Explanatory statement about Jewish customs, not in Mt. πάντες οἱ Ἰουδ.: the Pharisees, the thorough-going virtuosi in religion, were a limited number; but in this and other respects the Jews generally followed ancient custom. The expression reminds us of the Fourth Gospel in its manner of referring to the people of Israel the Jews as foreigners. Mark speaks from the Gentile point of view. πυγμῇ., with the first, the Vulgate has here crebro, answering to πυκνά, a reading found in [61]. Most recent interpreters interpret πυγμῇ as meaning that they rubbed hard the palm of one hand with the other closed, so as to make sure that the part which touched food should be clean. (So Beza.) For other interpretations vide Lightfoot, Bengel, and Meyer.

[61] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

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Old Testament