The Teaching of the Ancestors

(Mt 15.1–9)

1Some Pharisees and teachers of the Law who had come from Jerusalem gathered round Jesus. 2They noticed that some of his disciples were eating their food with hands that were ritually unclean — that is, they had not washed them in the way the Pharisees said people should.

3(For the Pharisees, as well as the rest of the Jews, follow the teaching they received from their ancestors: they do not eat unless they wash their hands in the proper way; 4nor do they eat anything that comes from the market unless they wash it first.7.4 anything that comes from the market unless they wash it first; or anything after they come from the market unless they wash themselves first. And they follow many other rules which they have received, such as the proper way to wash cups, pots, copper bowls, and beds.7.4 Some manuscripts do not have and beds.)

5So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law asked Jesus, “Why is it that your disciples do not follow the teaching handed down by our ancestors, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?”

67.6–7: Is 29.13 (LXX)Jesus answered them, “How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you! You are hypocrites, just as he wrote:

‘These people, says God, honour me with their words,

but their heart is really far away from me.

7It is no use for them to worship me,

because they teach human rules

as though they were God's laws!’

8“You put aside God's command and obey human teachings.”

9And Jesus continued, “You have a clever way of rejecting God's law in order to uphold your own teaching. 107.10: Ex 20.12; 21.17; Lev 20.9; Deut 5.16For Moses commanded, ‘Respect your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever curses his father or his mother is to be put to death.’ 11But you teach that if a person has something he could use to help his father or mother, but says, ‘This is Corban’ (which means, it belongs to God), 12he is excused from helping his father or mother. 13In this way the teaching you pass on to others cancels out the word of God. And there are many other things like this that you do.”

The Things that Make a Person Unclean

(Mt 15.10–20)

14Then Jesus called the crowd to him once more and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand. 15There is nothing that goes into a person from the outside which can make him ritually unclean. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that makes him unclean.”7.15 Some manuscripts add verse 16: Listen, then, if you have ears! (see 4.23).

17When he left the crowd and went into the house, his disciples asked him to explain this saying. 18“You are no more intelligent than the others,” Jesus said to them. “Don't you understand? Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can really make him unclean, 19because it does not go into his heart but into his stomach and then goes on out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared that all foods are fit to be eaten.)

20And he went on to say, “It is what comes out of a person that makes him unclean. 21For from the inside, from a person's heart, come the evil ideas which lead him to do immoral things, to rob, kill, 22commit adultery, be greedy, and do all sorts of evil things; deceit, indecency, jealousy, slander, pride, and folly — 23all these evil things come from inside a person and make him unclean.”

A Woman's Faith

(Mt 15.21–28)

24Then Jesus left and went away to the territory near the city of Tyre. He went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he could not stay hidden. 25A woman, whose daughter had an evil spirit in her, heard about Jesus and came to him at once and fell at his feet. 26The woman was a Gentile, born in the region of Phoenicia in Syria. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. 27But Jesus answered, “Let us first feed the children. It isn't right to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.”

28“Sir,” she answered, “even the dogs under the table eat the children's leftovers!”

29So Jesus said to her, “Because of that answer, go back home, where you will find that the demon has gone out of your daughter!”

30She went home and found her child lying on the bed; the demon had indeed gone out of her.

Jesus Heals a Deaf-mute

31Jesus then left the neighbourhood of Tyre and went on through Sidon to Lake Galilee, going by way of the territory of the Ten Towns. 32Some people brought him a man who was deaf and could hardly speak, and they begged Jesus to place his hands on him. 33So Jesus took him off alone, away from the crowd, put his fingers in the man's ears, spat, and touched the man's tongue. 34Then Jesus looked up to heaven, gave a deep groan, and said to the man, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Open up!”

35At once the man was able to hear, his speech impediment was removed, and he began to talk without any trouble. 36Then Jesus ordered the people not to speak of it to anyone; but the more he ordered them not to, the more they spoke. 37And all who heard were completely amazed. “How well he does everything!” they exclaimed. “He even causes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak!”