Restoration Quarterly 42 (2000)
193-209.
Copyright © 2000 by
Restoration Quarterly, cited with permission.
VOWING AWAY THE FIFTH
COMMANDMENT:
MATTHEW 15:3-6//MARK 7:9-13
JON NELSON BAILEY
I. Introduction
Religious vows are prominent in ancient Judaism.
This study examines the
evidence that in the first-century CE a son could
make a vow that would keep
him from honoring his parents as commanded in the
fifth of the Ten
Commandments
(Exod 20:12; Deut 5:16). This practice, mentioned in
Matt
15:3-6//Mark
7:9-13, had the effect of vowing away the fifth commandment.
The
practice may have been rare and controversial, but it was a phenomenon that
could occur in ancient Judaism.
Since God required that vows be kept, problems
arose when a vow was
made that violated the Torah. In this study, I trace
the development of such vows
within Judaism and show that the NT bears witness to
the practice by which a
person could make a vow that superseded requirements
of the fifth command-
ment. I also show that such
vows encountered opposition by the rabbis and
eventually became unthinkable for pious Jews by the
time of the Babylonian
Talmud.
II. Significant Terms
A vow is a promise made in a religious context,
usually to God. Vows tend
to be promises to perform, or to abstain from,
specific actions. In biblical and
rabbinic Hebrew, the most common terms for
"vow" are the verb rdanA and the
noun rd,n,. The corresponding
Aramaic terms are the verb rdan; and the noun rdan;.1
The
most common Greek terms for "vow" are the verb eu@xomai and the noun
1 F. Brown, S. R. Driver, and
C. A. Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon
of the Old
Testament (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1907; repr. 1981) 623-24
(hereinafter cited
BDB,
Lexicon); M. Jastrow, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and
Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (New York: Judaica,
1903; repr. 1985) 879-80
(hereinafter cited Jastrow, Dictionary).
194 RESTORATION QUARTERLY
eu]xh<.2 A vow is a solemn promise or assertion
directed toward God. Vows in
ancient Judaism can be divided into two basic
types. The positive vow promises
to perform an act or to offer a gift or sacrifice
as a votive offering. The negative
vow promises to abstain from something, imposing a
prohibition on the one who
made the vow or others.3
Vows in ancient Judaism were closely related to
oaths, and sometimes the
terms were used interchangeably. The common Hebrew
terms are hfAUbw; "oath,"
and fbawA "swear, take an
oath."4 The Greek terms are o@rkoj, "oath," and o]mnu<w,
“swear, take an oath.”5 An oath is a solemn,
formal calling upon God as witness
to the truth of words directed toward other human
beings 6
Another important term is the Hebrew noun NBAr;qA. In rabbinic Hebrew
this
noun introduces a vow to abstain from something by
declaring an object to have
the status of a consecrated offering as far as the
one prohibited by the vow is
concerned. This usage is a development from
biblical Hebrew in which the term
occurs frequently but simply to denote a literal
"gift, offering, or sacrifice.”7 In
2 H. Liddell
and R. Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon
(9th ed., H. Jones and R.
McKenzie;
Lexicon);
W. Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament
and Other Early
Christian Literature (trans. W. F. Arndt and
F. W. Gingrich, 2nd ed. rev. F. W. Gingrich
and F. W. Danker;
BAGD, Lexicon); J. Hermann and H. Greeven, "eu@xomai," TDNT 2:775-808.
3 "Vows and Vowing," Encyclopedia Judaica
(ed. Cecil Roth; 16 vols.;
Macmillan,
1971) 16:227-28; "Vow," Dictionary
of Judaism in the Biblical Period: 450
B.C.E. to 600 C.E. (ed. Jacob Neusner and William Scott Green; 2 vols.;
Simon
& Schuster/Macmillan, 1996) 661-62; "Vows and Oaths," The
of the Jewish Religion (ed. R. Werblowsky
and G. Wigoder (
Press, 1997) 716-17.
4 BDB, Lexicon, 989-90; Jastrow,
Dictionary, 1511, 1515.
5 LSJM, Lexicon, 1223, 1252; BAGD, Lexicon,
565, 581; J. Schneider, "o]mnu<w,"
TDNT, 5:176-185; idem,
"o!rkoj et al.," TDNT, 5:457-67.
6 E. Klinger, "Vows and
Oaths," The Encyclopedia of Religion
(ed. Mircea Eliade;
15
vols.;
Jews
often blurred the distinction between oaths and vows, especially in regard to
vows
that negatively affected others.
7 BDB, Lexicon, 898; Jastrow, Dictionary, 1411; J. Kuhlewein,
Theological
Lexicon of the Old
Testament (ed.
