Scott Dale in Bill Klein

9 years ago

@mr Klein The diificulty with that view is that the New Covenant in Jer 31:31ff is referring to Israel when they come to full faith as an entire nation.  It technically hasn't fully happened yet.  Yes, the Torah always spoke to the heart - love, mercy, faith etc.  Yeshua was putting the commands of God back to where they were meant to be.  In fact, this is the exact issue in Mark 7 and Matt 15:16ff.  The issue was the traditions of men (washing hands prior to eating).  This wasn't a mosaic Torah command for the people.  Yeshua is essentially saying "what ultimately defiles a person is not contaminated food but a contaminated heart". The food is dealt with by the process of the body - mouth, stomach, latrine.  The most vile things come from within and need to be the focus first.  Seems to be the same message as 'clean the inside of the cup first'.  I personally disagree with the hotly debated translation that says (thus he declared all foods clean).  The more unbiased reading of the Greek indicates that all foods were cleansed (or purged perhaps as per KJV) in the process of going to the toilet and not that Yeshua says all foods were now clean.  In any event, this is clearly dealing with the tradition of unwashed hands, not the food itself as the Matt passage emphasizes as the end.  It also makes sense as to why Peter still doesn't eat unclean animals in Acts 10 in his vision (it is Peter who asks Yeshua the question in the Matt 15 version).   This is another reason why I personally consider the dietary laws something to be kept today.

Marcus, I would agree with the Muslims on this point.  In truth, our history is a pick and choose version of the law since we accept the part that says love your neighbour, but when it says Sabbath we say....not for today.   I personally don't think Christ taught this, hence my remarks above re Matt 5:17-20.

To add further credence to the KJV 'purge' here, note the same participle katahrizon is used in Mal 3:3 in LXX and KJV again translates the Hebrew there as purge.  The context in Mal 3:3 is essentially refining silver and gold.  So refining and purge make the most sense in Mark 7:19 I think.  In other words, the body has a process of dealing with and getting rid of defilement from unwashed hands and one can enter into a state of ritual purity afterwards....but what is the solution to the ever present defilements that are coming out from within you (how will you deal with that you unclean and hypocritical Pharisees!)  Once again our master Jesus shows his brilliance!  I'm convinced this passage is not saying "thus he declared all foods clean". This is not what the Greek says and doesn't make any sense in the context nor what Matthew emphasizes in his version.