Mark 7

₁The Pharisees and some of the teachers_of_the_Laws came from the city of Jerusalem to talk to Jesus. ₂They said that some of the disciples of Jesus were eating food while their hands were impure, because they did not wash their hands in a special way. ₃The Pharisees and all the Jews always washed their hands in a special way before eating. They did this because their forefathers had always done that. ₄When they bought food or something else, they always washed it in a special way and only after that did they start to eat their food. They also did many other things that their forefathers had told them to do. They always washed their cups, bowls, brass bowls, tables and chairs in a special way.

₅The Pharisees and teachers_of_the_Laws asked Jesus: ‘Why don't your disciples do as our forefathers told us to do? Your disciples eat with impure hands.’ ₆Jesus said to them: ‘You are hypocrites. It is true what the prophet Isaiah said about you. He wrote:

₈You do not listen to what God says to you. But you keep on doing what people say.’ ₉Jesus said to them: ‘You forget the laws of God easily, so you can keep on doing what your forefathers have always done. ₁₀Moses said: “You must respect your father and your mother.” He said: “If someone curses his father or his mother, then he must die, this is sure.” ₁₁But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents: “Sorry, I can not help you, because I have made a promise to God that I will give this money to Him. I can not help you now.” ₁₂You are telling people that they do not have to help their father or mother. ₁₃You never do what God tells you. You only do what your forefathers told you. There are a lot of other things like this that you do.’

₁₄Jesus called the crowd of people together again and He said to them: ‘You must all listen to Me, and try to understand what I say. _15-16The food that you put into your mouth does not make you impure so that you can not worship God. It is the bad words that come out of your mouth that make you impure.’

₁₇Jesus went into the house, away from the people. His disciples asked Him what his words meant, in the parable that He had told them. ₁₈Jesus said to them: ‘Don't you understand what I said? You are my disciples. The food that you eat comes from the outside. It can not make you impure ₁₉because the food does not go into your heart. The food goes into your stomach and later it goes out of your body.’ These words of Jesus meant that all food was now pure, and people could eat any food. ₂₀Jesus said: ‘The things that you say can make you impure, _21-22because the bad things that a person thinks come from inside of him, from his heart. It is these bad things that a person thinks that make him sin: like immoral sex, or stealing, or killing someone, or adultery, or desiring other people's money or things, or doing something bad, or cheating other people, or doing sinful things, or being jealous, or saying bad things of other people, or thinking you are better than other people, or being like a fool. ₂₃All these bad things come from inside of you and make you impure.’

₂₄Jesus went away from there to places near the town of Tyre. He went into a house and He did not want anyone to know that He was there. But after a short while the people knew that He was there. ₂₅There was a woman with a daughter who had an evil_spirit in her. When they told her that Jesus was there, she came to Him immediately. She knelt before Jesus. ₂₆She was a Greek woman who was born in the land of Syro-Phoenicia. She asked Jesus again and again to chase_the_devil_out of her daughter. ₂₇But Jesus said to her: ‘The Jews are the children of God. They must first finish eating. The Gentiles are the same as dogs that are outside. They must wait, because it is not right to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs.’ ₂₈The woman said to Jesus: ‘That is true, Lord, but the dogs under the table eat the crumbs of bread that fall from the table when the children eat.’ ₂₉Jesus said to her: ‘That is a very good answer. You can go home because the devil has already gone out of your daughter.’

₃₀The woman went away. When she got home, she saw her daughter lying on the bed. The demon had gone out of her.

₃₁Jesus went away from the places near the town of Tyre. He first went to the towns of Sidon and Decapolis near Lake Galilee. ₃₂The people brought a deaf man to Him. He could not speak clearly. The people asked Jesus to put his hand on the man to heal him. ₃₃But Jesus took the man away from the other people. He put his fingers in the man's ears. Then Jesus spat on his finger and He touched the man's tongue with it. ₃₄Then Jesus looked up to heaven and He sighed loudly. He said to the man: ‘Effatha’. That means: ‘Open’.

₃₅The man could hear immediately. His tongue was right and he could speak clearly. ₃₆Jesus told the people not to tell anyone about this. Jesus often told the people that they must not tell what He did, but they did not stop. They told it to other people. ₃₇The people were very surprised and they said: ‘Everything that He does is good. He makes the deaf people hear and He heals people who can not speak.’