Mark 7
Worldwide English (New Testament)
7 Then some Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus.
2 They saw some of the disciples eating food. They had not washed their hands before they ate. The Pharisees said that was wrong.
3 They and all the Jews keep the laws made by men. God did not give them those laws. They do not eat until they wash their hands very well.
4 When they come from the market, they do not eat until they have washed themselves. They also keep many other laws such as washing cups, pots, brass pans, and beds.
5 The Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, `Why do your disciples not keep the law our fathers made? Why do they eat with hands that are not clean?'
6-7 esus said to them, `Isaiah spoke the truth about you people! You are not true to yourselves! He wrote about you this way: "These people respect me with their mouths. But their hearts are far from me. They do not mean it in their hearts when they worship me. Their teachings are only words of men."
8 `You do not keep the law of God, but you keep the laws made by people. Those laws are about washing pots and cups. You do many other things like that also.
9 `You break God's law so that you can keep your own law.
10 Moses said, "Respect your father and your mother. Anyone who says wrong things to his father or his mother will die."
11 You say, "Tell your father or your mother that what you were going to give to them is Corban." (That means a gift to God.)
12 So you stop him from doing anything for his father and mother.
13 You make God's law to mean nothing so that you can keep your own laws. You do many other things like that also.'
14 Then Jesus called the people to him again. He said, `Listen to me, all of you, and understand what I say.
15 What goes into a person's mouth does not make him dirty. But what comes out of a person's mouth makes him dirty.
16 Everyone who has ears to hear, listen!'
17 Jesus left the people and went into a house. His disciples asked him the meaning of the story.
18 He said, `Do you still not understand? Do you not know this? What goes into a person from the outside cannot make a person dirty.
19 It does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and then it goes out of the body.' By saying this, Jesus meant that food does not make a person dirty.
20 But he said, `What comes out of a person makes him dirty. 21,
21 Here is what comes from the heart: wrong thoughts, all kinds of adultery, stealing, killing, wanting things that other people have, doing very wrong things, fooling people, breaking the law, jealousy, saying wrong things about people, being proud, being foolish.
22 All these wrong things come from a person's heart and make him dirty.'
23 Then Jesus went away to the country of Tyre and Sidon. He went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. But he could not hide from the people.
24 Right away a woman heard of him. She came and kneeled down before him. Her daughter had a bad spirit in her.
25 The woman was not a Jew and had been born in the country of Phoenicia in Syria. She begged Jesus to drive the bad spirit out of her daughter.
26 But Jesus said to her, `We will give the children all they want to eat first. It is not right to take the children's food and give it to the little dogs.'
27 She answered, `Yes, Sir. But even the little dogs under the table eat food that falls from the children's table.'
28 Jesus said to her, `Because you have said this, you may go home. The bad spirit has gone out of your daughter.'
29 When she came to her house, she found that the bad spirit had left. Her daughter was lying on the bed.
30 Jesus went away from Tyre and Sidon and came to the sea of Galilee. He passed through the country of the Ten Towns.
31 The people brought a man to Jesus who could not hear and could not talk well. They begged Jesus to put his hand on him.
32 So Jesus took him away alone. He put his fingers in the man's ears. Then he spat and touched the man's tongue.
33 He looked up to heaven and sighed. He said, `Ephphatha!' That means, `Be opened!'
34 Right away the man's ears were opened and his tongue was made free. He could talk well.
35 Jesus said, `Do not tell anyone.' But the more he told them not to tell, the more they told it everywhere.
36 The people were very much surprised. They said, `He has done everything well. The people who could not hear can hear. The people who could not talk can talk.'
Mark 7
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
7 Now there gathered together to [Jesus] the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem,
2 For they had seen that some of His disciples ate with [a]common hands, that is, unwashed [with hands defiled and unhallowed, because they had not given them a [b]ceremonial washing]—
3 For the Pharisees and all of the Jews do not eat unless [merely for ceremonial reasons] they wash their hands [diligently [c]up to the elbow] with clenched fist, adhering [carefully and faithfully] to the tradition of [practices and customs handed down to them by] their forefathers [to be observed].
4 And [when they come] from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they purify themselves; and there are many other traditions [oral, man-made laws handed down to them, which they observe faithfully and diligently, such as], the washing of cups and wooden pitchers and widemouthed jugs and utensils of copper and [d]beds—
5 And the Pharisees and scribes kept asking [Jesus], Why do Your disciples not order their way of living according to the tradition handed down by the forefathers [to be observed], but eat with hands unwashed and ceremonially not purified?
6 But He said to them, Excellently and truly [[e]so that there will be no room for blame] did Isaiah prophesy of you, the pretenders and hypocrites, as it stands written: These people [constantly] honor Me with their lips, but their hearts hold off and are far distant from Me.
