Mác 7

Washed hands and the tradition of the elders

¹The Pharisees gathered around Jesus, together with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem. ²They had noticed that some of his disciples were eating their food with unclean hands, that is, hands not washed. ³(The Pharisees, and indeed all the Jews, will not eat unless they give their hands a ritual washing, and so they keep the tradition of the elders. ⁴When they come in from the marketplace they do not eat without first washing. They hold to many other customs that have been passed on to them as well, such as the washing of cups, pitchers, bronze pots and dining couches.) ⁵So the Pharisees and the scribes put a question to him: “Why do your disciples not live by the tradition of the elders? Why do they eat with unclean hands?”^{ab 6}He answered them, “How well Isaiah prophesied about you hypocrites! As it stands written: ‘This people gives me honor with their lips, while their heart stays far away from me. ⁷Their worship of me is worthless, for they pass off human commands as doctrine.’ ⁸You abandon what God has commanded and hold fast to a tradition that is merely human.”^c

⁹He went on, “You are very skillful at setting God’s command aside so that you can keep your own tradition! ¹⁰For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and also, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother is to die for it.’ ¹¹But you teach that if someone tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you could have had from me is Corban’ (which means an offering to God), ¹²then you no longer let that person do anything for their father or mother. ¹³You make God’s word empty for the sake of the tradition you hand down, and you do plenty of other things of the same kind.”

What makes a person unclean

¹⁴Then he called the crowd to him once more and said, “Hear me, every one of you, and understand this: ¹⁵Nothing outside a person can make that person unclean by going in. What comes out of a person is what makes a person unclean.”^d

¹⁷When he had left the crowd and gone indoors, his disciples asked him about this parable. ¹⁸He said to them, “Are even you so slow to understand? Do you not see that nothing that goes into a person from outside can make that person unclean? ¹⁹It does not go into the heart but into the stomach, and from there it goes out into the latrine.” By saying this, Jesus made all foods clean.^{e 20}He went on, “What comes out of a person is what makes a person unclean. ²¹Out of the human heart, from within, come evil designs, sexual sin, theft, murder, ²²adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, and moral folly. ²³All these evils come out from inside, and they are what make a person unclean.”

Even the little dogs eat the crumbs

²⁴Jesus set out from there and went away to the region around Tyre.^f He went into a house and did not want anyone to know, but he could not stay hidden. ²⁵A woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him at once, and she came and threw herself down at his feet. ²⁶The woman was a Gentile, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She kept begging him to throw the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷He told her, “The children must be fed first and have all they want. Taking the children’s bread and throwing it to the little dogs is not right.”^{g 28}She replied, “Lord, even the little dogs under the table get to eat the crumbs the children drop.” ²⁹He told her, “Because of what you have said, go on your way. The demon has already gone out of your daughter.” ³⁰When she got home, she found her little girl stretched out on the bed, and the demon had gone.

Ephphatha: be opened

³¹Then he left the region of Tyre again and went by way of Sidon to the lake of Galilee, into the Decapolis region. ³²They brought him a deaf man who could hardly speak, and they pleaded with him to place his hand on him. ³³Jesus led him off from the crowd to be alone with him. He pushed his fingers into the man’s ears, spat, and touched his tongue. ³⁴Then he looked up to heaven, groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” meaning, “Be opened.” ³⁵His ears were opened, his tongue was set free from what bound it, and he spoke clearly. ³⁶Jesus told them to say nothing to anyone. Yet the more he gave this order, the more eagerly they spread the news. ³⁷The people were utterly astounded. “How well he has done everything!” they said. “He gives hearing to the deaf and speech to those who cannot talk!”