7:1 The Pharisees gathered round Jesus, together with some legal experts from Jerusalem.
7:2 They saw that some of his disciples were eating their food with unclean (that is, unwashed) hands.
7:3 (The Pharisees, you see—and indeed all the Jews—don’t eat unless they first carefully wash their hands. This is to maintain the tradition of the elders.
7:4 When they come in from the market, they never eat without washing. There are many other traditions which they observe: washings of cups, pots and bronze dishes.)
7:5 Anyway, the Pharisees and legal experts asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples follow the tradition of the elders? Why do they eat their food with unwashed hands?”
7:6 “Isaiah summed you up just right,” Jesus replied. “What hypocrites you are! What he said was this: With their lips this people honors me, but with their hearts they turn away from me;
7:7 all in vain they think to worship me, all they teach is human commands.
7:8 “You abandon God’s commands, and keep human tradition!
7:9 “So,” he went on, “you have a fine way of setting aside God’s command so as to maintain your tradition.
7:10 Here’s an example: Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who slanders father or mother should die.’
7:11 But you say, ‘If someone says to their father or mother, “What you might get from me—it’s Korban!” ’ (which means, ‘given-to-God’),
7:12 you don’t let them do anything else for their father or mother!
7:13 The net result is that you invalidate God’s word through this tradition which you hand on. And there are lots more things like that which you do.”
7:14 Jesus summoned the crowd again. “Listen to me, all of you,” he said, “and get this straight.
7:15 What goes into you from outside can’t make you unclean. What makes you unclean is what comes out from inside.”
7:17 When they got back into the house, away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable.
7:18 “You didn’t get it either?” he asked. “Don’t you see that whatever goes into someone from outside can’t make them unclean?
7:19 It doesn’t go into the heart; it only goes into the stomach, and then carries on, out down the drain.” (Result: all foods are clean.)
7:20 “What makes someone unclean,” he went on, “is what comes out of them.
7:21 Evil intentions come from inside, out of people’s hearts—sexual immorality, theft, murder,
7:23 These evil things all come from inside. They are what make someone unclean.”
7:24 Jesus got up, left that place, and went to the region of Tyre. When he went into a house, he didn’t want anyone to know, but it wasn’t possible for him to remain hidden.
7:25 On the contrary: news of him at once reached a woman who had a young daughter with an unclean spirit. She came and threw herself down at his feet.
7:26 She was Greek, a Syrophoenician by race; and she asked him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
7:27 “First let the children eat what they want,” Jesus replied. “It’s not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
7:28 “Well, Master,” she said, “even the dogs under the table eat the crumbs that the children drop.”
7:29 “Well said!” replied Jesus. “Off you go; the demon has left your daughter.”
7:30 So she went home, and found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
7:31 Jesus went away from the region of Tyre, through Sidon, round towards the sea of Galilee, and into the region of the Ten Towns.
7:32 They brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and asked that he would lay his hand on him.
7:33 Jesus took the man off in private, away from the crowd. He put his fingers into his ears, spat, and touched his tongue.
7:34 Then he looked up to heaven, groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha” (that is, “Be opened”).
7:35 Immediately the man’s ears were opened, and his tongue was untied, and he spoke clearly.
7:36 Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them, the more they spread the news.
7:37 They were totally astonished. “Everything he does is marvelous!” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!”
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