Bible Verse Lookup
Mt 15:17-20
Chapter 15
17
Don’t you see that whatever goes into the mouth ends up in the stomach and then exits the body?
18
But what comes out of the mouth originates from the heart, and that’s what makes a person unclean.
19
Indeed, evil desires originate from the heart: murder, adultery, immorality, theft, lies, slander.
20
These are the things that make a person unclean, but eating without washing their hands does not make a person unclean.”
Commentaries
On Tradition – On True Purity.
The Pharisees and scribes of Jerusalem ask Jesus about his freedom and that of his disciples regarding traditions, which they had misused and turned into law. In this case, the ritual is washing hands before eating. Jesus turns the question into a debate and uses it to teach his message with confidence and clarity. Ultimately, all those traditions of legal purity had no other purpose than to preserve the identity of the Jewish people as God’s chosen people among others. And this is, in fact, what Jesus challenges by getting to the root of what makes a person pure or impure, worthy or unworthy before God: what comes out of their heart and is reflected in their actions, not the kind of food that enters their mouth.