Mark 7:1-23

International Standard Version

Jesus Challenges the Tradition of the Elders^(A)

7 The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus.^{[a] 2} They noticed that some of his disciples were eating^[b] with unclean hands, that is, without washing them. ³ (The Pharisees—and indeed all the Jewish people—don’t eat unless they wash their hands properly,^[c] following the tradition of their elders. ⁴ They don’t eat anything from the marketplace unless they dip it in water. They also observe many other traditions, such as the proper washing of washing cups, jars, brass pots, and dinner tables.)^{[d] 5} So the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus,^[e] “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders? Instead, they eat^[f] with unclean hands.”

⁶ He told them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. As it is written,

⁸ You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

⁹ Then he told them, “You have such a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your own tradition! ¹⁰ Because Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’^[h] and, ‘Whoever curses his father or mother must certainly be put to death.’^{[i] 11} But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or mother, “Whatever support you might have received from me is Corban,”’ (that is, an offering to God) ¹² ‘you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother.’ ¹³ You are destroying the word of God through your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many other things like that.”

¹⁴ Then he called to the crowd again and told them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand! ¹⁵ Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean. It’s what comes out of a person that makes a person unclean. ¹⁶ If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen!”^[j]

¹⁷ When he had left the crowd and gone home, his disciples began asking him about the parable. ¹⁸ He asked them, “Are you so ignorant? Don’t you know that nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean? ¹⁹ Because it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then into the sewer,^[k] thereby expelling^[l] all foods.” ²⁰ Then he continued, “It’s what comes out of a person that makes a person unclean, ²¹ because it’s from within, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come, as well as sexual immorality, stealing, murder, ²² adultery, greed, wickedness, cheating, shameless lust, envy, slander,^[m] arrogance, and foolishness. ²³ All these things come from inside and make a person unclean.”