Mark Chapter 7

Attack by the Jerusalem

Pharisees About Traditions

¹ Pharisees and some scribes from Jerusalem ² had seen some of his disciples eat^p with defiled—unwashed—hands. (³The Pharisees and all the Jews always wash their hands vigorously before they eat—keeping the tradition of the elders. ⁴ When they come in from the marketplace, they don’t eat unless they take a bath. They keep many other customs—ritual washing of cups, pitchers, bronze kettles [and bedrolls]^ms.) ⁵ They gathered around Jesus and asked, “Why don’t your disciples follow the tradition of the elders instead of eating with defiled hands?”

            ⁶ He told them,

“Isaiah described you hypocrites well when he wrote:

‘This people honors me with their lips,

                                                but their heart is far from me.

                                    ⁷ They worship me without meaning anything, and

                                                teach human rules as God’s doctrines’ [Is 29:13 LXX].

^8-9 You neatly set aside divine commandment to establish human tradition. ¹⁰ A case in point: Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ [Ex 20:12; Deut 5:16], and, ‘Put to death whoever cusses at his father or mother’ [Ex 21:17]. ¹¹ But you say, ‘If a person tells his father or mother, “Whatever would have helped you is ‘Corban (‘Given’).’” ¹² You let him do nothing for his parents. ¹³ You negate God’s word with your tradition. You do a lot of things like that.”

¹⁴ He called the crowd again, “Listen, all of you, and get this. ¹⁵ Nothing that goes in you can defile you. It’s what comes out of you that defiles you.” [ ¹⁶ ]^ms

            ¹⁷ When he went into the house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the illustration.

¹⁸ “Don’t you get it either? Don’t you know that nothing that goes into you can defile you. ¹⁹ It doesn’t go into your heart, but into your stomach, and is eliminated in the toilet (a comment that cleanses all food ceremonially)? ²⁰ What comes out of you is what defiles you. ²¹ From the inside—from your heart—come sinful thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, coveting, evil intentions, deception, indecency, jealousy, pride, senselessness. ²³ Sinful things from inside you are what defile you.”          

Mk 7:1-23

Healing the Syrophoenician Woman’s Daughter

            ²⁴ From there he traveled to the locale around Tyre and went into a house because he didn’t want anybody to know it, but he couldn’t hide. ²⁵ Right away, a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him and came and fell down to him. ²⁶ She was a Greek, a Syrophoenician. She kept asking him to cast out the demon.

            ²⁷ He told her, “Let the kids eat first. It’s not right to take their food and toss it to the dogs in the house.”

            ²⁸ But she answered, “Lord, even house dogs under the table eat the kids’ scraps.”

            ²⁹ “Because of that comment, you can go; the demon has come out of your daughter.”

³⁰ When she went in her house, she found the little girl lying on her bed and the demon gone.       

Mk 7:24-30

Ministry in Decapolis;

Feeding the 4,000

³¹ He left the area around Tyre and traveled through Sidon to Lake Galilee in the territory of Decapolis. ³² They brought^p him a deaf man with a speech impediment and asked^p him to put his hand on him. ³³ He took him away from the crowd by himself and put his fingers in his ears, spit, and touched his tongue. ³⁴ He looked up at the sky, and made a groaning sound and said^p, “Ephphatha (Open up).” ³⁵ His ears opened and his tongue freed up, and he started speaking clearly. ³⁶ Jesus told the people not to tell anybody, but the more he told them to keep something quiet, the more they spread it around. ³⁷ They were completely astonished, “He’s done everything well. He even makes deaf people hear and mutes speak.”

Mk 7:31-37