(Peabody:
Hendrikson, 1997) 3:1164-69; R. Averbeck,
New International
Dictionary of Old
Testament Theology and Exegesis (ed. W. VanGemeren; 5
vols.; Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 1997) 3:979-82. The noun occurs 80
times in the Hebrew Bible, with
40 of those occurrences in Leviticus. Both the noun and
cognate verb are associated with
the Israelite concept of drawing near to God in
worship by presenting a consecrated gift
as a sacrificial offering. While the law specified
many gifts such as burnt offerings, grain
offerings, and peace offerings, it also was
possible to vow voluntarily to God other gifts
from one's property. After the loss of the
BAILEY/VOWING AWAY THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT 195
rabbinic literature it is used both as a
designation for actual sacrificial offerings
and as a technical term that introduces a vow of
abstinence from some object
consecrated to God. In rabbinic texts, to avoid use
of the actual word for sacri-
ficial offering, the term
commonly is replaced by the euphemism MnAOQ.8
III. The Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible indicates that vows were
important in Israelite religion
from an early period.9 With a vow a
person was placed under solemn obligation
to God to do something or to refrain from doing
something. Vows were volun-
tary. Yet, once taken, they
were to be fulfilled. The motive for vows was often
a desire to obtain divine favor. They regularly
have the form "If God does
something for me, then I will do something for
God." Except for the Nazirite
vow, negative vows or vows of abstinence are rare
in the Hebrew Bible. Vows
intended to affect others negatively are even
less common.
A few examples will demonstrate the importance
of positive vows in the
Hebrew
Bible.10 Jacob
vowed that if God would keep him safe, fed, and clothed
until he returned, he would make the pillar at
tithes (Gen 28:20-22; 31:13). The people of
them the
vowed that if God would bring him home victorious, he
would offer as a
sacrifice whatever first came out of his house
when he returned (Judg 11:30-40).
Hannah
vowed that if God would give her a son, she would dedicate him to God
(1
Sam 1: 11). In addition, the Psalms include many texts associated with making
and fulfilling vows (Pss
22:22-31; 50:14-15; 56:12-13; 61:8; 65:1; 66:13-20;
116:12-14).
Much of the information concerning vows is in
the Pentateuch. Everything
offered in fulfillment of a vow was to be of the
highest quality (Lev 22:17-25).
The
vow of valuation allowed one person to vow another person, an animal, a
building, or a portion of land, but then redeem
what had been vowed by paying
sacrifice was considered an offering to God.
8 Jastrow,
Dictionary, 1335.
9 The text of the Hebrew Bible
used for this study is the Hebrew-Aramaic text of
E.
Elliger and W. Rudolph, Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia
(
stiftung, 1977), and the Greek
text of Alfred Rahlfs, Septuaginta (
Bibelgesellschaft,
1935).
English quotations are taken from The New
Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version (ed.
B.
Metzger and R. Murphy;
10 F. W. Cartledge, "Vow," The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (rev.
G.
W. Bromiley; 4 vols.;
in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East (JSOT Supplement Series
147;
JSOT Press, 1992).
196 RESTORATION
QUARTERLY
what it was worth to the priests (Lev 27:1-33).
Whether made by a man or a
woman, vows were absolutely binding (Num 30:1-2).
However, a vow made by
an unmarried woman could be annulled the same day
by her father, and a vow
made by a married woman could be annulled the same
day by her husband (Num
30:3-16).
Vows were to be fulfilled at the place God chose: the temple in
obtained by immoral means (Deut 23:18); and even
though vows were voluntary,
they were most serious:
If
you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not postpone fulfilling it; for
the LORD your God will
surely require it of you, and you would incur
guilt. But if you refrain
from vowing, you will not incur guilt. Whatever
your lips utter you must diligently
perform, just as you have freely vowed
to the LORD your God with
your own mouth (Deut 23:21-23).
The most notable vow of abstinence is
the Nazirite vow. It required a person
to abstain from grape products, from cutting the
hair, and from contact with the
dead (Num 6:1-21; Judg
13:4-5; 1 Sam 1:11; Amos 2:11-12). Another negative
vow is the vow made by David that he would not
enter his house, go to bed, or
sleep until he had found a place for God's house (Ps
132:1-5). Also worth
considering is an oath imposed by Saul upon
laid an oath on the people, saying, "Cursed be
anyone who eats food before it is
evening" (1 Sam 14:24).
Later passages suggest that vows created
practical difficulties and conflicts
with the Law. Vows resulted in promises people
failed to fulfill (Mal 1:14). The
author of Ecclesiastes advises: "When you make a
vow to God, do not delay
fulfilling it; for he has no pleasure in fools.
