Thematic Bible
Matthew 15:1 (show verse)
Then Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying,
Matthew 15:2 (show verse)
"Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they take their food."
Matthew 15:3 (show verse)
He replied, "And why do you transgress the command of God with your traditions?
Matthew 15:4 (show verse)
God enjoined, Honour your father and mother, and, He who curses his father or mother is to suffer death.
Matthew 15:5 (show verse)
But you say, whoever tells his father or mother, 'This money might have been at your service but it is dedicated to God,'
Matthew 15:6 (show verse)
need not honour his father or mother. So you have repealed the law of God to suit your own tradition.
Matthew 15:7 (show verse)
You hypocrites! Isaiah made a grand prophecy about you when he said,
Matthew 15:8 (show verse)
This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me:
Matthew 15:9 (show verse)
vain is their worship of me, for the doctrines they teach are but human precepts."
Matthew 15:10 (show verse)
Then he called the crowd and said to them, "Listen, understand this:
Matthew 15:11 (show verse)
it is not what enters a man's mouth that defiles him, what defiles a man is what comes out of his mouth."
Matthew 15:12 (show verse)
Then the disciples came up and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees have taken offence at what they hear you say?"
Matthew 15:13 (show verse)
He replied, "Any plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up.
Matthew 15:14 (show verse)
Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind, and if one blind man leads another, both of them will fall into a pit."
Matthew 15:15 (show verse)
Peter answered, "Explain this parable to us at anyrate."
Matthew 15:16 (show verse)
He said, "And are you totally ignorant?
Matthew 15:17 (show verse)
Do you not see how all that enters the mouth passes into the belly and is then thrown out into the drain,
Matthew 15:18 (show verse)
while what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart ??and that is what defiles a man.
Matthew 15:19 (show verse)
For out of the heart come evil designs, murder, adultery, sexual vice, stealing, false witness, and slander.
Matthew 15:20 (show verse)
That is what defiles a man; a man is not defiled by eating with hands unwashed!"
Matthew 15:21 (show verse)
Going away from there Jesus withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.
Matthew 15:22 (show verse)
And a woman of Canaan came out of these parts and wailed, "Have pity on me, Lord, O Son of David! My daughter is cruelly possessed by a daemon."
Matthew 15:23 (show verse)
But he made no answer to her. Then his disciples came up and pressed him, saying, "Send her away, she is wailing behind us."
Matthew 15:24 (show verse)
He replied, "It was only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel that I was sent."
Matthew 15:25 (show verse)
But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, do help me."
Matthew 15:26 (show verse)
He replied, "It is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."
Matthew 15:27 (show verse)
"No, sir," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table."
Matthew 15:28 (show verse)
At that Jesus replied, "O woman, you have great faith; your prayer is granted as you wish." And from that hour her daughter was cured.
Matthew 15:29 (show verse)
Then Jesus removed from that country and went along the sea of Galilee; he went up the hillside and sat there.
Matthew 15:30 (show verse)
And large crowds came to him bringing the lame, and the blind, the dumb, the maimed, and many others; they laid them at his feet, and he healed them.
Matthew 15:31 (show verse)
This made the crowd wonder, to see dumb people speaking, the lame walking, and the blind seeing.
Matthew 15:32 (show verse)
Then Jesus called his disciples and said, "I am sorry for the crowd; they have been three days with me now, and they have nothing to eat. I will not send them away starving, in case they faint on the road."
Matthew 15:33 (show verse)
The disciples said to him, "Where are we to get loaves enough in a desert to satisfy such a crowd?"
Matthew 15:34 (show verse)
Jesus said to them, "How many loaves have you got?" They said, "Seven, and some little fish."
Matthew 15:35 (show verse)
So he ordered the crowd to recline on the ground.
Matthew 15:36 (show verse)
He took the seven loaves and the fish and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples to the crowds.
Matthew 15:37 (show verse)
So the people all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over and filled seven large baskets with them.
Matthew 15:38 (show verse)
The men who ate numbered four thousand, apart from the children and the women.
Matthew 15:39 (show verse)
Then he sent the crowd away, got into the boat and went to the territory of Magadan.