quote:

The topic being discussed in Mark 7 is not the eating of foods prohibited by the Torah but ritual purity in terms of eating food with unwashed hands. With the emphasis throughout the story of the Pharisees’ “traditions of the elders,” the dispute here is a halakhic one, with Jesus rejecting their interpretation of the Torah (v. 3) that in his opinion fails to respect inner purity as much as outer purity. He is accusing them of being hypocrites by making rules on less important matters while failing to observe the most important precepts of the Law, thereby setting aside the actual Torah by paying more attention to their oral tradition. The Pharisees were not accusing Jesus and his disciples of eating meat (such as pork) that the Torah forbids. So this raises the question of the scope of πάντα τὰ βρώματα in 7:19. This is a parenthetical comment from the author. James Crossley in “** you do not have permission to see this link **: Revisiting the Question of ‘All Foods Clean’ “ (in Torah in the New Testament; A&C Black, 2009) argues that this comment has nothing to do with eating ritually unclean foods but contaminating clean foods via second-hand impurity:

“With ** you do not have permission to see this link **), can be read as a critique of the views associated with establishing the transmission of impurity from hands to food (via a liquid) to eater. In other words, from this perspective, all foods permitted in the Torah were clean to eat and hand-washing was unnecessary” (p. 16).