Breaking Human Traditions

7:1 Now1 the Pharisees2 and some of the experts in the law3 who came from Jerusalem4 gathered around him. 7:2 And they saw that some of Jesus’ disciples ate their bread with unclean hands, that is, unwashed. 7:3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they perform a ritual washing,5 holding fast to the tradition of the elders. 7:4 And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. They hold fast to many other traditions: the washing of cups, pots, kettles, and dining couches.6)7 7:5 The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat8 with unwashed hands?” 7:6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written:

‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart9 is far from me.

7:7 They worship me in vain,

teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.’10

7:8 Having no regard11 for the command of God, you hold fast to human tradition.”12 7:9 He also said to them, “You neatly reject the commandment of God in order to set up13 your tradition. 7:10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’14 and, ‘Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.’15 7:11 But you say that if anyone tells his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you would have received from me is corban’16 (that is, a gift for God), 7:12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother. 7:13 Thus you nullify17 the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like this.”

7:14 Then18 he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand. 7:15 There is nothing outside of a person that can defile him by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles him.”19

7:17 Now20 when Jesus21 had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 7:18 He said to them, “Are you so foolish? Don’t you understand that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him? 7:19 For it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and then goes out into the sewer.”22 (This means all foods are clean.)23 7:20 He said, “What comes out of a person defiles him. 7:21 For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 7:22 adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly. 7:23 All these evils come from within and defile a person.”