Mark 7 - Now the Pharisees and some of the lawyers of Torah who came from Jerusalem gathered around Him 2 because they saw that certain of His disciples ate their bread with defiled hands, that is, ritually unwashed. 3 For the Pharisees and all of the Jews do not eat unless they perform a ritual washing with at least a fistful of water, holding fast to the tradition of the elders. 4 So when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they baptize; they hold many such traditions, like the baptism of cups, pots, kettles, and dining couches. 5 The Pharisees and the lawyers of Torah asked him, “Why do your disciples not practice the tradition of the elders, but rather eat with defiled hands?” 6 And He said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 7 But in futility do they worship me, teaching as their doctrines the commandments of men’ (Is. 29:13). 8 Releasing God’s binding commandment, you are bound to the tradition of men.” 9 He also said to them, “It is well with you to reject the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition as binding. 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, Whatever help you would have received from me is Korban’ (that is, a gift set apart to God only), 12 then you do not release him from that vow even for the care of his father or mother. 13 You annul the Law of God by the ruling of your tradition which you have delivered as binding, as well as by many other things like this.” 14 Then He called again the crowd and said to them, “Everyone listen to me and understand. 15 Nothing outside a man can defile him by going into him. it is what comes out of a man that defiles him. [16 If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.]” 17 And when Jesus had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding? Do you not understand that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him? 19 For it does not go into his heart but into his stomach, and becomes excrement going into the latrine”—in this teaching, He declared all foods clean. 20 Then He was saying, “That which comes out of the man is what defiles the man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, come the evil intentions: immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 jealousies, wickednesses, deceit, debauchery, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, foolishness. 23 All these evils come from within and they actually defile the man.” 24 Then He left and went to the region of Tyre; and He went into a house though He did not want anyone to know He was there. But He could not be hidden. 25 So immediately after hearing that He was there, a woman came to Him. She fell at his feet because her daughter had an unclean spirit. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile of the Syrophoenician race. She kept begging Him to cast out the demon from her daughter. 27 So He said to her, “Let the children be filled first for it is not good to throw the bread of the children to dogs, is it?” 28 But she answered Him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table feed on the crumbs of the children.” 29 Then He said to her, “Because of this word, you may go home, the demon has gone out of your daughter.” 30 Then at home she found the child lying on the bed and the demon had gone from her. 31 Later having gone out of the region of Tyre again, He went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of Decapolis. 32 And they brought to Him a deaf man with unintelligible speech and they implored Him to lay His hand on the man 33 and He took him away from the crowd in private and put His fingers into the man’s ears, and He spat, and touched the man’s tongue with with His saliva. 34 Then looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 And immediately his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, then the man spoke intelligibly. 36 And Jesus ordered those who saw this that they should tell no man. But the more He ordered them, the more they proclaimed news of Him even more. 37 They were continually amazed and kept saying, “He has done all things well! He even makes the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak!” (G. Strawbridge trans.)
Defilement of Hands (1-5)
Defilement of Heart (6-23)
Defilements Illustrated (24-37)