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OET (OET-LV) For/Because out_of the heart are_coming_out evil speculations, murders, adulteries, sexual_immorality, thefts, false_witnesses, slander.
OET (OET-RV) Because lust, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, stealing, falsely accusing and slander, these all come of the mind.
Over the years, Jewish religious leaders added many oral rules to God’s written laws. The Pharisees and teachers of the law considered these oral rules (also called traditions) to be as important as God’s written laws. One of their rules was that a person must wash his hands a certain way before he ate food. If a Jew did not follow this rule before he ate, they considered him ceremonially “unclean.” This meant that they did not allow him to worship God in public for a certain amount of time. Jesus made it clear that there was something far more important than how a person washed his hands. The important thing was the condition of his heart.
Here are some other possible headings for this section:
Jesus Challenges the Pharisees’ Traditions (GW)
Jesus Teaches about Inner Purity/Cleanliness
There are parallel passages for this section in Mark 7:1–23 and Luke 11:37–39.
For out of the heart come
I say this because the things that come from the heart/stomach of a person are
The things that are in people’s hearts cause/make them
For: The Greek conjunction that the BSB translates as For introduces the basis for the things that Jesus said in 15:18.
Here is another way to translate this:
I say this because
Some English versions do not translate this conjunction. In some languages, it will not be natural to translate this conjunction either.
out of the heart come: The word heart is the same word as in 15:18a. You should translate it here as you did there.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
that which comes from the heart of a person are
the things that are in a person’s heart cause/make him to
In some languages, it will be more natural to put the phrase out of the heart come at the end of the verse. See the General Comment at the end of 15:19d for some examples.
evil thoughts, murder,
evil thoughts, killing,
to think evil things, and kill people,
evil thoughts: There is an interpretation issue here. It involves how the expression evil thoughts relates to the rest of the terms in 15:19.
It is a specific term. It is the first of the seven terms in the list. These seven terms are all things that come out of the heart. For example:
evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander (NIV) (BSB, RSV, NIV, NET, ESV, NLT, NASB, GW, CEV, REB, KJV, NCV)
It is a general term. It is the thing that leads to the next six specific terms. Some versions show this by putting a colon after this term. For example:
evil intentions: murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury, slander (NJB) (GNT, NJB, JBP)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). The majority of English versions follow this interpretation.
In some languages, it will be more natural to translate this noun phrase as a verb. For example:
he thinks evil things
murder: The Greek word that the BSB translates as murder is a plural noun. It also means “killings.” In this context, it refers to the illegal ending of someone’s life. It does not refer to executing a criminal or killing an enemy soldier in battle.
Here is another way to translate this word:
he kills/murders people
adultery, sexual immorality,
adultery, sexual sin,
and sleep with someone who is not his/her spouse, and do other filthiness,
adultery: The Greek word that the BSB translates as adultery means “a married person having sex with someone other than his wife (or her husband).”
Here is another way to translate this word:
sleeping with someone to whom he is not married
sexual immorality: The Greek word that the BSB translates as sexual immorality is a general term referring to all sexual sin.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
[other] sexual sins (GW)
all other sexual immorality (NLT96)
fornication
he does other filthy/evil deeds
Some languages have one term that covers the meaning of both “adultery” and “sexual immorality.” Other languages may need more than two terms. You should use as few or as many words as necessary to translate these two Greek words.
theft, false testimony, and slander.
stealing, lying, and saying bad things about others.
and steal, and tell lies, and destroy the names of other people.
theft: The word theft refers to taking the property of someone else when the owner did not give permission to take it.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
robbery
he steals
false testimony: The Greek word here primarily refers to telling lies in court. It can also refer to telling lies in any situation.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
lying (NLT)
he tells lies
slander: In Greek this word refers to saying things that hurt the reputation of someone.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
speaking evil of others (NCV)
insulting others (CEV)
he destroys the name/reputation of other people
In some languages, it will be more natural to change the order of some of the parts of this verse. For example:
Evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immoralities, theft, lying, and slander all come from the heart.
Many evil things come from the heart such as evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immoralities, theft, lying, and slander.
Note 1 topic: grammar-connect-words-phrases
γὰρ
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: ἐκ Γάρ τῆς καρδίας ἐξέρχονται διαλογισμοί πονηροί φόνοι μοιχεῖαι πορνεῖαι κλοπαί ψευδομαρτυρίαι βλασφημίαι)
Here, the word For introduces a basis for the claim that Jesus made in the previous verse about how what comes out of the heart defiles a person. If it would be helpful in your language, you could use a word or phrase that introduces a basis for a claim, or you could leave For untranslated. Alternate translation: [That is because] or [I say that because]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / genericnoun
τῆς καρδίας
the heart
The phrase the heart represents hearts in general, not one particular heart. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express the idea in another way. Alternate translation: [people’s hearts]
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / metonymy
τῆς καρδίας
the heart
See how you translated heart in [15:18](../15/18.md). Alternate translation: [the mind] or [the thoughts]
Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / go
ἐξέρχονται
˓are˒_coming_out
In a context such as this, your language might say “go” instead of come. Alternate translation: [go]
Note 5 topic: translate-plural
διαλογισμοὶ πονηροί, φόνοι, μοιχεῖαι, πορνεῖαι, κλοπαί, ψευδομαρτυρίαι, βλασφημίαι
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: ἐκ Γάρ τῆς καρδίας ἐξέρχονται διαλογισμοί πονηροί φόνοι μοιχεῖαι πορνεῖαι κλοπαί ψευδομαρτυρίαι βλασφημίαι)
It may be more natural in your language to use a singular form for one or more of these terms. Alternate translation: [evil thinking, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and blasphemy]
Note 6 topic: figures-of-speech / abstractnouns
διαλογισμοὶ πονηροί, φόνοι, μοιχεῖαι, πορνεῖαι, κλοπαί, ψευδομαρτυρίαι, βλασφημίαι
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: ἐκ Γάρ τῆς καρδίας ἐξέρχονται διαλογισμοί πονηροί φόνοι μοιχεῖαι πορνεῖαι κλοπαί ψευδομαρτυρίαι βλασφημίαι)
If your language does not use nouns for some or all of the ideas in this list, you could express the same ideas in another way. Alternate translation: [evil things that people do, including evil thinking, murdering, acting in adulterous and sexually immoral ways, stealing things, claiming that something false is true, and blaspheming]
15:1-20 Jesus indicted the Pharisees for disobeying God’s law in their zeal to preserve traditions.
OET (OET-LV) For/Because out_of the heart are_coming_out evil speculations, murders, adulteries, sexual_immorality, thefts, false_witnesses, slander.
OET (OET-RV) Because lust, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, stealing, falsely accusing and slander, these all come of the mind.
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.