Tradition and Command

1And the Pharisees and some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, gather around him.

2and they saw that some of his disciples were eating the bread with defiled hands—that is, unwashed hands—

3For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands with a fist, holding to the tradition of the elders.

4And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash themselves, and there are many other things that they have received to keep: washings of cups and pitchers and copper vessels and dining couches—

5And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unclean hands?”

6But he said to them, “Isaiah prophesied well about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.’”

7But they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

8Leaving the commandment of God, you hold fast to the tradition of men.

9And he was saying to them, “You neatly set aside the commandment of God so that you may keep your tradition.”

10For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’

11But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, “Corban” (that is, a gift), whatever you might have benefited from me—’

12you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or mother,

13thus nullifying the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many other similar things.

14And calling the crowd to him again, he was saying to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand.”

15There is nothing outside a man that by going into him is able to defile him; rather, the things that come out from the man are what defile the man.

16If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.

17And when he entered a house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable.

18And he said to them, “So are you also without understanding? Do you not understand that everything that enters into the man from outside is not able to defile him,”

19because it does not enter into his heart but into his stomach, and goes out into the latrine"—thus cleansing all foods.

20And he was saying, “What comes out from the man—that defiles the man.”

21For from within, out of the heart of men, evil thoughts come out: sexual immoralities, thefts, murders,

22adulteries, greed, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, an evil eye, slander, pride, foolishness.

23All these evil things come out from within and defile the man.