Mark 7:5–15

⁵And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to ^sthe tradition of ^tthe elders, ^wbut eat with ^rdefiled hands?” ⁶And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you ^xhypocrites, as it is written,

^y“ ‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me;

⁷in vain do they worship me,

teaching as ^zdoctrines the commandments of men.’

⁸You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

⁹And he said to them, “You have a fine way of ^arejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! ¹⁰For Moses said, ^b‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ^c‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ ¹¹But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” ’ (that is, given to God)⁴— ¹²then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, ¹³thus ^dmaking void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

What Defiles a Person

¹⁴And he called the people to him again and said to them, ^e“Hear me, all of you, and understand: ^15fThere is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”⁵