A delegation travels all the way from Jerusalem to accuse Jesus over unwashed hands, and He answers by exposing a loophole so cynical it let a man starve his own parents in the name of piety — then walks straight into Gentile territory, where a foreign woman with no claim on Israel’s promises out-argues Him in faith, and a heathen crowd in Decapolis ends up glorifying the God of Israel for three straight days.
A study in Matthew 15 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 29 min read
Why Do Ye Also Transgress The Commandment Of God
“Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.”
Matthew 15:1-2
This is not a local complaint. Jerusalem’s own scribes and Pharisees have traveled north to Galilee specifically to build a case against Jesus, and the charge they settle on is not blasphemy or Sabbath-breaking but a failure to observe a hand-washing ritual nowhere commanded in the law of Moses — a rabbinic addition treated, by this point, as more binding than Scripture itself.
“The rules in regard to purification were numberless. The period of a lifetime was scarcely sufficient for one to learn them all. The life of those who tried to observe the rabbinical requirements was one long struggle against ceremonial defilement, an endless round of washings and purifications. While the people were occupied with trifling distinctions, and observances which God had not required, their attention was turned away from the great principles of His law.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 396
Jesus does not defend His disciples’ hand-washing habits. He goes straight to the far larger crime hiding underneath the small one, and names a specific, well-known loophole the rabbis themselves had built.
“But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.”
Matthew 15:3-6
“For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: but ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do aught for his father or his mother. They set aside the fifth commandment as of no consequence, but were very exact in carrying out the traditions of the elders. They taught the people that the devotion of their property to the temple was a duty more sacred than even the support of their parents; and that, however great the necessity, it was sacrilege to impart to father or mother any part of what had been thus consecrated. An undutiful child had only to pronounce the word ‘Corban’ over his property, thus devoting it to God, and he could retain it for his own use during his lifetime, and after his death it was to be appropriated to the temple service.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 396
“Corban” let a man keep full use of his own property for life while calling it God’s, and in exchange excused him from ever having to spend a cent of it on the parents who raised him — a religious technicality engineered, in practice, to make cruelty look like devotion. Jesus answers this same delegation’s own recent hypocrisy with words from their own prophet.
“Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”
Matthew 15:7-9
“The words of Christ were an arraignment of the whole system of Pharisaism. He declared that by placing their requirements above the divine precepts the rabbis were setting themselves above God.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 397
The deputies came looking for a technical violation to pin on Jesus’s disciples and left having been publicly convicted, out of their own Scriptures, of a far graver one of their own.
Not That Which Goeth Into The Mouth Defileth A Man
“And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”
Matthew 15:10-11
Turning from the Pharisees to the crowd, Jesus states the underlying principle their whole system of hand-washing had obscured: defilement is not a matter of ritual contact but of moral character.
“To the multitude, and afterward more fully to His disciples, Jesus explained that defilement comes not from without, but from within. Purity and impurity pertain to the soul. It is the evil deed, the evil word, the evil thought, the transgression of the law of God, not the neglect of external, man-made ceremonies, that defiles a man.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 397
“Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”
Matthew 15:12-14
“He answered, ‘Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.’ The customs and traditions so highly valued by the rabbis were of this world, not from heaven. However great their authority with the people, they could not endure the testing of God.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 398
The disciples, worried about offended Pharisees, want a diplomatic answer. Jesus gives them a botanical one instead: anything God did not plant will be uprooted regardless of how deeply it has grown into the culture, and offense taken at the truth is not a reason to soften it.
“Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding? Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.”
Matthew 15:15-20
“The substitution of the precepts of men for the commandments of God has not ceased. Even among Christians are found institutions and usages that have no better foundation than the traditions of the fathers. Such institutions, resting upon mere human authority, have supplanted those of divine appointment. Men cling to their traditions, and revere their customs, and cherish hatred against those who seek to show them their error. In this day, when we are bidden to call attention to the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, we see the same enmity as was manifested in the days of Christ. Of the remnant people of God it is written, ‘The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.’”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 398
White does not leave this filed away as first-century controversy. The exact same substitution — human tradition wearing the authority of divine command — is still at work, and Revelation’s own picture of the dragon’s war against “the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” names this chapter’s real subject: not hand-washing, but who gets to define what God actually requires.
