Traditions and Commandments
1 1Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes
2who had come from Jerusalem,
2
they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were
3defiled, that is, unwashed.
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(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to
4the tradition of
5the elders,
4
and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as
6the washing of
7cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.)
5
And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not walk according to
8the tradition of
9the elders,
10but eat with
11defiled hands?"
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And he said to them,
"Well did Isaiah prophesy of you 12hypocrites, as it is written, 13"'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
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in vain do they worship me, teaching as 14doctrines the commandments of men.'
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You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men."
9
And he said to them,
"You have a fine way of 15rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!
10
For Moses said, 16'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 17'Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.'
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But 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)--
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then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,
13
thus 18making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do."
What Defiles a Person
14 And he called the people to him again and said to them,
19"Hear me, all of you, and understand:
15
20There 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."
17
And when he had entered
21the house and left the people,
22his disciples asked him about the parable.
18
And he said to them,
"Then 23are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him,
19
since it enters not his heart 24but his stomach, and is expelled?" (
25Thus he declared all foods clean.)