Mark 7

1 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.'

8 "You depart from God's command and hold onto human tradition. Indeed,"

9 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,' and `Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.'

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 Some manuscripts include verse 16: "Anyone who has ears that can hear, let him hear!"

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 Commentary

Chapter 7

The traditions of the elders. (1-13) What defiles the man. (14-23) The woman of Canaan's daughter cured. (24-30) Christ restores a man to hearing and speech. (31-37)

Verses 1-13 One great design of Christ's coming was, to set aside the ceremonial law; and to make way for this, he rejects the ceremonies men added to the law of God's making. Those clean hands and that pure heart which Christ bestows on his disciples, and requires of them, are very different from the outward and superstitious forms of Pharisees of every age. Jesus reproves them for rejecting the commandment of God. It is clear that it is the duty of children, if their parents are poor, to relieve them as far as they are able; and if children deserve to die that curse their parents, much more those that starve them. But if a man conformed to the traditions of the Pharisees, they found a device to free him from the claim of this duty.

Verses 14-23 Our wicked thoughts and affections, words and actions, defile us, and these only. As a corrupt fountain sends forth corrupt streams, so does a corrupt heart send forth corrupt reasonings, corrupt appetites and passions, and all the wicked words and actions that come from them. A spiritual understanding of the law of God, and a sense of the evil of sin, will cause a man to seek for the grace of the Holy Spirit, to keep down the evil thoughts and affections that work within.

Verses 24-30 Christ never put any from him that fell at his feet, which a poor trembling soul may do. As she was a good woman, so a good mother. This sent her to Christ. His saying, Let the children first be filled, shows that there was mercy for the Gentiles, and not far off. She spoke, not as making light of the mercy, but magnifying the abundance of miraculous cures among the Jews, in comparison with which a single cure was but as a crumb. Thus, while proud Pharisees are left by the blessed Saviour, he manifests his compassion to poor humbled sinners, who look to him for children's bread. He still goes about to seek and save the lost.

Verses 31-37 Here is a cure of one that was deaf and dumb. Those who brought this poor man to Christ, besought him to observe the case, and put forth his power. Our Lord used more outward actions in the doing of this cure than usual. These were only signs of Christ's power to cure the man, to encourage his faith, and theirs that brought him. Though we find great variety in the cases and manner of relief of those who applied to Christ, yet all obtained the relief they sought. Thus it still is in the great concerns of our souls.