and you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or mother.
Here Jesus gives a specific example to reveal how, by their traditions, they were in practice nullifying God’s commandment. By saying “Corban,” they meant a gift dedicated to God (cf. Lev. 27). But they had distorted it in such a way that a person would formally declare his property to be an offering to God and thus free himself from his material obligation toward his parents. Outwardly this could seem like a devout donation, but in reality it became a means of avoiding obedience. In this way a distortion of values took place: what God had required as a duty—honor and care toward parents (Exod. 20:12, Deut. 5:16)—was replaced by a human formulation that allowed that same commandment to be bypassed. A person justified his mercilessness with religious language, presenting it as devotion to God. Moreover, this phenomenon was not merely a personal choice, but an established practice: the religious system not only permitted it, but in practice made a person “blameless” from his duty toward his parents. Thus tradition became not only a distorting force, but also a prohibiting one, blocking the way before the true doing of God’s will. This episode shows one of the deepest forms of hypocrisy: when a person not only does not do what is good, but covers his failure with a cloak of piety.