Corban refers to an offering dedicated to God, which the Pharisees used to avoid supporting their parents, and also to the temple treasury.
Also known as treasury
Corban is a term that appears in the New Testament with two related meanings. In Mrk.7.11, Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for using the concept of Corban to avoid their responsibility to support their parents. The Pharisees would declare their property or assets as "Corban," meaning it was dedicated to God, and thus exempt from being used to help their parents, even though they could still benefit from it themselves. Jesus condemns this practice as a way of nullifying God's commandment to honor one's father and mother.
The term Corban is derived from the Hebrew word "qorban," which means "offering" or "sacrifice." In the Old Testament, it refers to various offerings and sacrifices brought to the temple as an act of worship and devotion to God.
In Matthew 27:6, the term Corban appears again, this time referring to the temple treasury. After Judas returned the thirty pieces of silver he had received for betraying Jesus, the chief priests decided that it was not lawful to put the money into the treasury (Corban) because it was the price of blood. This indicates that the temple treasury was considered sacred, and there were regulations concerning the source and use of funds placed in it.
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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. (Leviticus 27:1; Numbers 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, (Matthew 15:5; Mark 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.
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.
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
2 verses in 2 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s G2878
The chief priests picked up the pieces of silver and said, “It is unlawful to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.”
But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever you would have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God),
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.