Mark 7

Common^{(i) 1} Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered together to him, ² they saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. ³ (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders. ⁴ When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash themselves. And there are many other traditions which they observe, the washing of cups and pitchers and copper vessels.) ⁵ The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with impure hands?" ⁶ And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites; as it is written: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. ⁷ In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.' ⁸ You let go of the commandment of God, and hold on to the tradition of men." ⁹ And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition! 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 that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to God), ¹² then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother, ¹³ thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do." ¹⁴ And he called all the people to him again, and said to them, "Hear me, everyone, and understand: ¹⁵ there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him." ¹⁶ (...) ¹⁷ When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. ¹⁸ So he said to them, "Are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, ¹⁹ since it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.) ²⁰ And he said, "What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. ²¹ For from within, out of the heart of men, come evil thoughts, fornications, theft, murder, adultery, ²² coveting, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. ²³ All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man." ²⁴ From there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house, and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not be hidden. ²⁵ But a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard about him, and she came and fell at his feet. ²⁶ Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ And he said to her, "Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." ²⁸ But she answered him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." ²⁹ Then he said to her, "For this saying you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter." ³⁰ She went home, and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. ³¹ Then he departed from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis. ³² Then they brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged him to put his hand on him. ³³ And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. ³⁴ And looking up to heaven he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." ³⁵ And [immediately] his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. ³⁶ And he commanded them to tell no one; but the more he charged them, the more widely they proclaimed it. ³⁷ And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."