Passage: Mark 7:1-23 (RSV)


Mark 7


1Now when the Pharisees gathered together to him, with some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem,
2they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands defiled, that is, unwashed.
3(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the elders;
4and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they purify themselves; and there are many other traditions which they observe, the washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze.)
5And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?"
6And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, `This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
7in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'
8You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men."
9And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition!
10For Moses said, `Honor your father and your mother'; and, `He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die';
11but you say, `If a man tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is Corban' (that is, given to God) --
12then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,
13thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on. And many such things you do."
14And he called the people to him again, and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand:
15there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him."
16
17And when he had entered the house, and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable.
18And he said to them, "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him,
19since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
20And he said, "What comes out of a man is what defiles a man.
21For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery,
22coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man."



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