1 | Now when the Pharisees gathered together to him, with some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, |
2 | they 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; |
4 | and 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.) |
5 | And 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?" |
6 | And 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; |
7 | in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.' |
8 | You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men." |
9 | And 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, `He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die'; |
11 | but 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) -- |
12 | then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, |
13 | thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on. And many such things you do." |
14 | And he called the people to him again, and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand: |
15 | there 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 | |
17 | And when he had entered the house, and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. |
18 | And 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, |
19 | since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.) |
20 | And he said, "What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. |
21 | For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, |
22 | coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. |
23 | All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man." |