NETfree - Mark - 7

7:1  Now the Pharisees and some of the experts in the law who came from Jerusalem gathered around him.

7:2  And they saw that some of Jesus' disciples ate their bread with unclean hands, that is, unwashed.

7:3  (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they perform a ritual washing, holding fast to the tradition of the elders.

7:4  And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. They hold fast to many other traditions: the washing of cups, pots, kettles, and dining couches. )

7:5  The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with unwashed hands?"

7:6  He said to them, "Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written:'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

7:7  They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.'

7:8  Having no regard for the command of God, you hold fast to human tradition."

7:9  He also said to them, "You neatly reject the commandment of God in order to set up your tradition.

7:10  For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.'

7:11  But you say that if anyone tells his father or mother, 'Whatever help you would have received from me is corban' (that is, a gift for God),

7:12  then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother.

7:13  Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like this."

7:14  Then he called the crowd again and said to them, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand.

7:15  There is nothing outside of a person that can defile him by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles him."

7:16  [[EMPTY]]

7:17  Now when Jesus had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable.

7:18  He said to them, "Are you so foolish? Don't you understand that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him?

7:19  For it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and then goes out into the sewer." (This means all foods are clean.)

7:20  He said, "What comes out of a person defiles him.

7:21  For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder,

7:22  adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly.

7:23  All these evils come from within and defile a person."

7:24  After Jesus left there, he went to the region of Tyre. When he went into a house, he did not want anyone to know, but he was not able to escape notice.

7:25  Instead, a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him and came and fell at his feet.

7:26  The woman was a Greek, of Syrophoenician origin. She asked him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

7:27  He said to her, "Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and to throw it to the dogs."

7:28  She answered, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

7:29  Then he said to her, "Because you said this, you may go. The demon has left your daughter."

7:30  She went home and found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

7:31  Then Jesus went out again from the region of Tyre and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis.

7:32  They brought to him a deaf man who had difficulty speaking, and they asked him to place his hands on him.

7:33  After Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, he put his fingers in the man's ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue.

7:34  Then he looked up to heaven and said with a sigh, "Ephphatha" (that is, "Be opened").

7:35  And immediately the man's ears were opened, his tongue loosened, and he spoke plainly.

7:36  Jesus ordered them not to tell anything. But as much as he ordered them not to do this, they proclaimed it all the more.

7:37  People were completely astounded and said, "He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."