Mark 7
Complete Jewish Bible
7 The P’rushim and some of the Torah-teachers who had come from Yerushalayim gathered together with Yeshua 2 and saw that some of his talmidim ate with ritually unclean hands, that is, without doing n’tilat-yadayim. 3 (For the P’rushim, and indeed all the Judeans, holding fast to the Tradition of the Elders, do not eat unless they have given their hands a ceremonial washing. 4 Also, when they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they have rinsed their hands up to the wrist; and they adhere to many other traditions, such as washing cups, pots and bronze vessels.)
5 The P’rushim and the Torah-teachers asked him, “Why don’t your talmidim live in accordance with the Tradition of the Elders, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?” 6 Yeshua answered them, “Yesha‘yahu was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites — as it is written,
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far away from me.
7 Their worship of me is useless,
because they teach man-made rules as if they were doctrines.’[a]
8 “You depart from God’s command and hold onto human tradition. 9 Indeed,” he said to them, “you have made a fine art of departing from God’s command in order to keep your tradition! 10 For Moshe said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’[b] and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’[c] 11 But you say, ‘If someone says to his father or mother, “I have promised as a korban” ’ ” (that is, as a gift to God) “ ‘ “what I might have used to help you,” ’ 12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. 13 Thus, with your tradition which you had handed down to you, you nullify the Word of God! And you do other things like this.”
14 Then Yeshua called the people to him again and said, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand this! 15 There is nothing outside a person which, by going into him, can make him unclean. Rather, it is the things that come out of a person which make a person unclean!” 16 [d]
17 When he had left the people and entered the house, his talmidim asked him about the parable. 18 He replied to them, “So you too are without understanding? Don’t you see that nothing going into a person from outside can make him unclean? 19 For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and it passes out into the latrine.” (Thus he declared all foods ritually clean.) 20 “It is what comes out of a person,” he went on, “that makes him unclean. 21 For from within, out of a person’s heart, come forth wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, arrogance, foolishness…. 23 All these wicked things come from within, and they make a person unclean.”
24 Next, Yeshua left that district and went off to the vicinity of Tzor and Tzidon. There he found a house to stay in and wanted to remain unrecognized, but keeping hidden proved impossible. 25 Instead, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit in her came to him and fell down at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, by birth a Syro-phoenician, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. 27 He said, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s food and toss it to their pet dogs.” 28 She answered him, “That is true, sir; but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s leftovers.” 29 Then he said to her, “For such an answer you may go on home; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 She went back home and found the child lying on the couch, the demon gone.
31 Then he left the district of Tzor and went through Tzidon to Lake Kinneret and on to the region of the Ten Towns. 32 They brought him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment and asked Yeshua to lay his hand on him. 33 Taking him off alone, away from the crowd, Yeshua put his fingers into the man’s ears, spat, and touched his tongue; 34 then, looking up to heaven, he gave a deep groan and said to him, “Hippatach!” (that is, “Be opened!”). 35 His ears were opened, his tongue was freed, and he began speaking clearly. 36 Yeshua ordered the people to tell no one; but the more he insisted, the more zealously they spread the news. 37 People were overcome with amazement. “Everything he does, he does well!” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak!”
Mark 7
EasyEnglish Bible
Jesus speaks to Pharisees and to some teachers of God's Law
7 A group of Pharisees and some teachers of God's Law came from Jerusalem to talk with Jesus. 2 They had been watching Jesus' disciples. Some of the disciples did not wash their hands before they ate a meal. That is to say, they did not wash them in the right way. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat food until they have washed their hands carefully. They do this because of what their leaders taught them. 4 When they come from the market place, they always wash themselves carefully. Unless they do this, they do not eat anything. Their leaders also gave them rules about how they should wash cups, pots and metal bowls.)
5 The Pharisees and the teachers of God's Law said to Jesus, ‘Your disciples do not obey the things that our leaders taught many years ago. Your disciples have not washed their hands in the right way. They are eating their food with unclean hands. That is not right.’
