Chapter 7

1The Pharisees, members of a Jewish religious movement, gathered around Jesus. With them were some teachers of Jewish law who had come from Jerusalem.

2They saw some of Jesus’ disciples eating with ritually impure hands—that is, without washing them first.

3The Pharisees and Jewish people generally do not eat without first washing their hands according to a prescribed ritual. In this way, they follow the tradition handed down by earlier religious leaders.

4When they return from the marketplace, they do not eat until they have washed. They follow many other customs handed down to them, including the ritual washing of cups, jugs, bronze containers, and dining couches.

5The Pharisees and the teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition handed down by our earlier leaders? Why do they eat with ritually impure hands?”

6Jesus answered them, “Isaiah was right when he spoke for God about hypocrites like you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

7God’s words continue: ‘Their worship of me has no value because they teach human commands as if they came from God.’

8Jesus continued, “You let go of God’s command and hold tightly to human tradition.”

9Jesus also told them, “You have found a clever way to reject God’s command so that you can preserve your own tradition!

10Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ He also said, ‘Anyone who speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death.’

11But you teach that someone may tell his father or mother, ‘The help you might have received from me is Corban’—meaning that it has been given to God.

12Jesus continued, “Then you no longer allow that person to do anything to help his father or mother.

13In this way, you cancel God’s word by the tradition you have handed down. You do many other things like this.”

14Jesus called the crowd to him again and said, “All of you, listen to me and understand this:

15Nothing that enters a person from outside can make that person impure before God. What comes out of a person is what makes the person impure.”

17After Jesus left the crowd and entered a house, his disciples asked him what this saying meant.

18Jesus answered them, “Do you still not understand? Don’t you realize that nothing entering a person from outside can make that person impure?

19Food does not enter the heart. It enters the stomach and then passes out into the toilet.” By saying this, Jesus made every kind of food clean and acceptable to eat.

20Jesus continued, “What comes out of a person is what makes that person impure.

21Evil thoughts come from within, from the human heart. These include sexual immorality, theft, and murder,

22as well as adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, shameless behavior, envy, abusive speech, arrogance, and foolishness.

23All these evil things come from within, and they make a person impure before God.”

24Jesus left that place and went to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he could not remain hidden.

25A woman soon heard about him. Her young daughter was controlled by an evil spirit, so the woman came and fell at Jesus’ feet.

26She was a non-Jew from Syrian Phoenicia. She kept asking Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

27Jesus told her, “First let the children eat all they want. It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”

28The woman replied, “Sir, even the little dogs under the table eat some of the children’s crumbs.”

29Jesus told her, “Because you said this, go home. The demon has left your daughter.”

30She went home and found the child lying on the bed. The demon was gone.

31Jesus left the region of Tyre again and traveled by way of Sidon toward the Sea of Galilee. He passed through the Decapolis, the region known as the Ten Cities.

32People brought Jesus a deaf man who had difficulty speaking. They begged Jesus to place his hand on him.

33Jesus took the man away from the crowd so they could be alone. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spat and touched the man’s tongue.

34Jesus looked up toward heaven, sighed deeply, and said to the man, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Open!”

35The man’s ears opened, what had bound his tongue came loose, and he began speaking clearly.

36Jesus ordered the people not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to speak, the more widely they spread the news.

37The people were completely amazed. They said, “Everything he has done is wonderful! He even makes deaf people hear and people who cannot speak talk.”