Matthew 15:17

17 Understand ye not, that all thing that entereth into the mouth, goeth into the womb, and is sent out into the going away?

Matthew 15:17 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 15:17

Do not ye understand
You must understand, you cannot be so ignorant,

that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth, goeth into the belly, and
is cast out into the draught?
that is, that whatsoever food a man takes in at his mouth, he swallows down, and it is received into his stomach; which, having performed its office, the grosser parts go down into the belly, and passing through the bowels, are evacuated into the vault, or privy, "purging all meats", as Mark says; for that only receives the filth and excrementitious matter; so that what is left in the body is pure, wholesome, and nourishing: nor can any part of what goes into a man defile him, because it only enters into the body, and passes through it; and, as Mark says, "entereth not into the heart", which is the seat of moral impurity; so that no moral pollution can be contracted by eating any sort of food, even though it should not be clean itself, nor be eaten with clean hands.

Matthew 15:17 In-Context

15 Peter answered, and said to him, Expound to us this parable.
16 And he said, Yet be ye also without understanding/Yet ye be without understanding? [And he said, Yet also ye be without understanding?]
17 Understand ye not, that all thing that entereth into the mouth, goeth into the womb, and is sent out into the going away?
18 But those things that come forth from the mouth, go out from the heart [go out of the heart], and those things defoul the man.
19 For of the heart go out evil thoughts [For out of the heart cometh evil thoughts], manslayings, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnessings, blasphemies.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.