Traditions and Commandments

¹pNow when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes qwho had come from Jerusalem, ²they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were rdefiled, that is, unwashed. ³(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly,1 holding to sthe tradition of tthe elders, ⁴and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.2 And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as uthe washing of vcups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.3) ⁵And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to sthe tradition of tthe elders, wbut eat with rdefiled hands?” ⁶And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you xhypocrites, as it is written,

y“‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me;

⁷in vain do they worship me,

teaching as zdoctrines the commandments of men.’

⁸You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

⁹And he said to them, “You have a fine way of arejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! ¹⁰For Moses said, b‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, c‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ ¹¹But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)4— ¹²then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, ¹³thus dmaking void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

What Defiles a Person

¹⁴And he called the people to him again and said to them, e“Hear me, all of you, and understand: ¹⁵fThere is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”5 ¹⁷And when he had entered gthe house and left the people, hhis disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸And he said to them, “Then iare you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, ¹⁹since it enters not his heart jbut his stomach, and is expelled?”6 (kThus he declared all foods clean.) ²⁰And he said, l“What comes out of a person is what defiles him. ²¹For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, mmurder, adultery, ²²coveting, wickedness, deceit, nsensuality, oenvy, pslander, qpride, rfoolishness. ²³sAll these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

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