Did the Lord Jesus Condemn the Washing of Hands as a Hygienic Practice?
The Coronavirus is indeed spreading out, right? One of the biggest and most practical safety applications is to wash your hands properly. I have no problem with that when health experts tell me to do this and that for the good of people's health. However, some might think that Jesus condemned the washing of hands as a hygienic practice. Let's try to clear out this misunderstanding by understanding what was really emphasized when Jesus rebuked the Pharisees.
I decided to go to search for some commentaries. It's because I believe that Jesus would convict me to wash my hands for health reasons. A bigger picture of the context would tell us that it was more than just going against the Pharisees' lack of compassion. It was most likely going against superstition.
Here's an excerpt from the "Enduring Word Bible Commentary" where we can read the following on the issue of handwashing:
Vernon McGee's "Thru the Bible" commentary where I'll put excerpts (since most of the explanations are long) which I find interesting:
When you take a look at this one - it does look like the encounter recorded in Matthew 15:1-12 and Mark 7:1-9 was dealing with superstition. Washing is indeed part of the Old Testament ceremonial law. Do you know that sanitation laws were taught in Leviticus? Biology is a subject that was already studied way before modern biology came. Although they didn't have the intricate knowledge provided by later biologists such as Louis Pasteur - you can be certain that they were still aware of diseases in some way. God's knowledge is way advanced to man. The supersittion involved that it wasn't enough to just wash your hands for sanitary reasons but also that special prayers were involved too. Hmmm... doesn't that sound like the superstitions of Roman Catholicism (together with its offshoots) and Islam to name a few? Islam and modern-day Judaism are perverted versions (I once thought that they were one and the same before I got saved) of the Old Testament religion. Plus, Allah is not the God of the Bible too.
The Pharisees were probably guilty of being quack doctors and probably falsely accused the disciplines. I believe that the disciplines were already had their hands washed. Maybe, the Pharisees saw it as "dirty" not in our standards but in their standards. The disciples probably washed their hands with whatever soap and water they had back then. But for the Pharisees they weren't really clean because all they did was just sanitary handwashing. They had made a task to wash your hands to be too burdensome by adding unnecessary steps that any doctor would consider unnecessary. We can also read in Luke 11:37-38 that Jesus was "not washed" before dinner. I don't think Dr. Luke was saying Jesus didn't wash His hands for sanitary reasons. Rather, Jesus wasn't washing His hands with all the superstitious notions attached to by the Pharisees.
This should hope to clarify the controversy if Jesus went against handwashing. God bless!
I decided to go to search for some commentaries. It's because I believe that Jesus would convict me to wash my hands for health reasons. A bigger picture of the context would tell us that it was more than just going against the Pharisees' lack of compassion. It was most likely going against superstition.
Here's an excerpt from the "Enduring Word Bible Commentary" where we can read the following on the issue of handwashing:
b. But eat bread with unwashed hands: The religious leaders meant elaborate ceremonial washings, not washing for the sake of cleanliness. The observant Jews of that time strictly observed a rigid and extensive ritual for washing before meals.
i. The hand washing described here was purely ceremonial. It wasn’t enough to properly clean your hands if they were very dirty. You would have to first wash your hands to make them clean, and then perform the ritual to make them spiritually clean. They even had an accompanying prayer to be said during the ritual washing: “Blessed be Thou, O Lord, King of the universe, who sanctified us by the laws and commanded us to wash the hands.” (Cited in Lane)
ii. “The biblical mandate that the priests had to wash their hands and feet prior to entering the Tabernacle (Exodus 30:19; 40:12) provided the foundation for the wide-spread practice of ritual washings in Palestinian and diaspora Judaism.” (Lane)
c. Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders: These washings were commanded by tradition, not by Scripture. The religious leaders knew this, yet they still criticized the disciples for not obeying these traditions.
d. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders: For these ceremonial washings, special stone vessels of water were kept because ordinary water might be unclean. To wash your hands in a special way, you started by taking at least enough of this water to fill one and one-half egg shells. Then you poured the water over your hands, starting at the fingers and running down towards your wrist. Then you cleansed each palm by rubbing the fist of the other hand into it. Then you poured water over your hands again, this time from the wrist towards the fingers.
Vernon McGee's "Thru the Bible" commentary where I'll put excerpts (since most of the explanations are long) which I find interesting:
Matthew 15:1-2 - They (the Pharisees, emphasis mine) were did not accuse Him of breaking the Scriptures. They wanted to know why His disciples did not wash theirhands. They were referring to a ceremonial cleansing rather than to what we would consider to be a physical or sanitary handwashing. There were a great many people who feel that if you go through some sort of an outward ceremony and clean up on the outside, this is all that is necessary.
Matthew 15:7-8 - The religious leaders were eager to have people go through the ceremony of washing hands, but they ignored the condition of the heart, which was the important thing to God. In a very pious way they were breaking the Mosaic Law.
When you take a look at this one - it does look like the encounter recorded in Matthew 15:1-12 and Mark 7:1-9 was dealing with superstition. Washing is indeed part of the Old Testament ceremonial law. Do you know that sanitation laws were taught in Leviticus? Biology is a subject that was already studied way before modern biology came. Although they didn't have the intricate knowledge provided by later biologists such as Louis Pasteur - you can be certain that they were still aware of diseases in some way. God's knowledge is way advanced to man. The supersittion involved that it wasn't enough to just wash your hands for sanitary reasons but also that special prayers were involved too. Hmmm... doesn't that sound like the superstitions of Roman Catholicism (together with its offshoots) and Islam to name a few? Islam and modern-day Judaism are perverted versions (I once thought that they were one and the same before I got saved) of the Old Testament religion. Plus, Allah is not the God of the Bible too.
The Pharisees were probably guilty of being quack doctors and probably falsely accused the disciplines. I believe that the disciplines were already had their hands washed. Maybe, the Pharisees saw it as "dirty" not in our standards but in their standards. The disciples probably washed their hands with whatever soap and water they had back then. But for the Pharisees they weren't really clean because all they did was just sanitary handwashing. They had made a task to wash your hands to be too burdensome by adding unnecessary steps that any doctor would consider unnecessary. We can also read in Luke 11:37-38 that Jesus was "not washed" before dinner. I don't think Dr. Luke was saying Jesus didn't wash His hands for sanitary reasons. Rather, Jesus wasn't washing His hands with all the superstitious notions attached to by the Pharisees.
This should hope to clarify the controversy if Jesus went against handwashing. God bless!