Fulfill what you vow. It is better that
you should not vow than that you should vow and not
fulfill it" (Eccl 5:4-5).
Similarly,
the book of Sirach teaches: "Let nothing hinder
you from paying a
vow promptly, and do not wait until death to be
released from it. Before making
a vow, prepare yourself; do not be like one who
puts the Lord to the test" (Sir
18:22-23).
IV. Qumran
The most relevant source from
Two
incomplete medieval copies of this document were discovered in an old
11 The text used for this
study is The
Texts with English
Translations (ed.
J. Charlesworth; 10 vols.;
John
Knox, 1994-) vol. 2:
English
quotations are from The Complete Dead Sea
Scrolls in English (ed. G. Vermes;
BAILEY/VOWING AWAY THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT 197
in Caves 4, 5, and 6 at
century BCE. The most important text for this
study begins at CD 16:6 and
continues to CD 9:1.12
And concerning the saying, "You shall keep
your vow by fulfilling it (Deut
23:24)," let no man, even at the price of death,
annul any binding oath by
which he has sworn to keep a commandment of the Law. But even at
the
price of death, a man shall
fulfill no vow by which he has sworn to depart
from the Law. Inasmuch as He
said, "It is for her husband to cancel her
oath (Num 30:9)," no
husband shall cancel an oath without knowing
whether it should be kept or
not. Should it be such as to lead to transgression
of the Covenant, he shall
cancel it and shall not let it be kept.
The rule for her father is likewise. No man
shall vow to the altar anything
unlawfully acquired. Also, no
Priest shall take from
unlawfully acquired. And no man
shall consecrate the food of his house to
God, for it is as he said, "Each hunts his
brother with a net (Mic 7:2)." Let
no man consecrate.... And
if he has consecrated to God some of his own
field ... he who has made the
vow shall be punished.... Every vow by which
a man vows another to
destruction by the laws of the Gentiles shall himself
be put to death.
This
passage emphasizes the solemn nature of oaths and vows. It allows for
annulment of vows of women that violate the law.
It prohibits vows that dedicate
wrongfully acquired property. It forbids vowing or
consecrating personal
property to affect others negatively. And it
condemns the practice of vowing
another person to destruction. The entire
passage is based on Deut 23:21-23
(Matt 23:22-24) and Num 30:2-15 (Matt 30:3-16). However, the texts from
the
Hebrew
Bible have been paraphrased, and the terms for oath and vow are used
interchangeably. In addition, CD
16:6-18 uses Mr,He ("something consecrated,
dedicated, removed from profane use, vow"), hbAdAn;
("freewill-offering, dona-
tion"), wDeqi ("sanctify, consecrate, dedicate"), MUq ("swear, vow"), hfAUbw;
("oath"), and fbawA ("swear, take an oath").13
The text upholds the inviolability of the Law,
requiring individuals to pay
the price of death rather than transgress a
commandment. The text does address
the annulment of oaths and vows made by women, but
any such annulment is
limited only to oaths or vows that violate the
community's covenant. Significant
for this study are the admonitions concerning
unacceptable vows, particularly the
ruling "No man shall consecrate the food of his
house to God, for it is as he said,
12 D. Dimant,
"Qumran Sectarian Literature," Jewish
Writings of the
Period: Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha,
M. Stone; CRINT;
Vermes.
13 BDB, Lexicon, 355, 356, 21,872, 873; Jastrow, Dictionary, 503, 504, 877, 1319,
1320.
198 RESTORATION
QUARTERLY
‘Each
hunts his brother with a net’ (Mic 7:2).” The
prohibition is supported by
a quotation from Mic
7:2: Mr,He
UdUcyA Uhyfere tx, wyxi. In CD 16:15, the noun
Mr,He should be understood as "something consecrated,
dedicated; vow;" rather
than the homonym meaning "trap, net,
snare." According to Fitzmyer, the text
forbids "the dedication of any food to God
so that it might not be used to help
one's neighbor."
