Why does eating with unwashed hands cause such great offence to the Pharisees and scribes in Mark chapter 7 verses 1 to 5?

Answer 1

The answer is given in verses 3 and 4.

Washing of hands was a tradition that had become a religious exercise with the Pharisees and it was imposed on the people by the religious leaders.

In verses 5-8 Jesus pointed out the hypocrisy of such behavior. Just as Isaiah had predicted (verse 6) they professed great devotion to the Lord, but were inwardly corrupt. By elaborate rituals, they pretended to worship God, but they had substituted their traditions for the doctrines of The Bible.
The Pharisees and scribes were Jewish religious leaders who had built up a system of rigidly enforced traditions so interwoven with the law of God that they had acquired almost equal authority with the Scriptures.

The religious leaders delighted in imposing the rules and the people accepted them meekly, satisfied with a system of rituals without reality.

In Mark 7 :3-5 the Pharisees and scribes criticizing Jesus because His disciples ate with unwashed hands. This probably means that they didn't go through the elaborate ritual prescribed by tradition. Unless they washed up to the elbows, they were considered ceremonially defiled.

Jesus pointed out the hypocrisy of such behavior. The people were just what Isaiah had predicted. They professed great devotion to the Lord, but were inwardly corrupt. By elaborate rituals, they pretended to worship God.

Answer 2

William Loader ('Mark 7:1-23 And The Historical Jesus', page 134) says the best case is that hand washing for purity was practised by some, probably some Pharisees. He believes the Pharisees were unlikely to have sought to impose this practice onto the general population, although it is conceivable they could have thought Jesus and his apostles ought to have followed the same standard of ritual hygiene.

Jesus responds to the Pharisees by calling them hypocrites, but the author of Mark makes a fatal mistake in his account. In Mark 7:7, he says that Jesus quoted from the Book of Isaiah, but he has Jesus use the Greek Septuagint, which was virtually unknown in Palestine. Words attributed to Jesus, "in vain do they worship me," come from Isaiah 29:13 - but only in the Septuagint, so these words could not have been spoken by Jesus.

The author of Mark was developing a theme about food (See Loader, page 133) by exaggerating the importance the Pharisees placed on washing their hands before eating. My paper on the Framework structure of Mark explains that this theme is carried across Mark 6:31-8:21:

• Jesus and the disciples had no leisure so much as to eat , so they went into a desert place (6:31-32)
• Feeding the 5000 (6:33-44)
• When Jesus walked on water the disciples were amazed, for they considered not the miracle of the loaves (6:45-54)
• Pharisees complain about the disciples eating with unwashed hands (7:1-8)
• Discourse - what goes into a man goes into his belly and does not defile (7:9-23)
• Greek woman metaphorically begs for crumbs from the table (7:24-30)
• Feeding the 4000 (8:1-9)
• Disciples are hungry and have only one loaf of bread (8:13-14)
• Jesus warns the disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees and they reason, "It is because we have no bread," showing they do not understand (8:15-17)
• Summary by Jesus of the two feasts (8:18-21)