Mark 7

1 Then the Pharisees, with certain Scribes who had come from Jerusalem, came to Him in a body.

2 They had noticed that some of His disciples were eating their food with `unclean' (that is to say, unwashed) hands.

3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews--being, as they are, zealous for the traditions of the Elders--never eat without first carefully washing their hands,

4 and when they come from market they will not eat without bathing first; and they have a good many other customs which they have received traditionally and cling to, such as the rinsing of cups and pots and of bronze utensils, and the washing of beds.)

5 So the Pharisees and Scribes put the question to Him: "Why do your disciples transgress the traditions of the Elders, and eat their food with unclean hands?"

6 "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites," He replied; "as it is written, "`This People honour Me with their lips, while their hearts are far away from Me:

7 But idle is their devotion while they lay down precepts which are mere human rules.'

8 "You neglect God's Commandment: you hold fast to men's traditions."

9 "Praiseworthy indeed!" He added, "to set at nought God's Commandment in order to observe your own traditions!

10 For Moses said, `Honour thy father and thy mother' and again, `He who curses father or mother, let him die the death.'

11 But *you* say, `If a man says to his father or mother, It is a Korban (that is, a thing devoted to God), whatever it is, which otherwise you would have received from me--'

12 And so you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or mother,

13 thus nullifying God's precept by your tradition which you have handed down. And many things of that kind you do."

14 Then Jesus called the people to Him again. "Listen to me, all of you," He said, "and understand.

15 There is nothing outside a man which entering him can make him unclean; but it is the things which come out of a man that make him unclean."

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17 After He had left the crowd and gone indoors, His disciples began to ask Him about this figure of speech.

18 "Have *you* also so little understanding?" He replied; "do you not understand that anything whatever that enters a man from outside cannot make him unclean,

19 because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and passes away ejected from him?" By these words Jesus pronounced all kinds of food clean.

20 "What comes out of a man," He added, "that it is which makes him unclean.

21 For from within, out of men's hearts, their evil purposes proceed--fornication, theft, murder, adultery,

22 covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, reviling, pride, reckless folly:

23 all these wicked things come out from within and make a man unclean."

24 Then He rose and left that place and went into the neighbourhood of Tyre and Sidon. Here He entered a house and wished no one to know it, but He could not escape observation.

25 Forthwith a woman whose little daughter was possessed by a foul spirit heard of Him, and came and flung herself at His feet.

26 She was a Gentile woman, a Syro-phoenician by nation: and again and again she begged Him to expel the demon from her daughter.

27 "Let the children first eat all they want," He said; "it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."

28 "True, Sir," she replied, "and yet the dogs under the table eat the children's scraps."

29 "For those words of yours, go home," He replied; "the demon has gone out of your daughter."

30 So she went home, and found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

31 Returning from the neighbourhood of Tyre, He came by way of Sidon to the Lake of Galilee, passing through the district of the Ten Towns.

32 Here they brought to Him a deaf man that stammered, on whom they begged Him to lay His hands.

33 So Jesus taking him aside, apart from the crowd, put His fingers into his ears, and spat, and moistened his tongue;

34 and looking up to Heaven He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha!" (that is, "Open!")

35 And the man's ears were opened, and his tongue became untied, and he began to speak perfectly.

36 Then Jesus charged them to tell no one; but the more He charged them, all the more did they spread the news far and wide.

37 The amazement was extreme. "He succeeds in everything he attempts," they exclaimed; "he even makes deaf men hear and dumb men 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.