Mark 7:1-23

The Things That Defile

7¹ And there are gathered together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, ² and had seen that some of his disciples ate their bread with defiled, that is, unwashen, hands. ³ (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands diligently, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders; ⁴ and [when they come] from the market-place, except they bathe themselves, they eat not; and many other things there are, which they have received to hold, washings of cups, and pots, and brasen vessels.) ⁵ And the Pharisees and the scribes ask him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled hands? ⁶ And he said unto them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoreth me with their lips, But their heart is far from me. ⁷ But in vain do they worship me, Teaching [as their] doctrines the precepts of men. ⁸ Ye leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men. ⁹ And he said unto them, Full well do ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your tradition. ¹⁰ For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother; and, He that speaketh evil of father or mother, let him die the death: ¹¹ but ye say, If a man shall say to his father or his mother, That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is Corban, that is to say, Given [to God]; ¹² ye no longer suffer him to do aught for his father or his mother; ¹³ making void the word of God by your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things ye do. ¹⁴ And he called to him the multitude again, and said unto them, Hear me all of you, and understand: ¹⁵ there is nothing from without the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man. ¹⁶ [If any man hath ears to hear, let him hear.] ¹⁷ And when he was entered into the house from the multitude, his disciples asked of him the parable. ¹⁸ And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Perceive ye not, that whatsoever from without goeth into the man, [it] cannot defile him; ¹⁹ because it goeth not into his heart, but into his belly, and goeth out into the draught? [This he said], making all meats clean. ²⁰ And he said, That which proceedeth out of the man, that defileth the man. ²¹ For from within, out of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, ²² covetings, wickednesses, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness: ²³ all these evil things proceed from within, and defile the man.