Mark 7
The Tradition of the Elders
7 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had
come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his
disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3(For
the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their
hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4 and they do not eat
anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other
traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5
So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live
according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ He said
to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
“This people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts
are far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching human
precepts as doctrines.”
8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human
tradition.’
9 Then he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting
the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! 10 For Moses said,
“Honor your father and your mother”; and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or
mother must surely die.” 11 But you say that if anyone tells father or mother,
“Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban” (that is, an offering
to God)— 12 then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, 13
thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed
on. And you do many things like this.’
14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen
to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by
going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’
17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19 since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus, he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’
