Moff MARK Chapter 7

◄ MARK 7 ► ║ ═ ©

7 Now the Pharisees gathered to meet him, with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem. 2 They noticed that some of his disciples ate their food with '4common'4* (that is, unwashed) hands. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews decline to eat till they wash their hands up to the wrist, in obedience to the tradition of the elders; 4 they decline to eat what comes from the market till they have washed it; and they have a number of other traditions to keep about washing cups and jugs and basins [and beds].) 5 Then the Pharisees and scribes put this question to him, "Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders? Why do they take their food with "common hands?' 6 He said to them, 'Yes, it was about you hypocrites indeed that Isaiah prophesied--as it is written,

This people honours me with their lips,

but their heart is far away from me:

vain is their worship of me,

for the doctrines they teach are but human precepts. 8 You drop what God commands and hold to human tradition. 9 Yes, forsooth,' he added, "you set aside what God commands, so as to maintain your own tradition. 10 Thus, Moses said, Honour your father and mother, and, He who curses his father or mother is to suffer death. 11 But you say that if a man tells his father or mother, 'This money might have been at your service, but it is Korban (that is, dedicated to God), 12 he is exempt, so you hold, from doing anything for his father or mother. 13 That is repealing the word of God in the interests of the tradition which you keep up. And you do many things like that.' 14 Then he called the crowd to him again and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand this: --

nothing outside a man can defile him by entering him;

it is what comes from him that defiles him.

If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to this.'

17 Now when he went indoors away from the crowd, his disciples asked him the meaning of this parabolic saying. 18 He said to them, "So you do not understand, either? Do you not see how nothing outside a man can defile him by entering him? 19 It does not enter his heart but his belly and passes from that into the drain' (thus he pronounced all food clean). 20 "No," he said, "it is what comes from a man, that is what defiles him. 21 From within, from the heart of man, the designs of evil come: sexual vice, stealing, murder, 22 adultery, lust, malice, deceit, sensuality, envying, slander, arrogance, recklessness, 23 all these evils issue from within and they defile a man.'

24 Leaving there, he went away to the territory of Tyre and Sidon. He went into a house and wished no one to know of it, but he could not escape notice; 25 a woman heard of him, whose daughter had an unclean spirit, and she came in and fell at his feet 26 (the woman was a pagan, of Syrophoenician birth) begging him to cast the daemon out of her daughter. 27 He said to her, "Let the children be satisfied first of all; it is not fair to take the children"s bread and throw it to the dogs.' 28 She answered him, "No, sir, but under the table the dogs do pick up the children"s crumbs.' 29 He said to her, "Well, go your way; the daemon has left your daughter, since you have said that." 30 So she went home and found the child lying in bed and the daemon gone from her.

31 He left the territory of Tyre again and passed through Sidon to the sea of Galilee, crossing the territory of Decapolis. 32 And a deaf man who stammered was brought to him, with the request that he would lay his hand on him. 33 So taking him aside from the crowd by himself, he put his fingers into the man's ears, touched his tongue with saliva, 34 and looking up to heaven with a sigh he said to him, "Ephphatha" (which means, Open). 35 Then his ears were [at once] opened and his tongue freed from its fetter — he began to speak correctly. 36 Jesus forbade them to tell anyone about it, but the more he forbade them the more eagerly they made it public; 37 they were astounded in the extreme, saying, "How splendidly he has done everything! He actually makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak!"

MARK C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16