Shared Word Translation
Mark 7
Traditions and Defilement
And the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem. And they saw that some of his disciples were eating bread with defiled hands, that is, unwashed. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands carefully, holding to the tradition of the elders. And from the marketplace, unless they wash, they do not eat, and there are many other things which they have received to hold—washings of cups and pitchers and copper vessels.
And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with defiled hands?”
And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy concerning you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
Leaving the commandment of God, you hold fast the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.
For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother shall surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a person says to father or mother, “Whatever benefit you might have received from me is Corban”—that is, a gift devoted to God— then you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or mother, nullifying the word of God by your tradition that you handed down. And many things like this you do.”
And calling the crowd again, he said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile.”
The Syrophoenician Woman
What Defiles a Person
And when he entered the house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, “Are you also without understanding? Do you not understand that nothing entering a person from outside can defile him, because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and goes out into the latrine?” Thus he declared all foods clean. And he said, “What comes out of a person, that defiles the person. For from within, out of the heart of human beings, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, an evil eye, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile the person.”
And rising from there, he went away to the region of Tyre. And entering a house, he wanted no one to know, yet he was not able to be hidden. But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, hearing about him, came and fell at his feet. Now the woman was a Greek, Syrophoenician by birth, and she was asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, “Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.” And he said to her, “Because of this word, go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.” And going to her house, she found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Jesus Heals a Deaf Man
Again, leaving the region of Tyre, he went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the midst of the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him one who was deaf and had difficulty speaking, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. Taking him away from the crowd by himself, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue. Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” Immediately his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was released, and he began speaking plainly. He ordered them that they should tell no one. But the more he ordered them, the more abundantly they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”