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Did Jews Rinse their Hands ‘with a Fist’ (Mark 7.3)?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 February 2019
Abstract
According to UBS5 and NA28, Mark 7.3 says that Pharisees and other Jews do not eat unless they rinse their hands ‘with a fist’ (πυγμῇ). This notorious crux interpretum has resisted all efforts to give it a plausible meaning. The present article reviews these efforts and suggests that it is time to abandon this reading in favour of the variant reading πυκνά in the sense ‘repeatedly’. This translation best fits the practice described in the Mishnah and other rabbinic literature, in which devout Jews rinsed their hands twice before the meal, twice after, and often twice or more during.
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1 πυγμη A B G L N Θ Σ Φ 0131 0274 0292 f 1,13 33 565 700 892 1071 1241 1243 1342 1424 1506 2542 Byz Lect (pugillo itc ff2 i q r1) syrhmg arm geo slav Origen Epiphanius // πυγμην 59 179 273 544 792 1555 l387 l773 // πυκμη D // πυκνα א W (subinde itb) (crebro itf g2 l r2 vg) (= ‘many times, repeatedly’ bo) // crebro pugillo itaur // momento ita // primo itd // = ‘carefully’ syrp h eth // omit Δ 427 732 2106 syrs sa.
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