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Bible Encyclopedias
Corban
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or Cor´ban, a Hebrew word employed in the Hellenistic Greek, to designate an oblation of any kind to God. It occurs only once in the New Testament (). There is some difficulty in the exact meaning of this passage and the corresponding one, . Many interpreters, at the head of whom stands Beza, suppose that a gift of the property of the son had actually been made to the service of God. The sense is then, 'Whatever of mine might benefit thee is corban, is already dedicated to God, and I have therefore no power over it.' Others, more correctly as we think, translate the sentence, 'Be it corban (that is, devoted) whatever of mine shall profit thee.' Lightfoot notices a formula of frequent occurrence in the Talmud which seems to be exactly that quoted by our Lord, '[Be it] corban, [as to] which I may be profitable to thee.' He, as well as Grotius, shows that this and similar formula were not used to signify that the thing was actually devoted, but was simply intended to prohibit the use of it from the party to whom it was thus made corban, as though it were said, If I give you anything or do anything for you, may it be as though I gave you that which is devoted to God, and may I be accounted perjured and sacrilegious. This view of the passage certainly gives much greater force to the charge made by our Lord that the command 'Whoso curseth father or mother let him die the death' was nullified by the tradition. It would, indeed, seem surprising that such a vow as this (closely analogous to the modern profanity of imprecating curses on one's self if certain conditions be not fulfilled) should be considered to involve a religious obligation from which the party could not be freed even if afterwards he repented of his rashness and sin. It appears, however, from Rabbinical authority that anything thus devoted was irreclaimable, and that even the hasty utterance of a word implying a vow was equivalent to a vow formally made. This, indeed, seems to be the force of the expression used in Mark, 'ye suffer him no more to do aught for his father or his mother.' A more striking instance of the subversion of a command of God by the tradition of men can hardly be conceived.
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Corban'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/c/corban.html.
