What Jesus says about Corban
The dispute begins when Pharisees and scribes ask why Jesus’s disciples eat without following the elders’ ritual washing practice. Jesus quotes Isaiah about honoring God with the lips while the heart is far away. He then gives a concrete example. Moses commands people to honor their parents. Under the practice Jesus describes, someone could designate resources as Corban, a gift, and use that dedication to avoid helping their parents. Jesus says their tradition makes God’s word ineffective. The problem is the duty it displaces. Mark 7:1–13 · Exodus 20:12 · Matthew 15:3–6
Why Paul tells believers to keep traditions
Paul warns against teaching that follows human tradition instead of Christ in Colossians 2:8. In 2 Thessalonians 2:15, he also tells believers to hold to what the apostles taught them by word or by letter. Both texts turn on what was handed down and where its authority came from. The Thessalonians were accountable for teaching they received orally while the apostles were alive. The passage leaves open which teachings would remain binding after them and how later Christians would recognize those teachings. Colossians 2:8 · 2 Thessalonians 2:15
Read the comparison of spoken and written teaching in 2 Thessalonians 2:15.
Does Mark 7 establish Scripture alone?
Ligonier Ministries uses this passage to defend Scripture as the Church’s final authority. Jesus tests a religious rule against a written command and sets the rule aside. That is real evidence for Scripture’s authority over human tradition. A Reformed Christian can grant that living apostles taught with authority while maintaining that Scripture now preserves the Church’s only infallible rule. Westminster states that fuller position. Mark 7 supplies the principle that God’s command outranks a human rule. The argument that the apostolic writings became the sole final authority after the apostles requires a further case. Ligonier, “Scripture Alone” · Westminster Confession 1.6 and 1.10 · The Scripture-alone case
Apply the test to an LDS teaching
Suppose someone says a Church assignment excuses neglecting a parent who depends on them. Jesus’s example gives a Latter-day Saint reason to question that counsel. We would ask what was actually taught, what duty it conflicts with, and whether the counsel reflects a Church teaching, a local decision, or the speaker’s judgment. A person’s title does not answer those questions. Doctrine and Covenants 121 requires persuasion and sincere love in the exercise of priesthood influence. Mark 7:9–13 · Doctrine and Covenants 121:41–42 · Prophetic counsel and personal judgment
Latter-day Saints believe Christ restored authority to teach and receive revelation. Doctrine and Covenants 68 ties its statement about inspired speech to being moved upon by the Holy Ghost. If a Protestant objects that the authority itself was never restored, that is the claim to examine. If the objection is that a specific teaching contradicts God’s word, compare the texts and the alleged conflict. Doctrine and Covenants 68:1–4 · Priesthood restoration accounts
The Upward Thought Foundation applies the Corban analogy to Latter-day Saints and argues that the leaders’ positions have relied on inherited tradition instead of revelation since Joseph Smith. The historical record includes specific claims of later revelation. Doctrine and Covenants 136 presents instructions given through Brigham Young as the Lord’s word and will. In 1978, the First Presidency explicitly said God revealed that priesthood and temple blessings could be extended without regard to race. That establishes what these leaders claimed and gives readers specific cases to assess. Whether God actually gave those revelations is the question the analogy leaves open. Upward Thought, “The Leaven of the Pharisees” · Doctrine and Covenants 136 · Official Declaration 2 · The 1978 revelation in context
A reply you could give
I agree with Jesus about Corban. A religious rule can’t excuse ignoring a commandment. Paul also asks people to keep apostolic teaching they heard in person. Which Latter-day Saint teaching are you comparing to Corban, and which commandment do you think it overrides?