Mark 7

CHAPTER 7

God’s Commandments, Man’s Traditions

^1aAnd the Pharisees and some of the scribes ^*gathered around Him when they had come ^bfrom Jerusalem,

²and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with ^adefiled hands, that is, unwashed.

³(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they ¹carefully wash their hands, thus observing the ^atradition of the elders;

⁴and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they ¹wash themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of ^acups and pitchers and copper pots.)

⁵And the Pharisees and the scribes ^*asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the ^atradition of the elders, but eat their bread with ^bdefiled hands?”

⁶And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:

‘^aThis people honors Me with their lips,

But their heart is far away from Me.

⁷‘^aBut in vain do they worship Me,

Teaching as doctrines the commands of men.’

⁸“Leaving the commandment of God, you hold to the ^atradition of men.”

⁹And He was also saying to them, “You are good at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your ^atradition.

¹⁰“For Moses said, ‘^aHonor your father and your mother’; and, ‘^bHe who speaks evil of father or mother, is to ¹be put to death’;

¹¹but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever you might benefit from me is ^aCorban (that is to say, ¹given to God),’

¹²you no longer leave him to do anything for his father or his mother;

¹³thus invalidating the word of God by your ^atradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”

The Heart of Man

¹⁴And after He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand:

¹⁵there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.

¹⁶¹[“And if anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”]

¹⁷And when He had left the crowd and entered ^athe house, ^bHis disciples were asking Him about the parable.

¹⁸And He ^*said to them, “Are you lacking understanding in this way as well? Do you not ^aperceive that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him,

¹⁹because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and goes to the sewer?” (Thus He declared ^aall foods ^bclean.)

²⁰And He was saying, “^aThat which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.

²¹“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries,

²²coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, ^1aenvy, slander, ²pride, and foolishness.

²³“All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

A Gentile Woman’s Faith

^24aNow Jesus stood up and went away from there to the region of ^bTyre¹. And when He had entered a house, He was wanting no one to know of it; ²yet He could not escape notice.

²⁵But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet.

²⁶Now the woman was a ¹Greek, of Syrophoenician descent. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷And He was saying to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not ¹good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁸But she answered and ^*said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹And He said to her, “Because of this ¹answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”

³⁰And going back to her home, she found the child ¹lying on the bed, the demon having left.

The Deaf Hear, the Mute Speak

^31aAnd again He went out from the region of ^bTyre, and came through Sidon to ^cthe Sea of Galilee, within the region of the ^dDecapolis.

³²And they ^*brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they ^*pleaded with Him to ^alay His hand on him.

^33aAnd Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after ^bspitting, He touched his tongue;

³⁴and looking up to heaven with a ^asigh, He ^*said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!”

³⁵And his ears were opened, and the ¹impediment of his tongue ²was removed, and he began speaking plainly.

³⁶And ^aHe gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He was ordering them, the more widely they ^bcontinued to proclaim it.

³⁷And they were utterly astonished, saying, “He has done all things well; He makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”