6 Jesus said to them, ‘You are hypocrites! What God's prophet Isaiah wrote about you long ago is true:
God says, “These people say good things about me,
but they do not really want to obey me.
7 They say that I am great.
But what they say has no purpose.
They teach their own rules, which I did not give to them.” ’[a]
8 Jesus then said, ‘You have stopped obeying God. Instead you obey the ideas that men teach.’
9 He said to them, ‘You refuse to obey God's rules, because then you can keep your own ideas! 10 For example, Moses wrote, “You must love your father and your mother. You must obey them.” He also said, “You must kill anyone who curses his father or his mother.”[b] 11 But you teach that a person may say to his father or to his mother, “I would have given gifts to help you. But I cannot do that, because I have given them to God instead.” 12 If he says that, you let him do nothing to help his father or his mother. 13 This shows that you have not obeyed what God says is right. Instead, you have obeyed the ideas that you received from your leaders many years ago. And you do many other things like that.’
14 Jesus asked the crowd of people to come to him again. He said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, so that you can understand these things. 15 People do not become unclean because of things that go into their bodies from outside. They become unclean because of the things that come out from their minds. 16 [You have heard my words. So do what I say.’][c]
Jesus explains to his disciples what he had taught
17 Jesus left the crowd of people and he went into a house. Then his disciples asked him to explain what he had taught.
18 Jesus said, ‘I am surprised that you too do not understand what I am saying. You should understand that food will not make people unclean. Food goes into people's bodies from outside. 19 But food does not go into people's minds. It goes into their stomachs and then it passes out of their bodies.’
When Jesus said this, he was teaching that all foods are clean.
20 Jesus then said, ‘People become unclean because of what comes out from them, not because of what goes in. 21 Evil thoughts come out from people's minds. As a result they do wrong things. They have sex in wrong ways. They rob people. They murder people. 22 They have sex with another man's wife. They are greedy. They are cruel to other people. They deceive people. They live like wild animals. They are jealous of other people. They say bad things about other people. They are proud and foolish.
23 All these wrong things begin inside people's minds and then they come out. That is what makes them unclean.’
Jesus travels out of Israel
24 Jesus left that place. He went away to the region around Tyre. He went into a house. He did not want anyone to know that he was there. But it was not possible to keep this a secret. 25 Immediately, a certain woman heard that he was there. This woman had a daughter who had a bad spirit in her. The woman came to Jesus and she went down on her knees by his feet. 26 She was not a Jew. Her family was from Phoenicia in the country of Syria. She asked Jesus to make the bad spirit go out of her daughter.
27 Jesus said to the woman, ‘First, the children must eat all that they want. It is not right to take food from the children and then throw it to the dogs.’
28 The woman replied, ‘Yes, sir. That is true. But small pieces of food drop while the children eat. And the dogs under the table eat those pieces.’
29 ‘That is a good answer,’ Jesus replied. ‘Now the bad spirit has left your daughter. You may go.’
30 The woman went to her home. She saw her child, who was lying on the bed. The bad spirit had left the girl.
Jesus makes a man well again
31 Then Jesus went away from Tyre. He travelled through the city of Sidon. Then he went towards Lake Galilee. He was in the region called ‘The ten cities’.
32 Some people brought a man to Jesus. This man could not hear anything and he could not speak clearly. The people asked Jesus to put his hand on the man.
33 Jesus led the man away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spat on his hands and touched the man's tongue. 34 Jesus looked up towards heaven. He cried with a low, sad sound. Then he said to the man, ‘Ephphatha!’ That means, ‘Become open!’ 35 When Jesus said this, the man started to hear. Also, his tongue was able to move properly so that he could speak clearly.
36 Jesus told the people that they must not tell anyone about this. But every time Jesus asked them not to say anything, they spoke even more about it. 37 The people were very surprised about everything that Jesus did. They said, ‘Jesus has done everything well. If people cannot hear, Jesus makes them able to hear. If people cannot speak, Jesus makes them able to speak.’
Footnotes
- 7:7 See Isaiah 29:13
- 7:10 See Exodus 21:17
- 7:16 This verse is not in some old copies of the Bible.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
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