Mark 7:7-17

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.' 1
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.
15 There is nothing that goes into you from the outside which can make you ritually unclean. Rather, it is what comes out of you that makes you unclean."
17 When he left the crowd and went into the house, his disciples asked him to explain this saying.

Cross References 1

  • 1. 7.10 aExodus 20.12;Deuteronomy 5.16; bExodus 21.17;Leviticus 20.9.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. [Some manuscripts add verse 16:] Listen, then, if you have ears! [(see 4.23).]
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.