Open English Translation MARK Chapter 7

7 Some from the Farisaios party and some of the law teachers had come from Yerushalem (Jerusalem) to observe Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) 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 Farisaios and, in fact, all the Jewish religious leaders don’t 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 that first, and have many other regulations about ceremonial washing of cups and jugs and copper containers.)

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

6 “Yeshayah (Isaiah) got it exactly right,” he answered, “when he expressed God’s thoughts about you hypocrites and wrote:

‘These people honour me with their lips,

but their real desires are far away from me.

7 Their worship of me is worthless—

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

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

9 “You all simply dismiss God’s commands in favour of your own customs, Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) continued. 10 Mosheh (Moses) teaches us,

‘Honour your parents,’[ref]

and

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

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 message with your very convenient teaching that you disseminate instead. And that’s not the only example!”

14 Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) 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 “Can’t you understand something so simple,” he scolded them. “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 it was ok for Yehudim (Jews) to eat any food.)

20 “It’s what comes out of you that makes you guilty in God’s eyes,” he continued.21-22 ⇔“That’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 (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) left that place and went up north into the regions of Tsor (Tyre) and Tsidon (Sidon). 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 young daughter who was demon-possessed. 26 The woman was Greek from Foinikai in Aram (Syria), and she begged Yeshua to command the demon to leave her daughter. 27 “Let the Jewish children be treated first,” he told her, “because it’s not good to take the children’s food and give it to the household dogs.”

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

29 “Ha, go home now” he answered, “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 the young girl was lying quietly on her bed.

31 Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) left the Tsor (Tyre) region, passed through Tsidon (Sidon), and came down the eastern side of Galil Lake to the Dekapolis 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 tongue. 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 Then 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 those who couldn’t speak.”