Thematic Bible
Mark 7:1 (show verse)
The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Him.
Mark 7:2 (show verse)
They observed that some of His disciples were eating their bread with unclean—that is, unwashed—hands.
Mark 7:3 (show verse)
(For the Pharisees, in fact all the Jews, will not eat unless they wash their hands ritually, keeping the tradition of the elders.
Mark 7:4 (show verse)
When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they have washed. And there are many other customs they have received and keep, like the washing of cups, jugs, copper utensils, and dining couches.)
Mark 7:5 (show verse)
Then the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why don’t Your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders, instead of eating bread with ritually unclean hands?”
Mark 7:6 (show verse)
He answered them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written:
These people honor Me with their lips,
but their heart is far from Me.
Mark 7:7 (show verse)
Mark 7:8 (show verse)
Mark 7:9 (show verse)
He also said to them, “You completely invalidate God’s command in order to maintain your tradition!
Mark 7:10 (show verse)
Mark 7:11 (show verse)
Mark 7:12 (show verse)
Mark 7:13 (show verse)
Mark 7:14 (show verse)
Summoning the crowd again, He told them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand:
Mark 7:15 (show verse)
Mark 7:16 (show verse)
Mark 7:17 (show verse)
When He went into the house away from the crowd, the disciples asked Him about the parable.
Mark 7:18 (show verse)
And He said to them, “Are you also as lacking in understanding? Don’t you realize that nothing going into a man from the outside can defile him?
Mark 7:19 (show verse)
Mark 7:20 (show verse)
Then He said, “What comes out of a person—that defiles him.
Mark 7:21 (show verse)
Mark 7:22 (show verse)
Mark 7:23 (show verse)
Mark 7:24 (show verse)
He got up and departed from there to the region of Tyre and Sidon. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, but He could not escape notice.
Mark 7:25 (show verse)
Instead, immediately after hearing about Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit came and fell at His feet.
Mark 7:26 (show verse)
Now the woman was Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
Mark 7:27 (show verse)
He said to her, “Allow the children to be satisfied first, because it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
Mark 7:28 (show verse)
But she replied to Him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
Mark 7:29 (show verse)
Then He told her, “Because of this reply, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
Mark 7:30 (show verse)
When she went back to her home, she found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone.
Mark 7:31 (show verse)
Again, leaving the region of Tyre, He went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis.
Mark 7:32 (show verse)
They brought to Him a deaf man who also had a speech difficulty, and begged Jesus to lay His hand on him.
Mark 7:33 (show verse)
So He took him away from the crowd privately. After putting His fingers in the man’s ears and spitting, He touched his tongue.
Mark 7:34 (show verse)
Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!” ).
Mark 7:35 (show verse)
Immediately his ears were opened, his speech difficulty was removed, and he began to speak clearly.
Mark 7:36 (show verse)
Then He ordered them to tell no one, but the more He would order them, the more they would proclaim it.
Mark 7:37 (show verse)
They were extremely astonished and said, “He has done everything well! He even makes deaf people hear, and people unable to speak, talk!”