“Why do your disciples disregard the tradition of the elders, since they do not wash their hands when they eat bread?”
This question of the Pharisees concerns not hygiene, but religious tradition. In their view, washing the hands in a special way before eating bread was not only cleanliness, but a spiritual duty, based on traditional interpretations rather than the Law of Moses. Their complaint was that Jesus’ disciples do not keep this tradition, that is, the things that had been handed down from generation to generation as mandatory rules. They are not accusing Jesus of breaking the Law, but of breaking tradition. This is an important distinction. Here a great spiritual problem comes to light: when human tradition is placed on the level of divine truth. The Pharisees ranked their traditions above the word of God, and they had made keeping them a standard for determining the depth of faith.