¹⁴ Then he called to the crowd again and told them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand! ¹⁵ Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean. It’s what comes out of a person that makes a person unclean. ¹⁶ If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen!”^[a]

¹⁷ When he had left the crowd and gone home, his disciples began asking him about the parable. ¹⁸ He asked them, “Are you so ignorant? Don’t you know that nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean? ¹⁹ Because it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then into the sewer,^[b] thereby expelling^[c] all foods.” ²⁰ Then he continued, “It’s what comes out of a person that makes a person unclean, ²¹ because it’s from within, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come, as well as sexual immorality, stealing, murder, ²² adultery, greed, wickedness, cheating, shameless lust, envy, slander,^[d] arrogance, and foolishness. ²³ All these things come from inside and make a person unclean.”