corban Summary and Overview

a Hebrew word adopted into the Greek of the New Testament and left untranslated. It occurs only once (Mark 7:11). It means a gift or offering consecrated to God. Anything over which this word was once pronounced was irrevocably dedicated to the temple. Land, however, so dedicated might be redeemed before the year of jubilee (Lev. 27:16-24). Our Lord condemns the Pharisees for their false doctrine, inasmuch as by their traditions they had destroyed the commandment which requires children to honour their father and mother, teaching them to find excuse from helping their parents by the device of pronouncing "Corban" over their goods, thus reserving them to their own selfish use.

an offering to God of any sort, bloody or bloodless, but particularly in fulfillment of a vow. The law laid down rules for vows, (1) affirmative; (2) negative. #Le 27:1 ... Nu 30:1| ... Upon these rules the traditionists enlarged, and laid down that a man might interdict himself by vow, not only from using for himself, bur from giving to another or receiving from him, some particular object, whether of food or any other kind whatsoever. The thing thus interdicted was considered as corban. A person might thus exempt himself from any inconvenient obligation under plea of corban. It was practices of this sort that our Lord reprehended, #Mt 15:5; Mr 7:11| as annulling the spirit of the law.

COR'BAN (offering) signifies a gift or thing consecrated to God or his service, particularly in fulfilment of a vow. Mark 7:11. The Jews permitted such an abuse to be made of this consecration that a child was suffered to deny the request of his parents, or withhold assistance from them in their distress, merely on the pretence that what they asked or needed was consecrated to God.

An offering to God in fulfillment of a vow; from which the temple treasury into which such gifts were east is called in Greek, korbanas (Matthew 27:6). Also whatever men by vow interdicted themselves from, as wine, etc., was called qorban (Leviticus 27; Numbers 30; Judges 13:7; Jeremiah 35). Undutiful children, under the plea of having consecrated as corban to the Lord whatever help they might otherwise have given to their parents, evaded their filial obligation; this Christ denounced as a "making the commandment of God of none effect by man's traditions" (Matthew 15:5; Mark 7:11-12). The rabbis allowed a youth even to pronounce corban upon his property, and retain it for himself, though withholding it from his own parents. This extreme case however was not immediately referred to by our Lord.