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word “Corban” over his property, thus devoting it to God, and he could
retain it for his own use during his lifetime, and after his death it was
to be appropriated to the temple service. Thus he was at liberty, both
in life and in death, to dishonor and defraud his parents, under cover
of a pretended devotion to God.
Never, by word or deed, did Jesus lessen man’s obligation to
present gifts and offerings to God. It was Christ who gave all the
directions of the law in regard to tithes and offerings. When on earth
He commended the poor woman who gave her all to the temple trea-
sury. But the apparent zeal for God on the part of the priests and
rabbis was a pretense to cover their desire for self-aggrandizement.
The people were deceived by them. They were bearing heavy burdens
which God had not imposed. Even the disciples of Christ were not
wholly free from the yoke that had been bound upon them by inherited
prejudice and rabbinical authority. Now, by revealing the true spirit of
the rabbis, Jesus sought to free from the bondage of tradition all who
were really desirous of serving God.
“Ye hypocrites,” He said, addressing the wily spies, “well did
Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto Me
with their mouth, and honoreth Me with their lips; but their heart is
far from Me. But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines
the commandments of men.” The words of Christ were an arraign-
ment of the whole system of Pharisaism. He declared that by placing
their requirements above the divine precepts the rabbis were setting
themselves above God.
The deputies from Jerusalem were filled with rage. They could not
accuse Christ as a violator of the law given from Sinai, for He spoke
as its defender against their traditions. The great precepts of the law,
which He had presented, appeared in striking contrast to the petty rules
that men had devised.
To the multitude, and afterward more fully to His disciples, Jesus
explained that defilement comes not from without, but from within.
Purity and impurity pertain to the soul. It is the evil deed, the evil
word, the evil thought, the transgression of the law of God, not the
neglect of external, man-made ceremonies, that defiles a man.
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The disciples noted the rage of the spies as their false teaching was
exposed. They saw the angry looks, and heard the half-muttered words
of dissatisfaction and revenge. Forgetting how often Christ had given