Matthew Chapter 15 verse 3 Holy Bible
And he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?
read chapter 15 in ASV
And in answer he said to them, Why do you, yourselves, go against the word of God on account of the teaching which has been handed down to you?
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But he answering said to them, Why do *ye* also transgress the commandment of God on account of your traditional teaching?
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But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
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read chapter 15 in WBT
He answered them, "Why do you also disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition?
read chapter 15 in WEB
And he answering said to them, `Wherefore also do ye transgress the command of God because of your tradition?
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Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 3. - He answered. Christ does not formally defend his disciples, nor condemn the Pharisees for their ceremonial ablutions, but he turns to a matter of more importance, even a plain breach or evasion of a plain commandment. Ye also. If my disciples transgress a tradition of the ancients, ye too transgress, and that the commandment of God - an error of far graver character. His non-observance of these minutiae showed their unimportance, and called attention to the inward purity which they typified, and which could be maintained without these external ceremonies. At the same time, Jesus does not condemn such symbolical acts, even as he himself washed the disciples' feet before the last Supper. The evil in rabbinical teachings was that it superseded the spiritual view, and placed outward cleansing on a higher level than inward holiness. By (διὰ with accusative); on account of, in order to maintain. Your tradition. Tradition which is emphatically yours and not God's, a human gloss, not a revealed command. Jesus does not accept the assertion that these traditions are derived from the ancients; he gives them a more modern origin.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(3) By your tradition.--Better, for the sake of your tradition. Our Lord's answer, it will be noted, is an indirect one, an argumentum ad hominem. He shows that their traditional casuistry was in direct opposition to the "commandment" of God, and the natural inference from that antagonism was that in itself, apart from the commandment, it had no binding authority as a rule of life.
