Mark 7

Traditions and the Heart

1 The Pharisees and some scribes who came down from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus.

2 They saw some of His disciples eating with hands that were unclean, that is, not washed the way their tradition said.

3 The Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands a certain way, holding to the tradition passed down.

4 When they come back from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash, and there are many other rules they hold to, washing cups, pitchers, and vessels.

5 So the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, “Why do not Your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with unclean hands?”

6 Jesus said, “Isaiah spoke truth about you hypocrites, just like it is written: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.

7 Their worship is empty, because they teach human rules like they are commands from God.’

8 You let go of God’s command and hold tight to your own traditions.”

9 Then He said, “You are real slick at setting aside God’s command just to keep your own tradition.

10 Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Whoever curses father or mother must be put to death.’

11 But you say, if someone tells their parents, ‘Whatever I was supposed to help you with is Corban, that is, given to God,’

12 then you do not let them do anything for their parents anymore.

13 So you cancel out the word of God with your tradition that you keep passing down. And you do a lot of things like this.”

What Defiles a Person

14 Then He called the crowd back and said, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand this.

15 There is nothing outside a person that goes into them that can make them unclean. It is what comes out of a person that makes them unclean.”

16 If anybody has ears to hear, they need to listen.

17 When He went into the house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him about the teaching.

18 He said, “You do not get it either, Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from the outside cannot make them unclean,

19 because it does not go into the heart, it goes into the stomach and then out,” In saying this, He made all foods clean.

20 Then He said, “What comes out of a person, that is what makes them unclean.

21 From inside, out of the heart, come evil thoughts, sexual sin, stealing, murder,

22 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, wild living, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.

23 All these evil things come from within, and they are what make a person unclean.”

The Faith of a Gentile Woman

24 Jesus left there and went into the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know He was there, but He could not stay hidden.

25 A woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him and came and fell at His feet.

26 The woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. She kept begging Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

27 Jesus said to her, “Let the children be fed first. It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

28 She answered Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

29 Then He said to her, “Because of what you said, you can go, the demon has left your daughter.”

30 She went home and found her child lying in bed, and the demon was gone.

Jesus Heals a Deaf Man

31 Then He left the region of Tyre, went through Sidon, and came to the Sea of Galilee, into the region of the Decapolis.

32 They brought to Him a man who was deaf and had trouble speaking, and they begged Jesus to lay His hand on him.

33 Jesus took him aside from the crowd, put His fingers into the man’s ears, spit, and touched his tongue.

34 Then looking up to heaven, He sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha”, that means, “Be opened.”

35 Immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak clearly.

36 Jesus told them not to tell anyone, but the more He told them, the more they spread it.

37 People were completely amazed, saying, “He does everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”