WPNT(i)
1 Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him, having come from Jerusalem.
2 And upon seeing some of His disciples eating bread with ‘unclean’—that is, ceremonially unwashed—hands, they found fault.
3 (Because the Pharisees, indeed all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding to the tradition of the elders.
4 When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things they have received and hold—washings of cups, pitchers, copper vessels and couches.)
5 Then the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why don’t your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unwashed hands?”
6 So in answer He said to them: “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it stands written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7 But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
8 Because having left the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men—washings of pitchers and cups, and many other similar things that you do.”
9 Indeed He said to them: “You are very good at nullifying the commandment of God, so that you may keep your tradition.
10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death’.
11 But you say that if a man should say to father or mother, ‘Whatever profit you might have received from me is Korban’ (that is, a gift to God),
12 you don’t even allow him to do anything for his father or his mother any more,
13 making the Word of God of no effect by your tradition that you have handed down. Yes, you do many such things.”
14 Upon summoning the larger crowd He said to them: “Hear me, everyone, and understand:
15 There is nothing outside a man that can defile him by going into him; rather, the things that come out of him, those are the ones that defile him.
16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”
17 When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples started to question Him about the parable.
18 So He said to them: “Can you really be without understanding? Don’t you perceive that nothing that enters a man from outside can defile him,
19 because it doesn’t go into his heart, but into his stomach, which then expels the impure aspects of the food?”
20 He went on to say: “That which comes out of a man, that is what defiles him.
21 Because from within, out of men’s hearts, the evil designs proceed—adulteries, fornications, murders,
22 thefts, covetings, malignancies; deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, arrogance, foolishness—
23 all these malignant things proceed from within and defile the man.”