Old/New Testament

Clean and unclean

¹⁴ Jesus summoned the crowd again.

“Listen to me, all of you,” he said, “and get this straight. ¹⁵ What goes into you from outside can’t make you unclean. What makes you unclean is what comes out from inside.”

¹⁷ When they got back into the house, away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable.

¹⁸ “You didn’t get it either?” he asked. “Don’t you see that whatever goes into someone from outside can’t make them unclean? ¹⁹ It doesn’t go into the heart; it only goes into the stomach, and then carries on, out down the drain.” (Result: all foods are clean.)

²⁰ “What makes someone unclean,” he went on, “is what comes out of them. ²¹ Evil intentions come from inside, out of people’s hearts—sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, greed, wickedness, treachery, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, stupidity. ²³ These evil things all come from inside. They are what make someone unclean.”

The Syrophoenician woman

²⁴ Jesus got up, left that place, and went to the region of Tyre. When he went into a house, he didn’t want anyone to know, but it wasn’t possible for him to remain hidden. ²⁵ On the contrary: news of him at once reached a woman who had a young daughter with an unclean spirit. She came and threw herself down at his feet. ²⁶ She was Greek, a Syrophoenician by race; and she asked him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷ “First let the children eat what they want,” Jesus replied. “It’s not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁸ “Well, Master,” she said, “even the dogs under the table eat the crumbs that the children drop.”

²⁹ “Well said!” replied Jesus. “Off you go; the demon has left your daughter.”

³⁰ So she went home, and found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

A deaf and mute man is healed

³¹ Jesus went away from the region of Tyre, through Sidon, round towards the sea of Galilee, and into the region of the Ten Towns. ³² They brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and asked that he would lay his hand on him.

³³ Jesus took the man off in private, away from the crowd. He put his fingers into his ears, spat, and touched his tongue. ³⁴ Then he looked up to heaven, groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha” (that is, “Be opened”). ³⁵ Immediately the man’s ears were opened, and his tongue was untied, and he spoke clearly.

³⁶ Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them, the more they spread the news. ³⁷ They were totally astonished.

“Everything he does is marvelous!” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!”