lditiO'D,a,l baptisms. These washings, which the Pharisees and indeed all the Jews practised, were not confined to their hands or whole persons; but, besides such personal ablutions, there were baptisms of cups and pots, of brazen vessels, and of· couches. Of these domestic utensils the first are named from the use to which they are applied, namely, for drinking, as is expressed by its root; the second, corresponding to the Roman seztarius, from which, and not from ll111, to polish, is the word derived, are named from their size, and contain a pint, or sixth part of a congius (somewhere about a gallon); the third are called from the material, copper of which they are made; the fourth get their Il.!l.me like the first, from their use, to wit, of reclining on, either for the purpose of sleep or at meals. 4. The <Yrigin of these washings. Several chapters of Leviticus (xii.-xv.) contain a tolerably full account of the ablutions enjoined in the Law, and employed for Levitical purifications. These purifications were resorted to for the purpose of ceremonial cleansing. They had generally respect to certain states or conditions of the body, symbolical of the defiling nature of sin. In some of these cases we read that the person to be cleansed "shall wash his clothes, bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean." But Pharisaism extended these washings far beyond the limits of the Law-applied them to cases neither contemplated by, nor comprehended in, the Law, and multiplied them to an absurd amount. Persons, before engaging in the com- monest acts of domestic or social life, were compelled to a strict observance of such washings; nay, the very articles of household furniture, including those here enume rated, had to be subjected to them. God had, for good and wise purposes, instituted certain temporary means of ceremonial cleansing; but man perverts and pollutes, or, when he does not pollute, he perverts the wisest means to the worst ends. The per- versions in the case before us, besides being excessively burdensome and extremely inconvenient from their multiplicity, were perfectly contemptible from their very l,uerility and triviality, and positively sinful from the seemingly magical efficacy with. which they invested mere mechanical operations. 5. Oeremonialum. Ceremonies of human invention, especially when multiplied an.i perverted from their legitimate or appointed use, like the ablutions referred to, instead vf being helps become hindrances t-0 devotion. They promote irreligion at the same 1ime that they foster pride. Their tendency is to put outward purifying in the place of inward purity, to substitute external cleansing fer internal cleanness, to prefer clean. hands to a clean heart, and to rest in "the righteousness which is of the Law" instead of "the righteousness which is of God by faith." True religion, under whatever cu. vn. 1-37.J TllE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO S'J. MARK. 315