O Woman, Great Is Thy Faith
“Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.”
Matthew 15:21-23
Jesus withdraws north into pagan territory — Phoenician cities the Jews regarded as thoroughly heathen — and a woman with no covenant claim on Him whatsoever, a descendant of the very Canaanites Israel had once been commanded to drive out, comes crying for her daughter’s deliverance.
“As she heard of His power, hope sprang up in her heart. Inspired by a mother’s love, she determined to present her daughter’s case to Him. It was her resolute purpose to bring her affliction to Jesus. He must heal her child.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 399
Jesus’s silence, and the blunt words that follow it, have troubled readers for centuries. White supplies the reason, and it has nothing to do with the woman’s worthiness.
“But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.”
Matthew 15:24-25
“He received this representative of a despised race as the Jews would have done. In this He designed that His disciples should be impressed with the cold and heartless manner in which the Jews would treat such a case, as evinced by His reception of the woman, and the compassionate manner in which He would have them deal with such distress, as manifested by His subsequent granting of her petition.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 400
The silence is theater, not rejection — a deliberate demonstration, staged for the Twelve, of exactly the prejudice they were still carrying in their own hearts. What Jesus does next asks the woman to hold her ground inside that same demonstration.
“But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.”
Matthew 15:26-28
“The Saviour is satisfied. He has tested her faith in Him. By His dealings with her, He has shown that she who has been regarded as an outcast from Israel is no longer an alien, but a child in God’s household. As a child it is her privilege to share in the Father’s gifts. Christ now grants her request, and finishes the lesson to the disciples. Turning to her with a look of pity and love, He says, ‘O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.’ From that hour her daughter became whole.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 401
She does not dispute the insult; she stands inside it and finds a promise the Pharisees, with all their genealogy and all their tradition, had missed — even a dog gets the crumbs. It was, Matthew’s own Gospel later makes plain, the only miracle Jesus performed on this entire journey, staged for an audience of twelve men who needed to watch a Canaanite woman out-believe the whole nation of Israel.
They Glorified The God Of Israel
“And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there. And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and he healed them: Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel.”
Matthew 15:29-31
“Jesus went up into a mountain, and there the multitude flocked to Him, bringing their sick and lame, and laying them at His feet. He healed them all; and the people, heathen as they were, glorified the God of Israel. For three days they continued to throng about the Saviour, sleeping at night in the open air, and through the day pressing eagerly to hear the words of Christ, and to see His works.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 404
Mark’s Gospel places this scene in Decapolis, Gentile country on the far side of Galilee — the same heathen population the Canaanite woman belonged to is now camping out for three straight days to hear a Jewish rabbi teach, and it is their own Scripture’s phrase, “the God of Israel,” that ends up on their lips.
“Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude? And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes.”
Matthew 15:32-34
“Again the disciples revealed their unbelief. At Bethsaida they had seen how, with Christ’s blessing, their little store availed for the feeding of the multitude; yet they did not now bring forward their all, trusting His power to multiply it for the hungry crowds. Moreover, those whom He fed at Bethsaida were Jews; these were Gentiles and heathen. Jewish prejudice was still strong in the hearts of the disciples.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 404
This site’s own study of Matthew 14 already told the story of the first feeding miracle, the five thousand fed on the Jewish side of the lake. White’s own comment here makes the contrast explicit: the disciples had already watched Jesus multiply five loaves once, and still could not bring themselves to trust Him for a Gentile crowd with two more loaves to spare.
“And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full. And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children. And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of Magdala.”
Matthew 15:35-39
“In the border of Tyre and Sidon His spirit had been refreshed by the confiding trust of the Syrophoenician woman. The heathen people of Decapolis had received Him with gladness.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 405
Seven baskets left over this time, one more than the twelve of Bethsaida divided among a smaller crowd — not a smaller miracle, only a less celebrated one, worked for people the disciples had been raised to write off entirely. The whole chapter turns on that single question the Pharisees never thought to ask about themselves: whose heart is actually far from God, the woman who begged for crumbs, or the men so certain of their own cleanliness that they nearly missed the God of Israel standing in front of them?
