Printed from the Blue Letter Bible

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Mar 7:3 — For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.

Phrase from KJV (Help)		Correlating Verses

oft	or, diligently. Gr. With the fist. Up to the elbow. Theophylact. [pugme ( pugmh/ )] the fist; which Dr. Lightfoot illustrates by a tradition from the Talmudical tracts, that when they washed their hands, they washed the fist up to the joint of the arm, [ad perek.] The Jews laid great stress on these washings, or baptisms, [baptismos ( baptismo/v )] considering eating with unwashen hands no ordinary crime, and feigning that an evil spirit, called Shibta, has a right to sit on the food of him who thus eats, and render it hurtful.
the tradition	Mar 7:7-10,13; Mat 15:2-6; Gal 1:14; Col 2:8,21-23; 1Pe 1:18