Mark 7

Jesus Teaches about Food Traditions (7:1–23)

1 And the Pharisees and some of the scriptorians, having come from Jerusalem, gather to him. 2 And having seen some of his disciples who with impure hands (that is, unwashed [hands]) are eating the loaves— 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, if they do not ritually wash the hands, they do not eat, keeping to the tradition of the ancestors. 4 And coming from the market, if they do not ritually immerse, they do not eat. And there are many other things that they received to keep, the ritual immersion of cups and pots and kettles.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scriptorians asked him, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the ancestors, but with impure hands they eat the loaf?” 6 But he said to them, “Isaiah correctly prophesied about you pretenders. It stands written,

       ‘This people honors me with their lips,
       but their heart is very far away from me.
       7 They worship me uselessly,
       teaching human rules as doctrines.’

8 “Abandoning the commandment of God, you keep the human tradition.”

9 And he was saying to them, “‘Correctly’ you set aside the commandment of God so that you can observe your tradition. 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘The one who speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a person says to the father or the mother, “It is korban (that is, a gift [for God]), whatever you might otherwise have gotten from me,”’ 12 so you don’t permit him or her to do anything for the father or the mother, 13 canceling the word of God for your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many similar things.”

14 And having called the crowd to him again, he was saying to them, “All of you hear me and understand. 15 There is nothing outside of a person that has the power to defile him or her by entering in. But the things coming out of the person are the things defiling the person.” [16]

17 And when he went into a house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he says to them, “So you also lack understanding? You don’t realize that everything from the outside entering into a person cannot defile him or her 19 because it does not enter into his or her heart but into the stomach and goes out into the latrine?” (He was declaring clean all food.) 20 And he was saying, “What comes out of a person—that defiles the person. 21 For from within, out of the human heart, evil ideas go out: sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 covetings, wickedness, deceit, indecency, envy/malice, slander, pride, and foolishness. 23 All of these evils from within go out and defile the person.”

Jesus and the Greek Woman (7:24–30)

24 From there, having risen up, he went away into the region of Tyre. And having entered into a house, he wanted no one to know, but he was not able to be hidden. 25 But immediately, a woman, having heard about him and having a little daughter with an unclean spirit, having come, fell at his feet. 26 But the woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by origin, and she was asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he was saying to her, “First let the children be filled. For it is not right to take the children’s loaf and throw it to the dogs.” 28 And she answered and says to him, “Sir/Lord, but the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29 And he said to her, “For this answer, go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” 30 And having gone away to her home, she found the child lying on the bed and the demon having gone out.

Jesus Heals a Disabled Man (7:31–37)

31 And again having departed from the region of Tyre, he came through Sidon, to the sea of Galilee through the middle of the region of the Decapolis. 32 And they bring him a man who was deaf and who couldn’t speak well, and they begged him that he would place a hand on him. 33 And having taken him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into the man’s ears. And having spit, he touched his tongue. 34 And having looked up to heaven, he groaned and says to him, “Ephphatha” (that is, be opened). 35 And his ears were opened, the bond of his tongue was loosened, and he spoke clearly. 36 And he instructed them that they should tell no one. But as much as he instructed them, they proclaimed it even more zealously. 37 And they were completely astonished, saying, “He has done all things well—he makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”