There is nothing from without a
man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of
him, those are they that defile the man. . . . Because it entereth not into his
heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?
(Mark 7:15, 19)
. . . Mk 7.15, 19 attacks handwashing
before eating with no reference to criticism of biblical food laws and this
implies a date earlier than Galatians and Romans for Mark. Moreover, even if he
did not actually quote Mark, it seems as if Paul knew an earlier tradition
concerning the food laws, οιδα και πεπεισμαι εν κυριοω ‘Ιησου οτι ουδεν κοινον δι’ εαυτου (Rom. 14.14; Mk 7.19, καθαριζω παντα τα βρωματα). Also the Isa. 29.13 quote is
not employed in the same way by each author, as scholars such as Bacon would
have us believe. In Mark the Isaiah passage is explicitly used to attack
Pharisaic and scribal ‘tradition’ in contrast to the word of God in Scripture. In
Colossians there is a different scenario, presumably concerning gentile
Christians and the question of whether certain laws should be observed at all,
and there is no mention of scribes and Pharisees in Col. 2.22. (James G.
Crossley, The Date of Mark’s Gospel: Insight from the Law in Earliest
Christianity [Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series
266; London: T&T Clark International, 2004], 50)
