Human Traditions and God’s Commandments
1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying,
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"Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat {a meal}."
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So he answered [and] said to them, "Why do you also break the commandment of God because of your tradition?
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For God said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'The one who speaks evil of father or mother {must certainly die}.'
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But you say, 'Whoever says to his father or his mother, "Whatever {benefit you would have received} from me [is] a gift [to God],"
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need not honor his father,' and you make void the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
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Hypocrites! Isaiah correctly prophesied about you saying,
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'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far, far away from me,
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and they worship me in vain, teaching [as] doctrines the commandments of men.'"
Defilement from Within
10 And summoning the crowd, he said to them, "Hear and understand:
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It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth--this defiles a person."
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Then the disciples came [and] said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended [when they] heard this saying?"
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And he answered [and] said, "Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.
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Let them! They are blind guides of the blind. And if the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit."
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But Peter answered [and] said to him, "Explain this parable to us."
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But he said, "Are you also still without understanding?
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Do you not understand that everything that enters into the mouth goes into the stomach and is evacuated into the latrine?
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But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these defile the person.
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For from the heart come evil plans, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, abusive speech.
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These are the things that defile a person. But eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person!"