Technically, there is no difference because Mark 7:11 directly alludes to a voluntary gift devoted to God as referenced in the Torah in places like Lev 2:1, 5, 7:3, 5, Num 28:2, etc - the Hebrew is קָרְבָּן (qorban) = "offering". The Helps study summarizes the meaning well:
2878 korbán (see OT 7133/quārbān) – Corban; properly, a gift
(offering) dedicated to God, and misused by the Jews as a way to evade
their rightful duty to God to care for aged parents (etc.).
The original intent of such gifts was as a thank offering or similar - given out of one's own possessions in gratitude to God for something.
In Jesus' time, this Levitical law was used of one's possessions so as to evade responsibility, but the owner kept possession of the items, thus completely avoiding the gift to God!! That is, if something were dedicated to God, then it could no longer be used by the owner but should have been given to God in some sense; this might include:
- a sacrifice by fire
- a gift to the priesthood
- a gift to the poor
- etc
However, the greedy Jews were "dedicating" their possessions to God and retaining their use so as to avoid supporting aged parents or family. The NLT translation shows this well:
But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents,
‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would
have given to you.’
The Pulpit commentary observes:
Now, this the scribes and Pharisees did for their own covetous ends.
For most of them were priests, who received offerings made to God as
his ministers, and then converted them to their own uses. In this they
greatly erred; because the obligation of piety by which children are
bound to support their parents when they need it, is a part of the law
of nature, to which every vow, every oblation, ought to yield. Thus,
if any one had devoted his goods to God, and his father or his mother
became needy, those goods ought to be given to his parents and not to
the temple. The word "corban" is a Hebrew word, meaning "that which is
brought near," "a gift or offering to God." Hence, figuratively, the
place where these offerings were deposited was called the "corbanas,"
or, "sacred treasury" (see Matthew 27:6, κορβανᾶν). Hence to say of
anything, "It is Corban," was to say that it had a prior and more
sacred destination. And when it was something that a parent might
need, to say, "It is Corban," i.e. it is already appropriated to
another purpose, was simply to refuse his request and to deny him
assistance, and so to break one of the first of the Divine
commandments. Thus the son, by crying "Corban" to his needy parents,
shut their mouths, by opposing to them a scruple of conscience, and
suggesting to them a superstitious fear. It was as much as to say,
"That which you ask of me is a sacred thing which I have devoted to
God. Beware, therefore, lest you, by asking this of me, commit
sacrilege by converting it to your own uses." Thus the parents would
be silenced and alarmed, choosing rather to perish of hunger than to
rob God. To such extremities did these covetous scribes and Pharisees
drive their victims, compelling a son to abstain from any kind offices
for his father or his mother.
