Matthew 15:1-20

New Testament for Everyone

Discussions of clean and unclean

15 At that time some Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem to Jesus. They had a question for him.

² “Why,” they said, “do your disciples go against the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands when they eat their food!”

³ “Why,” Jesus replied, “do you go against the command of God because of your tradition? ⁴ What God said was ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘If anyone speaks evil of father or mother, they must certainly die.’ ⁵ But you say, ‘If anyone says to father or mother, “What you might have gained from me is given to God,” ⁶ they don’t need to honor their father anymore.’ As a result, you make God’s word null and void because of your tradition.

⁷ “You play-actors! Isaiah had the right words for you in his prophecy:

The parable of clean and unclean

¹⁰ Then Jesus called the crowd, and said to them, “Listen and understand. ¹¹ What makes someone unclean isn’t what goes into the mouth. It’s what comes out of the mouth that makes someone unclean.”

¹² Then the disciples came to Jesus.

“Do you know,” they said, “that the Pharisees were horrified when they heard what you said?”

¹³ “Every plant that my heavenly father hasn’t planted,” replied Jesus, “will be plucked up by the roots. ¹⁴ Let them be. They are blind guides. But if one blind person guides another, both of them will fall into a pit.”

¹⁵ Peter spoke up. “Explain the riddle to us,” he said.

¹⁶ “Are you still slow on the uptake as well?” replied Jesus. ¹⁷ “Don’t you understand that whatever goes into the mouth travels on into the stomach and goes out into the drain? ¹⁸ But what comes out of the mouth begins in the heart, and that’s what makes someone unclean. ¹⁹ Out of the heart, you see, come evil plots, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, and blasphemy. ²⁰ These are the things that make someone unclean. But eating with unwashed hands doesn’t make a person unclean.”