The Harmony Chronicle and Order of the New Testament, Part 1 · Section 50 – Section 51
SECTION L. MARK Chap. VII. all the Chapter. And Chap. VIII. from begin. to Ver. 22. MATTH. Chap. XV. all the Chap. And Ch. XVI. from the begin. to V. 13. Scribes and Pharisees impious traditions: The Woman of Canaans Daughter healed. A man Dumb and Deaf healed. Four thousand fed miraculously. Pharisees require a sign, &c. Leaven of Pharisees, &c.
THese two Evangelists joyn this portion to the end of Sect. 47. Now what we have laid between in Sect. 48. & 49. is of so plain subsequence and order, that no more needeth to be said of this or them.
Certain Scribes and Pharisees that were sent purposely from Ierusalem, [as may be conjectured, because the Sanhedrin there fought to destroy Iesus] seeking to intrap and oppose him, and to make a party against him, quarrell his Disciples for not washing before meat. Their preciseness about this matter may be seen in Talmudich Treatise Iadaim, and in Maymony in his Tract Mikvaoth, and occursorily almost in every place in the Jewish Writers, where they have occasion to speak of their meales and of their manner of eating.
1. Washing of the hands or dipping of them, is of the institution of the Scribes: they are the words of Maymony in Mik…aoth, per. 11.
2. Hi…el and Sha…ma… …creed about washing the hands: But R. Iose the sonne of R. Ben saith, The tradition about it had come to their hands, but they had forgot it. These therefore decreed but according to the minde of those that had gone before them. Talm. Jerus. in Schabb. fol. 3. col. 4.
3. foreign The eating of their common meat in cleannesse, is very much spoken of in their Writings and most highly extolled: Insomuch that the Glosse upon Chagigah per. 2. doth define a man or Religion by this, that He eats his common meals in cleannesse: and the Gomarists in the place of the Ierusalem Talmud last cited have this saying, Whosoever hath his dwelling in the Land of Israel, and eats his common meals in cleannesse, and speaks the holy tongue, and saies over his Phylacteries morning and evening, that men may be confident that he shall obtain the life of the world to come.
And again in Chal…ah fol. 58. col. 3. R. Iesi in the name of R. Shabeai and R. Chajash in the name of Simeon Ben Lachish say thus, A man should walk four miles to the washing of his hands. It is a tradition, that washing before meat is arbitrary, but after meat it is duty. Only that at his washing before, he saies over some prayer, but after, not. R. Iacob bar. R. Isaac, hereupon retorted, Doest thou say he washeth and saith over a prayer, and yet doest thou say that washing is arbitrary? It is said he should go four miles to the washing of his hands, and yet doest thou say it is arbitrary?
How they prized this and other traditions of the Elders above the Word of God, and so by and for them made that of no weight, may be read too numerously in them, in such like blasphemous passages as these: The words of the Scribes are more lovely then the words of the Law, and more weighty then the words of the Prophets.
And, He that saith there are no Phylacteries, and in so saying transgresseth against the words of the Law, he is not guilty: but he that saith there is five Phylacteries, and in so saying, addeth to the words of the Scribes, he is guilty. Je…us. Baracoth fol. 3. col. 2.
The written Law is narrow, but the traditionall is longer then the earth and broader then the sea. Tanchum. fol. 4. col. 4.
Our Saviour damning these cursed Traditions, doth instance only in that unnaturall tenet of theirs, that extinguisheth all filiall assistance to needy Parents: as if a son said to his father or mother, It is Corban, &c. Their Canons set down the duty of a son to his father, as, to give him meat and drink if he stood in need, and to cloath him, to wash his hands, feet and face, and if he needed, to lead him in and out. Tosapht. in Kiddushin per. 1. And yet with this superinduced Tradition, they destroyed all such duty. About the word Corban, in the sense in which it is used here, the Talmudich Treatises, Nedarim and Nazir and the Tosaphtoth upon them, are good explications, where it is often used.
His resolving the case about meats not defiling the man, overthrew a great part of Pharisaism: for this washing before meat was meerly out of their Traditions, and it was a great part of their sanctimony. Moses indeed had forbidden divers things as unclean to be touched, and by the touching of which the person was legally defiled, but that with this reference, that he was unclean as to Gods service, or to the Congregation, but this pretenced uncleannesse of theirs, for which they appointed washing before meat, had respect simply neither to the one nor the other.
Christ to a Heathen woman that begged the dispossessing of her daughter, cals the Heathens Dogs, and she readily understands his meaning, as that being a common title that the Jews put upon them, Midr. Titt. fol. 6. col. 3. foreign The Nations of the world are compared to Dogs.
No sign given to the Pharisees when they demand one, but the sign of Ionah the Prophet: whereby Christ doth not only intimate his own buriall and resurrection, but he chiefly intendeth to hint the calling of the Gentiles after his resurrection, as the Ninivites were after Ionahs, which was a thing the Jews could not endure to hear of.
SECTION LI. MARK Chap. VIII. Ver. 22, 23, 24, 25, 26. A blinde man restored to sight at Bethsaida.
MARKS authority warrants the connexion here: especially it being considered that in the preceding Section Christ and his Disciples are crossing over the Sea, and here they are arrived at Bethsaida. A journey by Sea thither they had, when Iesus fed the five thousand in Sect. 47. and now being come up to that place where that miracle was wrought, it was a strange construction the Disciples made of the words of their master, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, when they thought he blamed them for not bringing bread: the very place where they were, might have confuted that misprision.
Christ openeth the eyes of a blinde man, but will not do it in Bethsaida, but leads the man out of the Town, nor will he suffer him to go into the Town when he is cured, nor to tell it there. He had a good while ago, as hath been said, denounced wo against Bethsaida, Matth. 11.21. and for her perversnesse he will no more strive with her for her good: He had gathered out of her those that belonged to himself.