I think we were told that Jesus was wrong today
Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2024 2:33 pm
I'm not entirely certain; it is possible I missed the point, but we were told today that Jesus was wrong in the discussion about The Tradition of the Elders about eating with unwashed hands.
We were told that, of course, we should wash our hands before eating, that's just good hygiene, and that Jesus was "defensive' and "over the top" to respond by calling the Pharisees "hypocrites" and quote from Isaiah. He suggested that Jesus reacted that way perhaps he didn't want to admit that they had forgotten to wash their hands.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Part of the problem is that this week's gospel is chopped up and very poorly edited. It omits the reason Jesus called the Pharisees "hypocrites" because of the whole "corban" discussion. What Jesus said conveniently edited out of the gospel for reasons I cannot understand, is that the Pharisees are hypocrites because they invented a human tradition, setting something aside as "corban", that is "dedicated to God," as a way to get out of having to financially support their parents. So they place human tradition above the commandments of God. That is why Jesus called them "hypocrites", not because he was being "defensive" because he forgot to wash his hands.
And the worst part is, he kept talking about hygiene, while the gospel, even in the part quoted in this week's gospel, makes the point that the "hand washing" the Pharisees were complaining about was NOT for hygiene, but due to purely ritually "uncleanness", it was a ritual washing that had nothing to do with hygiene.
Indeed, people didn't even know the importance of clean hands to good health until the pioneering work of Joseph Lister in the 1890s when he hypothesized that the reason for the high fatality rate in the hospital he was working at was that doctors were carrying infections to patients and insisted that doctors "scrub up" before surgery.
We were told that, of course, we should wash our hands before eating, that's just good hygiene, and that Jesus was "defensive' and "over the top" to respond by calling the Pharisees "hypocrites" and quote from Isaiah. He suggested that Jesus reacted that way perhaps he didn't want to admit that they had forgotten to wash their hands.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Part of the problem is that this week's gospel is chopped up and very poorly edited. It omits the reason Jesus called the Pharisees "hypocrites" because of the whole "corban" discussion. What Jesus said conveniently edited out of the gospel for reasons I cannot understand, is that the Pharisees are hypocrites because they invented a human tradition, setting something aside as "corban", that is "dedicated to God," as a way to get out of having to financially support their parents. So they place human tradition above the commandments of God. That is why Jesus called them "hypocrites", not because he was being "defensive" because he forgot to wash his hands.
And the worst part is, he kept talking about hygiene, while the gospel, even in the part quoted in this week's gospel, makes the point that the "hand washing" the Pharisees were complaining about was NOT for hygiene, but due to purely ritually "uncleanness", it was a ritual washing that had nothing to do with hygiene.
Indeed, people didn't even know the importance of clean hands to good health until the pioneering work of Joseph Lister in the 1890s when he hypothesized that the reason for the high fatality rate in the hospital he was working at was that doctors were carrying infections to patients and insisted that doctors "scrub up" before surgery.