New Testament · Gospels and Acts

Mark chapter 7

The and some who had come from gathered around Jesus.They noticed that some of his were eating with hands — meaning they hadn’t done the ceremonial washing.(The Pharisees and all observant Jewish people don’t eat without first doing a , holding to the .And when they come from the , they don’t eat until they’ve done a . There are many other traditions they cling to as well — like the ceremonial washing of cups, pitchers, and cooking pots.)So the Pharisees and legal experts asked him, “Why don’t your followers live according to the tradition passed down from earlier generations? They eat with ritually unclean hands!”Jesus answered them, “ had you people figured out perfectly when he wrote this prediction — you ! As it’s written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.Their of me is empty because they teach as if they were God’s commands.’“You God’s command and cling to human tradition.”Then he said to them, “You have of setting aside God’s command so you can hold on to your own tradition! said, ‘ your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother must be put to death.’But you say that if someone tells their father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have received from me is ’ (that is, a gift dedicated to God),then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother.This is how you through the tradition you’ve handed down. And you do plenty of other things just like this.”Then Jesus called the crowd to him again and said, “Everyone, listen to me and understand this:Nothing that goes into a person from outside can make them . It’s what comes out of a person that makes them unclean.”[If anyone has , let them hear.]When he went inside, away from the crowd, his followers asked him about the .He said to them, “Are you really that ? Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from outside can make them unclean?It doesn’t go into their but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (By saying this, Jesus .)Then he said, “It’s what comes out of a person that makes them unclean.Because from within — from the human — come , , theft, murder,adultery, , malice, deceit, , , slander, , and .All these evil things come from within and they are what make a person unclean.”Jesus left that area and went to the region of . He went into a house and didn’t want anyone to know he was there — but he couldn’t stay hidden.In fact, as soon as a woman whose little daughter had an heard about him, she came and fell at his feet.The woman was . She begged Jesus to drive the evil spirit out of her daughter.“First let the eat all they want,” he told her, “because it isn’t right to take the children’s food and throw it to the .”“,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”Then he told her, “, you can go — the evil spirit has left your daughter.”She went home and found the child lying on the bed, and the evil spirit was gone.Then Jesus left the region of Tyre and went through , down to the , into the region of the .There, people brought to him a man who was , and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him.Jesus to be alone with him. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he and touched the man’s tongue.Then, looking up to heaven, he let out a and said to the man, “!” — which means, “Be opened!”Right away the man’s ears were opened, his , and he began to .Jesus . But the more he told them to stop, the more they kept spreading the news.People were , saying, “ — he even makes deaf people hear and people who can’t speak talk!”