15Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem. They asked him, ²“Why don’t your followers obey the unwritten laws which have been handed down to us? They don’t wash their hands before they eat.”

³Jesus answered, “And why do you refuse to obey God’s command so that you can follow your own teachings? ⁴God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ ⁿ and ‘Anyone who says cruel things to his father or mother must be put to death.’ ⁿ ⁵But you say a person can tell his father or mother, ‘I have something I could use to help you, but I have given it to God already.’ ⁶You teach that person not to honor his father or his mother. You rejected what God said for the sake of your own rules. ⁷You are hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he said about you:

⁸‘These people show honor to me with words,

but their hearts are far from me.

⁹Their worship of me is worthless.

The things they teach are nothing but human rules.’ ”

¹⁰After Jesus called the crowd to him, he said, “Listen and understand what I am saying. ¹¹It is not what people put into their mouths that makes them unclean. It is what comes out of their mouths that makes them unclean.”

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Footnotes

n‘Honor … mother.’ Quotation from Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16.
n‘Anyone … death.’ Quotation from Exodus 21:17.