Don’t Add Or Take Away

    In Deuteronomy 4.2 and later in 12.32, Moses issued a stern warning in the law to the Israelites about the careful respect God’s words deserved. In words that the apostle John echoed in Revelation 22.18-19, Moses instructed the people to “not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it.” Since many more books of the Bible had yet to be recorded, Moses was obviously not speaking against future revelations from God being added to the collection of divinely-inspired Scripture. Instead, he was probably speaking against the same problem that Jesus dealt with in Mark 7.1-13.

In addition to the divinely-inspired law of Moses, the Jews of Jesus’ day had access to a large body of teaching from various rabbis about the law. These teachings, which were mostly orally transmitted, formed an extensive daily code and were regarded by the Pharisees (though not the Sadducees) as very nearly equal in authority with the Scriptures themselves. When the Pharisees and scribes reproached Jesus in Mark 7 for allowing his disciples eat without going through ceremonial hand-washing that the “tradition of the elders” prescribed (7.5), they were referring to this body of oral tradition which Jesus and his men supposedly violated.

In response, Jesus revealed their hypocrisy in actually neglecting parts of Scripture they did not find convenient. Instead of honoring their fathers and mothers as the ten commandments commanded, they gave their financial resources to God, considering them “Corban,” (devoted to God). By doing this, they were repeating the same mistakes as their ancestors in the time of the prophet Isaiah, “teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” Therefore, not only were the Pharisees adding to the law by treating their own oral traditions as Scripture, they were also taking away from the law by refusing to keep it.

Since multiple generations of God’s people fell to the same problem, we must be vigilant to not repeat their mistake. The only traditions we are obliged to keep are the ones handed down directly by Jesus’ apostles (2 Thessalonians 2.15, 3.6). Before leaving earth, Jesus bestowed His authority on this special group of messengers, granting them authority to teach and reveal Him to the world (Matthew 28.18-20). In the first century, those gospel traditions were orally presented as well as written down, many in letter form. Although some churches claim to be keepers of the oral traditions of the apostles, the New Testament documents are the only trustworthy source we have to understand Jesus and His will for our lives. Oral traditions can change very quickly based on the mistaken memories of the transmitters. Written documents, however, are frozen in time. Therefore, let us shun the example of the Pharisees. We must obediently bind our minds and hearts to what we’ve been given in Scripture and not regard extra-biblical traditions as deserving of our full allegiance.

Nathan