Mark 7:10-20

10 For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’
11 But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’
12 In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents.
13 And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.”
14 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand.
15 It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart. ”
17 Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used.
18 “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you?
19 Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.)
20 And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you.

Footnotes 4

  • [a]. Exod 20:12 ; Deut 5:16 .
  • [b]. Exod 21:17 (Greek version); Lev 20:9 (Greek version).
  • [c]. Greek ‘What I would have given to you is Corban’ (that is, a gift).
  • [d]. Some manuscripts add verse 16, Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. Compare 4:9, 23 .
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