Mark 7:4-14

4 nor do they eat anything that comes from the market unless they wash it first. And they follow many other rules which they have received, such as the proper way to wash cups, pots, copper bowls, and beds. )
5 So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law asked Jesus, "Why is it that your disciples do not follow the teaching handed down by our ancestors, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?"
6 Jesus answered them, "How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you! You are hypocrites, just as he wrote: 1 "These people, says God, honor me with their words, but their heart is really far away from me.
7 It is no use for them to worship me, because they teach human rules as though they were my laws!'
8 "You put aside God's command and obey human teachings."
9 And Jesus continued, "You have a clever way of rejecting God's law in order to uphold your own teaching.
10 For Moses commanded, "Respect your father and your mother,' and, "If you curse your father or your mother, you are to be put to death.' 2
11 But you teach that if people have something they could use to help their father or mother, but say, "This is Corban' (which means, it belongs to God),
12 they are excused from helping their father or mother.
13 In this way the teaching you pass on to others cancels out the word of God. And there are many other things like this that you do."
14 Then Jesus called the crowd to him once more and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand.

Cross References 2

  • 1. 7.6, 7Isaiah 29.13 (LXX).
  • 2. 7.10 aExodus 20.12;Deuteronomy 5.16; bExodus 21.17;Leviticus 20.9.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. anything that comes from the market unless they wash it first; [or] anything after they come from the market unless they wash themselves first.
  • [b]. [Some manuscripts do not have] and beds.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.