V. Philo
Philo of Alexandria, who lived from about 20 BCE
to 50 CE, provides still
another link in the tradition concerning vows.15
He regularly uses eu]xh< and
eu@xomai for
"vow."16 His most extensive
treatment of vows occurs in On the
Special Laws. In 1.247-54 he
discusses the `great vow' of the Nazirite. In
2.1-38
he discusses rash oaths and vows, oaths and vows of women, and vows
of valuation, all under the category eu]orki<a, "fidelity to
one's oath, the duty of
keeping oaths."17 In 2.16 he comments on people who make
oaths that negatively
affect others. Here Philo uses o!rkoj, "oath,"
rather than eu]xh<, "vow." But he
often uses the terms interchangeably, and his
statements in this text show how
negative oaths or vows affecting others could be
made by Jews in his time
contrary to the law or good moral judgment:
But there are some who, either because through
excessive moroseness their
nature has lost the sense of
compassion and fellow-feeling or because they
are constrained by anger
which rules them like a stern mistress, confirm the
savagery of their temper with an
oath. They declare that they will not admit
such and such a person to
their board or under their roof, or again, that they
will not render assistance
to so and so or accept anything from him till his
life's end. Sometimes they
carry on their vindictiveness after that end has
come and leave directions in
their wills against even granting the customary
rites to the corpse.
Although
the practice was not considered acceptable by Philo, this example
provides evidence that oaths, and probably also
vows, were used by Jews in his
14 J. Fitzmyer,
"The Use of Explicit Old Testament Quotations in
and in the New Testament," New Testament Studies 7 (1961) 323. See
also L. Schiffman,
"The
Laws of Vows and Oaths in the Zadokite Fragments and
the
de Qumran 15 (1991-1992) 199-214.
15 The Greek and English texts
used for this study are from F. H. Colson, G. H.
Whitaker,
and R. Marcus, Philo (Loeb Classical
Library, 10 vols.;
University
Press, 1929-1962).
16 Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 1.17; 2.63; On the Unchangeableness of God 87;
On Husbandry 175; On Drunkenness 2; On Mating with the Preliminary Studies 99; On
Flight and Finding 115; Life of Moses 1.252; On the Decalogue 126; et al. See also
Eusebius,
Preparation for the Gospel 8.7.
17 LSJM, Lexicon, 725.
BAILEY/VOWING
AWAY THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT 199
day to prohibit individuals from receiving any
assistance from the one who made
the oath or vow.
VI. Archaeological
Evidence
Two archaeological discoveries provide valuable
information regarding the
Jewish practice of making vows during the
the term Nbrq was used to deny others
the use of something by declaring an
object to have the status of a consecrated offering.
The first discovery is a fragment of a stone
vessel recovered from an
excavation of a first-century-BCE Herodian street near the
The
vessel, found among coins and other vessels, bears the inscription Nbrq,
most likely representing the Hebrew noun NBAr;qA. Along with this
inscription is
a carved depiction of two birdlike figures,
suggesting some connection with the
offering of two doves or pigeons (Lev 12:8). The
vessel's inscription and its
discovery along with coins indicate that its use
was similar to the practice
debated in the following passage from the Mishnah:
Any coins that are found are deemed
unconsecrated, even if it was a golden
denar found with silver
coins. If a potsherd was found with them and on it
was written ‘Tithe,’ they
must be deemed (Second) Tithe (redemption
money). If a man found a
vessel and on it was written "Korban," R. Judah
says: If it was of
earthenware the vessel is to be deemed unconsecrated but
its contents Korban; and if it
was of metal it is to be deemed Korban but its
contents unconsecrated. They
said to him: It is not the way of men to put
what is unconsecrated into
what is Korban
(m. Ma 'aser
Sheni 4:9-10).19
The second discovery is an ossuary found
southeast of Jerusalem.20 On the
ossuary lid, written in a Herodian
script from the end of the first century BCE, is
the Aramaic inscription: hvgbd
Nm Nbrq hd FtlHb hnhtm wnx
yd lk
hlx ("Everything that a man will find to his
profit in this ossuary (is) an offering
to God from the one within it)."21
According to Milik, NBar;qA is used as a male-
diction or imprecation toward others." Fitzmyer claims the term still means
"offering," but is used here as "a warning that
whatever of value is in the ossuary
18 B. Mazar,
"The Excavations South and West of the
The Herodian Period,"
Biblical Archaeologist 33 (1970) 55.
19 H. Danby, The Mishnah (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1933).
20 J. Milik,
"Trois tombeaux juifs recemment decouverts au Sud-Est de
Jerusalem,"
Studii Biblici Franciscani
Liber Annuus 7 (1956-1957) 232-39;
J. A. Fitzmyer, "The
Aramaic
Qorban Inscription from Jebel
Hallet et-Turf and Mark 7.11 /Matt 15.5," JBL
78
(1959) 60-65. See also J. A. Fitzmyer and D. J.
Harrington, A Manual of Palestinian
Aramaic Texts (Rome: Biblical
Institute, 1978) 168-69, 222-23.
21 Fitzmyer
and Harrington, A Manual of Palestinian Aramaic Texts,
168-69.
