Open English Translation MARK Chapter 7

7 Some from the Pharisee party and some of the law teachers had come from Yerusalem to observe Yeshua 2 and noticed that some of his followers were eating their food without following their religious customs, i.e., without washing their hands. 3 (The Pharisees and, in fact, all the Jewish religious leaders do not eat without first ceremonially washing their hands as taught by their elders over the generations. 4 They won’t eat at the market if they can’t do this first, and have many other regulations about ceremonial washing of cups and jugs and copper kettles.)

5 And the Pharisees and religious teachers asked Yeshua, “How come your followers don’t follow our Jewish traditions, but eat without the ceremonial washing of hands?”

6 And he answered, “Isayah got it exactly right when he expressed God’s thoughts about you hypocrites and wrote:[ref]

‘These people honour me with their lips,

but their real desires are far away from mine.

7 Their worship of me is worthless,

teaching man-made rules as if they are from God.’

8 You’ve ignored God’s commands instead accepting human traditions.”

9 And Yeshua continued, “You all simply dismiss God’s commands in favour of your own customs. 10 [ref]Moses teaches us,

‘Honour your parents,’

and

‘Anyone dishonestly slandering their parents deserves the death penalty.’

11 But when you all encourage people to say, ‘Whatever I had that may have helped you guys has been given to God’, 12 you are actively discouraging them from helping their parents— 13 overriding God’s voice for your very convenient teaching that you disseminate instead. And that’s not the only example!”

14 Yeshua called out to the crowd, “Everyone listen to me carefully: 15 Nothing that enters your mouth makes you guilty in God’s eyes. It’s what comes out of you that demonstrates your culpability.”

16 ◘ 17 When Yeshua came back inside, his apprentices asked him what he meant. 18 But he scolded them, “Can’t you understand something so simple! Can’t you see that anything from the outside that enters your body doesn’t make you guilty in God’s sight, 19 because it doesn’t enter your mind but merely goes into your stomach and ends up in the toilet.” (By saying this he clearly showed that is was ok for Jews to eat any food.)

20 He continued, “It’s what comes out of you that makes you guilty in God’s eyes.21-22 21-22That’s because evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, arrogance, lust, slander, pride, and foolishness all come from inside people’s hearts and minds. 23 So it’s the evil that’s inside a person and comes out that makes them guilty in God’s eyes.”

24 Yeshua left that place and went up north into the regions of Tyre and Tsidon. He tried to enter a house without being noticed but didn’t succeed, 25 and straight away a woman who had heard about him turned up. She knelt in front of him because she had a little daughter who was demon-possessed. 26 The woman was Greek from Phoenicia in Syria and she begged Yeshua to command the demon to leave her daughter. 27 But he replied, “Let the Jewish children be treated first, because it’s not good to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

28 And she responded, “Yes, master, but the puppies under the table do get to eat the little crumbs that the children drop.”

29 And he answered, “Go home now. As a result of how you just spoke, the demon has already left your daughter.”

30 And when she got home, the demon had indeed gone and her little girl was lying quietly on her bed.

31 Yeshua left the Tyre region, passed through Tsidon, and came down the eastern side of the Lake of Galilee to the Decapolis region. 32 The people there brought a man to him who couldn’t hear or speak, and asked Yeshua to heal him. 33 So Yeshua took the man back away from the crowd, put his fingers in the man’s ears, then he spat and touched the man’s mouth. 34 Looking up to the sky, he sighed and said, “Open up!”

35 Then the man could hear, and his tongue was released and he began to speak properly. 36 The Yeshua advised that they shouldn’t tell anyone, but the more he said that, the more they seemed to spread it around. 37 The crowds were totally amazed, saying, “He can do anything—he makes the deaf able to hear, and enables the ones who couldn’t speak.”