4.8 KiB
God's Commandments, Man's Traditions
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And the Pharisees and some of the scribes *gathered around Him when they had come from Jerusalem,
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and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with defiled hands, that is, unwashed.
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(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders;
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and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.)
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And the Pharisees and the scribes *asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled hands?"
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And He said to them, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me.
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But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commands of men.'
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Leaving the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men."
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And He was also saying to them, "You are good at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.
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For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, is to be put to death';
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but you say, 'If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever you might benefit from me is Corban (that is to say, given to God),'
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you no longer leave him to do anything for his father or his mother;
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thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that."
The Heart of Man
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And after He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, "Listen to Me, all of you, and understand:
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there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.
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[And if anyone has ears to hear, let him hear."]
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And when He had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples were asking Him about the parable.
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And He *said to them, "Are you lacking understanding in this way as well? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him,
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because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and goes to the sewer?" (Thus He declared all foods clean.)
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And He was saying, "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.
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For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries,
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coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.
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All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man."
A Gentile Woman's Faith
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Now Jesus stood up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He was wanting no one to know of it; yet He could not escape notice.
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But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet.
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Now the woman was a Greek, of Syrophoenician descent. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
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And He was saying to her, "Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."
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But she answered and *said to Him, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children's crumbs."
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And He said to her, "Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter."
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And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.
The Deaf Hear, the Mute Speak
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And again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of the Decapolis.
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And they *brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they *pleaded with Him to lay His hand on him.
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And Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue;
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and looking up to heaven with a sigh, He *said to him, "Ephphatha!" that is, "Be opened!"
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And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly.
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And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He was ordering them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it.
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And they were utterly astonished, saying, "He has done all things well; He makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."