Bible Dictionary
UNWASHEN
“Unwashen” refers to hands not ritually washed before eating. Jesus used the issue to rebuke scribes and Pharisees for elevating human tradition and outward ceremonial practice above the true purity God requires.
Definition
Unwashen refers to hands that have not undergone the customary religious washing before eating. The issue concerns ceremonial, not physical, uncleanness.
Biblical Usage
In Matthew and Mark, Jesus rebukes the scribes and Pharisees in connection with unwashen hands. He challenges their traditional emphasis on external purification and contrasts it with true purity.
Historical Background
The ritual washing involved two affusions extending to the wrist. The schools of Shammai and Hillel agreed that handwashing was necessary for ceremonial purification, though the practice was a matter of tradition rather than the Old Testament text itself.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>un-wosh'-'-n (aniptos): Occurs only twice in the New Testament, not at all in the Hebrew or Greek Old Testament (Mt 15:20 = Mr 7:2). Jesus is here denouncing the traditionalism of the scribes and Pharisees. Uncleanness, to them, was external and purification was ceremonial. Hence, the Pharisaic view that the hands became unclean (religiously, not physically), and so before meals must be cleansed (religiously) by washing, which consisted in two affusions and must extend up to the wrist, else the hand was still unclean. Jewish tradition traced this custom back to Solomon (see Shabbath 14b, end), but the first unmistakable occurrence of the custom is in the Sibylline Oracles (3:591-93), where the hands are said to be washed in connection with prayer and thanksgiving. The schools of Shammai and Hillel, though usually differing on points of tradition, agreed on the washing of hands as necessary for ceremonial purification (having reached this agreement in the early part of Jesus' life).</p><p>See PURITY; UNCLEANNESS.</p><p>LITERATURE.</p><p>Broadus, Commentary on Matthew (15:2-20); Gould, Swete, commentaries on Mark (7:2); Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, II, 8 ff; Schurer. HJP, div II, volume I, section 25 (" Scribism").</p><p>Charles B. Williams</p>