But you say, “If a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban’” . . . you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother. Mark 7:11
The Pharisees and scribes promulgated in opposition to the Law a tradition that is found rather obscurely in the Gospel. I myself would have never thought of this tradition if a Hebrew man had not given to me the following facts relating to the passage. He says that sometimes when money lenders argued with stubborn debtors who were able, but not willing, to pay their debts, the lenders dedicated what was owed them to the account of the poor. . . . Therefore, they sometimes said to their debtors in their own language, “that which you owe to me is Corban”—that is, a gift—“for I have consecrated it to the poor, to the account of piety towards God.” Then, the debtor was trapped, for he was no longer in debt to men, but to God. . . .
What, then, the money lender did to the debtor, some sons did the same to their parents. They said to them, “Whatever profit you might have received from me, father or mother, know that you will receive this from Corban,” that is, from the account of the poor who are consecrated to God. Upon hearing that the thing that should have been given to them was Corban (consecrated to God), the parents, then, no longer wished to take it from their sons, even though they were in extreme need of the necessities of life. . . . The Savior condemns this tradition. . . . And the Pharisees, as lovers of money, promoted the tradition in order that under the pretext of being “the poor” they might receive that which should have been given to the parents. Origen (c. 245, E), 9.438; extended discussion: 9.437–9.439