15
“It Is Not What Goes into a Person’s Mouth That Makes Him Unclean”
1 Then there came to Jesus from Jerusalem some Pharisees and Torah-experts.
2 “Why do your disciples disregard the oral tradition handed down to us through generations of rabbis?” they asked. “For they don’t perform the prescribed hand-washings when they eat!”
3 “And why do ᵖyou yourselves disregard God’s commandment for the sake of ᵖyour own tradition?” Jesus asked them in response.
4 “God, for example, said, ‘Honor ˢyour father and mother,’+ and, ‘Anyone who curses father or mother must surely be put to death.’+
5 ᵖYou, however, say, ‘If someone says to his father or mother, “Whatever help ˢyou would have received from me is now this—a gift dedicated to the temple”—
6 he doesn’t have to honor his father.’ And so ᵖyou undermine the authority of the word of God for the sake of your own tradition.
7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was fully accurate when he prophesied about ᵖyou:
8 “ ‘As for this people, it is with their lips that they honor me.
Their hearts, though, are far, far away from me.
9 Their worship of me is completely futile,
for they teach as doctrines precepts concocted by mere men.’”+
10 Then he called the crowd over to himself and said to them: “Listen and understand this:
11 It is not what goes into a person’s mouth that makes him unclean. It is what comes out of a person’s mouth, rather, that makes him unclean.”
12 Then the disciples came up and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were appalled when they heard this teaching?”
13 “Every plant that my Father in heaven has not planted,” Jesus replied, “will be uprooted.
14 Leave them. Blind guides are what they are. And if one blind person tries to guide another blind person, both will fall into a pit.”
15 In response Peter said to him, “Please explain the parable to us.”
16 “Do ᵖyou disciples, too, yourselves still not understand?” Jesus asked.
17 “Surely ᵖyou realize, don’t you, that anything that goes into a person’s mouth goes into his stomach and then on out into the latrine?
18 The things that come out of one’s mouth, however, spring from where? From the heart. And it is those things that make a person unclean.
19 From the heart, you see, come evil plans, acts of murder, acts of adultery, acts of sexual immorality, acts of theft, acts of false testimony, and every sort of blasphemous utterance.
20 These are the things that make someone unclean! Simply eating with ritually unwashed hands, however, doesn’t make a person unclean.”
“There Came to Him from That Area a Canaanite Woman”
21 Then Jesus left that place and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
22 Suddenly there came to him from that area a Canaanite woman. “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David!” she cried out again and again. “My daughter has a demon that is tormenting her severely!”
23 Yet Jesus did not answer her a word. So his disciples came up and began urging him, “Please send her away, because she keeps crying out behind us.”
24 Then Jesus answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the nation of Israel.”
25 At that, the woman came and fell on her knees before him. “Lord, help me!” she cried.
26 “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs,” Jesus replied.
27 “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat some of the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
28 “Dear woman,” Jesus replied to her, “how great your faith is! Let it be done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very moment.
“Those Who Ate Numbered Four Thousand, Not Counting Women and Children”
29 After Jesus left that place, he went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on the mountainside and sat down there.
30 Large crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, people unable to talk, and many others. They laid them at his feet, and he healed them.
31 As a result the crowd was in awe, as they saw those formerly unable to talk now talking, the crippled made well, the lame walking, and the blind able to see. And they glorified the God of Israel.
32 Jesus, then, having called his disciples over to himself, said, “My heart goes out to this crowd, because they have already been here with me three days and don’t have anything to eat. I don’t want, though, to send them away hungry, for they might give out on the way home.”
33 “Where in this wilderness could we get that much bread?” his disciples asked him. “To feed such a large crowd!”
34 “How many loaves of bread do ᵖyou have?” Jesus asked them.
“Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”
35 So after he directed the people to sit down on the ground,
36 Jesus took the seven small round loaves and the cooked fish. And when he had given thanks, he broke them and kept giving them to the disciples, and the disciples, in turn, kept giving them to the crowds.
37 They all ate as much as they wanted. As for what was left of the broken pieces, the disciples received back from the people seven large baskets full.
38 Those who ate, moreover, numbered four thousand, not counting women and children.
39 And when Jesus had dismissed the crowd, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.