Mark

On Tradition

One day, the Pharisees gathered around Jesus, along with some teachers of the law who had just arrived from Jerusalem.

They noticed that some of his disciples were eating their meal with unwashed hands, meaning they did not wash them. 

 Now the Pharisees, and indeed all the Jews, never eat without washing their hands because they follow the tradition passed down from their ancestors. 

Nor do they eat anything when they come from the market without first rinsing themselves. And they observe many other traditions as well; for example, the ritual washing of cups, pots, and plates. 

So the Pharisees and the teachers of the law asked him:

“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders, but eat with unclean hands?”

Jesus answered:

“You shallow people! How well Isaiah prophesied about you when he wrote:

This people honors me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me. 

The worship they offer me is worthless,

Teaching as doctrines only human precepts. 

You even set aside the commandment of God to hold on to human tradition.”

And Jesus commented:

“You have a poor way of disregarding the commandments of God in order to enforce your own traditions!

For example, Moses said: Do your duty to your father and your mother, and: Whoever curses his father or his mother is to be put to death. 

But according to you, someone could say to his father or his mother, ‘I already declared Corban (which means “offered to God’),’ which you could have expected from me.’ 

In this case, you no longer require him to do anything for his father or mother; 

 and so you nullify the word of God through the tradition you have handed down. And you do many other things like that.”

On True Purity

Jesus then called the crowd to him again and said: “Listen to me, everyone, and understand.

Nothing that enters a person from outside can defile them. It is what comes from within that makes a person unclean. 

Let everyone with ears listen.”

 When Jesus got home and was away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about this saying 

he replied:

“So even you are dull? Do you not see that whatever comes from outside cannot make a person unclean,

since it enters not the heart but the stomach and is finally passed out?”

Therefore, Jesus declared that all foods are clean.

And he continued:

“What comes out of a person is what defiles him,

for evil intentions originate in the heart: theft, murder, 

adultery, jealousy, greed, maliciousness, deceit, indecency, slander, pride, and folly. 

All these evil things come from within and make a person unclean.”

The Faith of a Canaanite Woman 24 After Jesus left that place, he went to the border of the Tyrian territory. There, he entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there; however, he could not stay hidden. 

A woman, whose young daughter had an evil spirit, heard about him, and came to fall at his feet. 

Now, this woman was a pagan and a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 

Jesus told her:

“Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the puppies.”

But she replied:

“Sir, even the puppies under the table eat the crumbs from the children’s bread.”

Then Jesus said to her:

“For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.”

And when the woman went home, she found her child lying in bed, and the demon gone. 

Heals a Deaf-Mute31 Again, Jesus set out from the region of Tyre. He traveled through Sidon and, along the Sea of Galilee, he arrived in the territory of Decapolis. 

There, a deaf man who also struggled to speak was brought to him. They asked Jesus to lay his hand on him. 

Jesus pulled him aside from the crowd, put his fingers into the man’s ears, and touched his tongue with spittle. 

Then, looking up to heaven, he sighed deeply and said:

“Ephphatha!” which means, “Be opened!”

Immediately, his ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak clearly. 

Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone about it, but the more he insisted, the more they proclaimed it.

The people were completely astonished and said:

“He has done all things well; he makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.”