Mark 7 (NMV)
1 The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus.
2 They saw that some of His disciples were eating bread with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.
3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands thoroughly, holding to the tradition of the elders.
4 When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And they hold to many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and dining couches.)
5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, "Why don't Your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, instead of eating bread with defiled hands?"
6 He answered them, "Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.
7 They worship Me in vain, teaching human rules as if they were the commands of God.'"
8 "You abandon the command of God and hold on to human tradition."
9 He also said to them, "You skillfully ignore God's command in order to uphold your tradition.
10 For Moses said: Honor your father and your mother; and, Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death.
11 But you say, 'If anyone tells his father or mother: Whatever help you might have received from me is Corban'" (that is, a gift dedicated to God),
12 "then you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or mother.
13 You nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do many other things like that."
14 Summoning the crowd again, He told them, "Listen to Me, all of you, and understand:
15 There is nothing outside a person that goes into him that can defile him. But the things that come out of a person are what defile him."
16 "If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen!" [This verse is omitted in some manuscripts.]
17 When He went into the house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him about the parable.
18 He said to them, "Are you also lacking in understanding? Don't you realize that nothing going into a person from the outside can defile him?
19 For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then is eliminated." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
20 And He said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him.
21 For from within, out of people's hearts, come corrupt and harmful thoughts that lead to evil actions, all forms of sexual behavior that violate God's design for holiness, thefts, murders,
22 adulteries, a desire for more than God has provided for them, a corrupt and harmful mindset that leads to doing what is morally wrong, deceit, unrestrained immorality that disregards God's design for decency, resentment over others' blessings and a greedy eye for what they have, speaking harmful and degrading things about others, arrogance, and a refusal to live according to God's wisdom.
23 All these evil things come from within and defile a person."
24 He got up and left there for the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, but He could not escape notice.
25 Instead, immediately after hearing about Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit came and fell at His feet.
26 The woman was a Gentile [non-Jew], a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
27 He said to her, "Let the children be fed first, because it isn't right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."
28 But she replied to Him, "Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."
29 Then He told her, "Because of this reply, you may go. The demon has left your daughter."
30 She went back to her home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone.
31 Again, leaving the region of Tyre, He went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis.
32 They brought to Him a man who was deaf and had difficulty speaking, and they begged Jesus to lay His hand on him.
33 He took him aside from the crowd privately, put His fingers into the man's ears, and after spitting, touched his tongue.
34 Looking up to heaven, He sighed deeply and said to him, "Ephphatha!", that is, "Be opened!"
35 Immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak clearly.
36 Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone, but the more He ordered them, the more they proclaimed it.
37 They were extremely astonished and said, "He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!"