The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and with their lips to honor me, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;
And the Lord has said, This people draw nigh to me with their mouth, and they honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me: but in vain do they worship me, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men.
Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Quotation3
A formal citation — high verbal volume, often introduced by a saying-formula.
'According to the precepts and doctrines of men' renders Isaiah's 'their fear of me is a commandment of men taught by rote' (LXX: teaching the precepts/doctrines of men), the same phrase Jesus cites; the regulations 'don't handle, taste, touch' are these merely human precepts. High verbal volume and recurrence (cf. v.8) make this a near-quotation.
High confidenceFormal citation introduced 'as it is written': 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' Mark follows the LXX, whose 'teaching as doctrines the commandments of men' supplies the polemical hinge against human tradition that the Hebrew lacks. Maximal volume, recurrence, and thematic coherence; this is the load-bearing OT text of the pericope.
High confidenceFormula-cited ('Well did Isaiah prophesy of you'). Mt 15:8-9 reproduces Isaiah's indictment of lip-service worship ('this people draw near with their mouth... but their heart is far from me... in vain do they worship, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men'). Verbatim LXX-leaning quotation; the climactic charge of the pericope.
High confidenceAllusion3
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
'After the tradition of men' (and the precepts of men in v.22) echoes Isaiah's indictment that the people's fear of God is a commandment of men taught by rote, the locus classicus for human tradition supplanting God's word. Recurrence within the chapter (v.22) and coherence with the polemic against the 'philosophy' strengthen the allusion.
High confidence'Holding a form of godliness, but having denied its power' echoes the prophetic indictment of those who honor God with their lips while their heart is far from him, whose worship is merely a commandment of men. The hollow, powerless piety is the prophets' charge against false religion.
Medium confidenceIsaiah's people who 'draw near with their mouth… but have removed their heart far from me,' teaching 'the commandment of men,' stands behind both 'commandments of men who turn away from the truth' (1:14) and 'they profess that they know God, but by their works they deny him' (1:16). Lip-profession contradicted by life is the shared indictment.
Medium confidence