Mark 7

¹ The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered round him,

² and they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with unclean hands, that is, without washingthem.

³ For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, keep the tradition of the elders and never eat without washing theirarms as far as the elbow;

⁴ and on returning from the market place they never eat without first sprinkling themselves. There arealso many other observances which have been handed down to them to keep, concerning the washing of cupsand pots and bronze dishes.

⁵ So the Pharisees and scribes asked him, 'Why do your disciples not respect the tradition of the eldersbut eat their food with unclean hands?'

⁶ He answered, 'How rightly Isaiah prophesied about you hypocrites in the passage of scripture: Thispeople honours me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me.

⁷ Their reverence of me is worthless; the lessons they teach are nothing but human commandments.

⁸ You put aside the commandment of God to observe human traditions.'

⁹ And he said to them, 'How ingeniously you get round the commandment of God in order to preserveyour own tradition!

¹⁰ For Moses said: Honour your father and your mother, and, Anyone who curses father or mother mustbe put to death.

¹¹ But you say, "If a man says to his father or mother: Anything I have that I might have used to help youis Korban (that is, dedicated to God),"

¹² then he is forbidden from that moment to do anything for his father or mother.

¹³ In this way you make God's word ineffective for the sake of your tradition which you have handeddown. And you do many other things like this.'

¹⁴ He called the people to him again and said, 'Listen to me, al of you, and understand.

¹⁵ Nothing that goes into someone from outside can make that person unclean; it is the things that comeout of someone that make that person unclean.

¹⁶ Anyone who has ears for listening should listen!'

¹⁷ When he had gone into the house, away from the crowd, his disciples questioned him about theparable.

¹⁸ He said to them, 'Even you -- don't you understand? Can't you see that nothing that goes intosomeone from outside can make that person unclean,

¹⁹ because it goes not into the heart but into the stomach and passes into the sewer?' (Thus hepronounced al foods clean.)

²⁰ And he went on, 'It is what comes out of someone that makes that person unclean.

²¹ For it is from within, from the heart, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder,

²² adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, fol y.

²³ Al these evil things come from within and make a person unclean.'

²⁴ He left that place and set out for the territory of Tyre. There he went into a house and did not wantanyone to know he was there; but he could not pass unrecognised.

²⁵ At once a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him and came and fel at hisfeet.

²⁶ Now this woman was a gentile, by birth a Syro-Phoenician, and she begged him to drive the devil outof her daughter.

²⁷ And he said to her, 'The children should be fed first, because it is not fair to take the children's foodand throw it to little dogs.'

²⁸ But she spoke up, 'Ah yes, sir,' she replied, 'but little dogs under the table eat the scraps from thechildren.'

²⁹ And he said to her, 'For saying this you may go home happy; the devil has gone out of your daughter.'

³⁰ So she went off home and found the child lying on the bed and the devil gone.

³¹ Returning from the territory of Tyre, he went by way of Sidon towards the Lake of Galilee, right throughthe Decapolis territory.

³² And they brought him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they asked him to lay hishand on him.

³³ He took him aside to be by themselves, away from the crowd, put his fingers into the man's ears andtouched his tongue with spittle.

³⁴ Then looking up to heaven he sighed; and he said to him, 'Ephphatha,' that is, 'Be opened.'

³⁵ And his ears were opened, and at once the impediment of his tongue was loosened and he spokeclearly.

³⁶ And Jesus ordered them to tel no one about it, but the more he insisted, the more widely theyproclaimed it.

³⁷ Their admiration was unbounded, and they said, 'Everything he does is good, he makes the deaf hearand the dumb speak.'