Thematic Bible
Mark 7:1 (show verse)
Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered together to him,
Mark 7:2 (show verse)
they saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.
Mark 7:3 (show verse)
(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders.
Mark 7:4 (show verse)
When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash themselves. And there are many other traditions which they observe, the washing of cups and pitchers and copper vessels.)
Mark 7:5 (show verse)
The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with impure hands?"
Mark 7:6 (show verse)
And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites; as it is written: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
Mark 7:7 (show verse)
In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'
Mark 7:8 (show verse)
You let go of the commandment of God, and hold on to the tradition of men."
Mark 7:9 (show verse)
And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition!
Mark 7:10 (show verse)
For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.'
Mark 7:11 (show verse)
But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to God),
Mark 7:12 (show verse)
then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother,
Mark 7:13 (show verse)
thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do."
Mark 7:14 (show verse)
And he called all the people to him again, and said to them, "Hear me, everyone, and understand:
Mark 7:15 (show verse)
there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him."
Mark 7:16 (show verse)
(...)
Mark 7:17 (show verse)
When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.
Mark 7:18 (show verse)
So he said to them, "Are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him,
Mark 7:19 (show verse)
since it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
Mark 7:20 (show verse)
And he said, "What comes out of a man is what defiles a man.
Mark 7:21 (show verse)
For from within, out of the heart of men, come evil thoughts, fornications, theft, murder, adultery,
Mark 7:22 (show verse)
coveting, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
Mark 7:23 (show verse)
All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man."
Mark 7:24 (show verse)
From there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house, and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not be hidden.
Mark 7:25 (show verse)
But a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard about him, and she came and fell at his feet.
Mark 7:26 (show verse)
Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
Mark 7:27 (show verse)
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."
Mark 7:28 (show verse)
But she answered him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."
Mark 7:29 (show verse)
Then he said to her, "For this saying you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter."
Mark 7:30 (show verse)
She went home, and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Mark 7:31 (show verse)
Then he departed from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis.
Mark 7:32 (show verse)
Then they brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged him to put his hand on him.
Mark 7:33 (show verse)
And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue.
Mark 7:34 (show verse)
And looking up to heaven he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."
Mark 7:35 (show verse)
And [immediately] his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.
Mark 7:36 (show verse)
And he commanded them to tell no one; but the more he charged them, the more widely they proclaimed it.
Mark 7:37 (show verse)
And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."