The Traditions of the Elders
1The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him. 2They observed that some of his disciples were eating bread with unclean — that is, unwashed — hands. 3(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, keeping the tradition of the elders. 4When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they have washed. And there are many other customs they have received and keep, like the washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and dining couches.) 5So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders, instead of eating bread with ceremonially unclean hands?”
6He answered them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me.
7They worship me in vain,
teaching as doctrines human commands.
8Abandoning the command of God, you hold on to human tradition.” 9He also said to them, “You have a fine way of invalidating God’s command in order to set up your tradition! 10For Moses said: Honor your father and your mother; and Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death. 11But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or mother: Whatever benefit you might have received from me is corban’” (that is, an offering devoted to God), 12“you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. 13You nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many other similar things.”
14Summoning the crowd again, he told them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15Nothing that goes into a person from outside can defile him but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
17When he went into the house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18He said to them, “Are you also as lacking in understanding? Don’t you realize that nothing going into a person from the outside can defile him? 19For it doesn’t go into his heart but into the stomach and is eliminated” (thus he declared all foods clean). 20And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, 22adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. 23All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”
A Gentile Mother’s Faith
24He got up and departed from there to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, but he could not escape notice. 25Instead, immediately after hearing about him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit came and fell at his feet. 26The woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she was asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, because it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
28But she replied to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
29Then he told her, “Because of this reply, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.” 30When she went back to her home, she found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone.
Jesus Does Everything Well
31Again, leaving the region of Tyre, he went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis. 32They brought to him a deaf man who had difficulty speaking and begged Jesus to lay his hand on him. 33So he took him away from the crowd in private. After putting his fingers in the man’s ears and spitting, he touched his tongue. 34Looking up to heaven, he sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”). 35Immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak clearly. 36He ordered them to tell no one, but the more he ordered them, the more they proclaimed it.
37They were extremely astonished and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”