Mark 7

1Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered together to him, 2they saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3(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. 4When 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.) 5The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with impure hands?" 6And 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. 7In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ 8You let go of the commandment of God, and hold on to the tradition of men." 9And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition! 10For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 11But 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), 12then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother, 13thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do." 14And he called all the people to him again, and said to them, "Hear me, everyone, and understand: 15there 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." 17When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18So he said to them, "Are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, 19since it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20And he said, "What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. 21For from within, out of the heart of men, come evil thoughts, fornications, theft, murder, adultery, 22coveting, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man."

24From 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. 25But a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard about him, and she came and fell at his feet. 26Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27And 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." 28But she answered him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs." 29Then he said to her, "For this saying you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter." 30She went home, and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

31Then he departed from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis. 32Then 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. 33And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. 34And looking up to heaven he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." 35And immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. 36And he commanded them to tell no one; but the more he charged them, the more widely they proclaimed it. 37And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."