<p>7:9 <em>And he said to them: You are good at rejecting the commandment of God so that you can establish your tradition</em>- They had rejected or Gk. brought to nothing, neutralized, the commandment of God. They had ended the law. What God did in ending the Mosaic law was only a confirmation of what Israel themselves had done. And they did it despite all their much vaunted attention to every letter of the words which comprised that law. They wished to effectively write their own law; they annulled God's commandment in order to establish their own tradition. &quot;Establish&quot; is a variant reading, but it fits well with the following verses which speak of their voiding of God's law in order to obey the tradition which they created (:13).</p><p>The tension is between human&nbsp;<em>tradition</em>, and Divine&nbsp;<em>commandment</em>. There is a tendency to assume that tradition passed down over a period of time is in fact from God. Even the most protestant of Protestant churches have this tendency. And it is in all of us. The Lord goes on to demonstrate that God&rsquo;s&nbsp;<em>command</em>&nbsp;is transgressed not only by bold faced disobedience, but equally by seeking to get around its real force and by&nbsp;<em>omitting</em>&nbsp;to do what that command implies. Accepting the real implication of God&rsquo;s inspired word means that we will fearlessly break with tradition when necessary, and will examine whether our response to His word is direct obedience or rather a mirage, &lsquo;getting around&rsquo; the direct requirement. All this is the practical outcome of believing the Bible to be inspired.&nbsp;</p><p>The tradition in view is not specifically their teaching about washing. The subsequent context shows the Lord has in view other traditions. His argument is therefore &lsquo;If&nbsp;<em>some</em>&nbsp;of your traditions are wrong and unBiblical, then why demand we keep other traditions which are within that same body of tradition&rsquo;. And so He relentlessly requires that tradition within any religious group is fearlessly analysed- if some are unBiblical, then the others need not be respected. Just as &ldquo;tradition&rdquo; and &ldquo;commandment&rdquo; are placed in apposition to each other, likewise &ldquo;your&rdquo; is in opposition to &ldquo;of God&rdquo;. Elevating tradition to the status of Divine commandment is yet another way in which religious people &lsquo;play God&rsquo;.</p>