NT Text: Mark 7:10
OT Source(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Direct Quotation
Connection Method(s): Redemptive-Historical Progression + Contrast
Significance: In Mark 7:10, Jesus cites both the fifth commandment (Exodus 20:12) and Exodus 21:17 — "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death" (mot yumat) — as scriptural authority against the Pharisees' corban practice. The citation of Exodus 21:17 (and its parallel in Leviticus 20:9) demonstrates that the OT's concern for parental honor carried capital weight: cursing (meqallel, from qalal, to treat with contempt or dishonor) was a capital offense. Mark's phrasing (kakoō, "to treat badly, harm") captures the sense of active dishonoring. Jesus invokes this severe sanction to show the magnitude of what the corban tradition permitted: by allowing a verbal dedication to void the concrete duty to support aging parents, the tradition effectively sanctioned the equivalent of cursing — treating parents as though their needs were contemptible. The contrast between God's word (which protects parental dignity with capital force) and the Pharisees' tradition (which circumvents it) is sharp and intentional.