Oral Law

Biblical References

The term "Oral Law" does not itself appear in the Bible. The corresponding New Testament expression is "the tradition of the elders" (the Korean Revised Version uses the older term yujeon for "tradition").

• Mark 7:1–13: The Pharisees and scribes ask why Jesus' disciples eat without washing their hands. Mark 7:3–4 explains that the Jews, "holding the tradition of the elders," wash their hands as well as cups, pots, and brasen vessels. Jesus quotes Isaiah 29:13 and then replies, "For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men" (7:8). He goes on to cite the practice of "Corban" (meaning "given to God"), by which a person declared that what he owed his parents had been given to God, thereby evading the commandment to honor one's parents.
• Matthew 15:1–9: Records the same controversy. Jesus asks, "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?" (15:3).
• Galatians 1:14: Paul says that before his conversion he was "more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers."

Background

In the Judaism of the intertestamental period and the New Testament era, a body of interpretations and detailed regulations had accumulated for applying the written law, the Pentateuch, to daily life. The first-century Jewish historian Josephus contrasts two groups in his Antiquities of the Jews: the Pharisees delivered to the people certain regulations handed down from their forefathers that were not written in the law of Moses, whereas the Sadducees rejected these, holding that only what was written should be observed.

Later rabbinic Judaism taught that Moses received the Oral Law together with the written law at Mount Sinai, and that it was passed down through Joshua, the elders, and the prophets. This understanding appears at the opening of Pirkei Avot ("Sayings of the Fathers") in the Mishnah. The Oral Law is generally held to have been committed to writing as the Mishnah around the early third century, and the Mishnah was later followed by the Talmud. The claim of a Sinaitic origin, however, is an assertion of Jewish tradition and is not something the text of the Old Testament states directly.

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

In the Gospels, what Jesus criticizes is not tradition as such but rather cases in which human tradition makes the commandment of God "of none effect" (Mark 7:13). At the same time, the New Testament also uses the word "tradition" positively. Paul urges the churches to hold fast the traditions he delivered to them (1 Corinthians 11:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:15). In the New Testament, then, "tradition" is a term whose evaluation depends on what is being handed down.

Interpretations and Issues

• The authority of tradition: Since the Reformation, Protestants have read these passages as one of the grounds for sola scriptura (the Five Solas), the principle that Scripture alone is the final standard of faith. The Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, citing passages such as 2 Thessalonians 2:15, hold that the sacred tradition the apostles delivered orally also carries authority alongside Scripture. They argue that what Jesus criticized was human custom contrary to the word of God, not apostolic tradition.
• Jesus and the Pharisees: In Matthew 23:2–3, Jesus says that the scribes and Pharisees "sit in Moses' seat" and that their instructions are therefore to be observed. Interpreters are divided over this passage: some see it as Jesus' partial acknowledgment of oral interpretation, while others take it to refer only to the public reading and teaching of the law.

In the Korean Church

Mark 7 and Matthew 15 are commonly used in preaching as texts warning against formalism and legalism. They are also cited to encourage reflection on whether church customs or rules have been placed ahead of the teaching of Scripture.