Mark 7:1-23
Read Mark 7 in full →God’s Commandments, Man’s Traditions
7aAnd the Pharisees and some of the scribes *gathered around Him when they had come bfrom Jerusalem, 2and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with adefiled hands, that is, unwashed. 3(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they 1carefully wash their hands, thus observing the atradition of the elders; 4and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they 1wash themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of acups and pitchers and copper pots2.) 5And the Pharisees and the scribes *asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the atradition of the elders, but eat their bread with bdefiled hands?” 6And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘aThis people honors Me with their lips,But their heart is far away from Me.
7‘aBut in vain do they worship Me,Teaching as doctrines the commands of men.’8“Leaving the commandment of God, you hold to the atradition of men.”
9And He was also saying to them, “You are good at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your atradition. 10“For Moses said, ‘aHonor your father and your mother’; and, ‘bHe who speaks evil of father or mother, is to 1be put to death’; 11but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever you might benefit from me is aCorban (that is to say, 1given to God),’ 12you no longer leave him to do anything for his father or his mother; 13thus invalidating the word of God by your atradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”
The Heart of Man
14And after He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: 15there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man. 161[“And if anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”]
17And when He had left the crowd and entered athe house, bHis disciples were asking Him about the parable. 18And He *said to them, “Are you lacking understanding in this way as well? Do you not 1perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, 19because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and goes to the sewer?” (Thus He declared aall foods bclean.) 20And He was saying, “aThat which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. 21“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, 1,aenvy, slander, 2pride, and foolishness. 23“All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”