22 Milik, "Trois tombeaux juifs," 235, 238,
239.
200 RESTORATION
QUARTERLY
has been dedicated to God and is not intended for
any profane use."23
Significantly,
the term NBar;qA, did not transfer the
ossuary or its contents to the
temple. Rather, this vow formula was used simply to
declare something to be
sacred and thus prohibit others from using it or
obtaining benefit from it in any
way.
VII. The New Testament
The practice of vowing is not common in the NT.24
The verb eu@xomai is
not used meaning "vow," but only
"pray" or "wish" (Acts 26:29; 27:29; Rom 9:3;
2 Cor 13:7, 9; Jas
5:16; 3 John 2).
The noun eu]xh< is used once meaning
"prayer"
(Jas
5:15) and twice meaning "vow" (Acts 18:18; 21:23).25
References to oaths
are more common. The noun o@rkoj, "oath," occurs ten times, and the
verb
o]mnu<j, "swear, take an
oath," occurs twenty-six times.26 Most significantly, with
the exception of oaths made by God or an angel,
swearing of oaths is always
portrayed in the NT as an undesirable act. Other
significant terms include
a]na<qema ("anything
dedicated, a curse") and a]naqemati<zw ("curse,
bind with
an oath").27
The one clear NT example of a negative vow
forbidding the use of some-
thing by others is in Matt 15:3-6 and Mark 7:9-13.
Here Jesus speaks to some
Pharisees about a conflict between their oral
tradition and the Scriptures. The key
sentence occurs in Matt 15:5 and Mark 7:11-12. It
describes a practice by which
a son could make a vow prohibiting his parents
from receiving any benefit from
him, thus exempting him from honoring them with
material support. This
violated not only the commandment to honor one's
parents (Exod 20:12; Deut
5:16)
but also the commandment not to speak evil of one's parents (Exod 21:17;
Lev
20:9). According to both Matthew and Mark, Jesus accused the Pharisees
of upholding the validity of such a vow that would
prevent a person from doing
anything for his parents.
23
Fitzmyer and Harrington, A Manual of Palestinian Aramaic Texts, 222.
24 The Greek text used for this
study is The Greek New Testament (4th
ed., B. Aland,
K.
Aland, J. Karavidopolous,
C. Martini, and B. Metzger;
geselschaft, 1993). English
quotations are from The New
Apocryphal Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version, ed. B. Metzger and
R.
Murphy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
25 BAGD, Lexicon, 329.
26 BAGD, Lexicon, 565, 566, 581. See also: e]norki<zw, "cause someone to
swear";
e]corki<zw
"charge under oath"; and o]rki<cw, "cause someone to
swear"; o]rkwmosi<a,
"oath, taking an oath."
27 LSJM, Lexicon, 104-5; BAGD, Lexicon, 54. See Acts 23:12; Rom
9:3.
BAILEY/VOWING
AWAY THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT 201
Matt
15:3-6 Mark
7:9-13
3)
He answered them, "And why 9) Then he said to them, "You
have a
do you break the commandment fine
way of rejecting the
of God for the sake of your commandment
of God in order to
tradition? keep your tradition!
4)
For God said, ‘Honor your 10) For Moses said, ‘Honor your
father
and your mother,’ and father and your mother,’ and
‘Whoever
speaks evil of father or ‘Whoever
speaks evil of father or
mother must surely die.’ mother must surely die.’
5)
But you say that whoever tells 11) But you say that if anyone tells
father or mother, ‘Whatever father or mother, ‘Whatever
support
support you might have had from you might have had from me is
me
is given to God,’ Corban’
(that is, an offering to
then that person need not honor God)--
the father. 12)
then you no longer permit doing
6)
So, for the sake of your anything for a father or
mother,
tradition, you make void the word 13) thus making void the word of God
of God." through your tradition that you have
handed on. And you do many
things
like this."
According to Mark 7:11, the vow was introduced
by the formula "Whatever
support you might have had from me is Corban." The term korba?n is simply a
transliteration of the Hebrew NBar;qA or the Aramaic NBar;qA. Mark explains this term
with the clause o! e]stin dw?ron, "that is, an
offering to God."28 Matthew simply
has the translation dw?ron. Thus NBar;qA or NBar;qA was understood in the
first
century CE to mean "gift, offering"
while also functioning as a technical term in
a vow formula that prohibited others from
deriving benefit from that which was
dedicated.
Scholars are divided over whether a vow formula
like the one preserved in
Mark
7:11 actually dedicated the designated object to the temple or simply
declared the object to have the status of
consecrated property as far as certain
individuals were concerned.29