7 In vain (fruitlessly and without profit) do they worship Me, ordering and teaching [to be obeyed] as doctrines the commandments and precepts of men.(A)
8 You disregard and give up and ask to depart from you the commandment of God and cling to the tradition of men [keeping it carefully and faithfully].
9 And He said to them, You have a fine way of rejecting [thus thwarting and nullifying and doing away with] the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition (your own human regulations)!
10 For Moses said, Honor (revere with tenderness of feeling and deference) your father and your mother, and, He who curses or reviles or speaks evil of or abuses or treats improperly his father or mother, let him surely die.(B)
11 But [as for you] you say, A man is exempt if he tells [his] father or [his] mother, What you would otherwise have gained from me [everything I have that would have been of use to you] is Corban, that is, is a gift [already given as an offering to God],
12 Then you no longer are permitting him to do anything for [his] father or mother [but are letting him off from helping them].
13 Thus you are nullifying and making void and of no effect [the authority of] the Word of God through your tradition, which you [in turn] hand on. And many things of this kind you are doing.
14 And He called the people to [Him] again and said to them, Listen to Me, all of you, and understand [what I say].
15 There is not [even] one thing outside a man which by going into him can pollute and defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him and make him unhallowed and unclean.
16 [f]If any man has ears to hear, let him be listening [and let him [g]perceive and comprehend by hearing].
17 And when He had left the crowd and had gone into the house, His disciples began asking Him about the parable.
18 And He said to them, Then are you also unintelligent and dull and without understanding? Do you not discern and see that whatever goes into a man from the outside cannot make him unhallowed or unclean,
19 Since it does not reach and enter his heart but [only his] digestive tract, and so passes on [into the place designed to receive waste]? Thus He was making and declaring all foods [ceremonially] clean [that is, [h]abolishing the ceremonial distinctions of the Levitical Law].
20 And He said, What comes out of a man is what makes a man unclean and renders [him] unhallowed.
21 For from within, [that is] out of the hearts of men, come base and wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, stealing, murder, adultery,
22 Coveting (a greedy desire to have more wealth), dangerous and destructive wickedness, deceit; [i]unrestrained (indecent) conduct; an evil eye (envy), slander (evil speaking, malicious misrepresentation, abusiveness), pride ([j]the sin of an uplifted heart against God and man), foolishness (folly, lack of sense, recklessness, thoughtlessness).
23 All these evil [purposes and desires] come from within, and they make the man unclean and render him unhallowed.
24 And Jesus arose and went away from there to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He went into a house and did not want anyone to know [that He was there]; but it was not possible for Him to be hidden [from public notice].
25 Instead, at once, a woman whose little daughter had (was under the control of) an unclean spirit heard about Him and came and flung herself down at His feet.
26 Now the woman was a Greek (Gentile), a Syrophoenician by nationality. And she kept begging Him to drive the demon out of her little daughter.
27 And He said to her, First let the children be fed, for it is not becoming or proper or right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the [little house] dogs.
28 But she answered Him, Yes, Lord, yet even the small pups under the table eat the little children’s scraps of food.
29 And He said to her, Because of this saying, you may go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter [permanently].
30 And she went home and found the child thrown on the couch, and the demon departed.
31 Soon after this, Jesus, coming back from the region of Tyre, passed through Sidon on to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of Decapolis [the ten cities].
32 And they brought to Him a man who was deaf and had difficulty in speaking, and they begged Jesus to place His hand upon him.
33 And taking him aside from the crowd [privately], He thrust His fingers into the man’s ears and spat and touched his tongue;
34 And looking up to heaven, He sighed as He said, Ephphatha, which means, Be opened!
35 And his ears were opened, his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak distinctly and as he should.
36 And Jesus [[k]in His own interest] admonished and ordered them sternly and expressly to tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.
37 And they were overwhelmingly astonished, saying, He has done everything excellently (commendably and nobly)! He even makes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak!
Footnotes
- Mark 7:2 William Tyndale, The Tyndale Bible.
- Mark 7:2 Charles B. Williams, The New Testament: A Translation.
- Mark 7:3 G. Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon.
- Mark 7:4 James Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary and Robert Young, Analytical Concordance agree with most lexicons in reading “beds” here. Some manuscripts end verse 4 after “utensils of copper.”
- Mark 7:6 Joseph Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon.
- Mark 7:16 Many manuscripts do not contain this verse.
- Mark 7:16 G. Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon.
- Mark 7:19 W. Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor’s Greek New Testament.
- Mark 7:22 Alexander Souter, Pocket Lexicon of the Greek New Testament.
- Mark 7:22 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
- Mark 7:36 Kenneth Wuest, Word Studies: The Greek uses the middle voice here to show that the charge is given with the speaker’s personal interest in view.
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