Mark 7

¹Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.

²And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.

³For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.

⁴And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.

⁵Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?

⁶He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

⁷Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

⁸For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.

⁹And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

¹⁰For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:

¹¹But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.

¹²And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;

¹³Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

¹⁴And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:

¹⁵There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.

¹⁶If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.

¹⁷And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.

¹⁸And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;

¹⁹Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?

²⁰And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

²¹For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

²²Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:

²³All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

See this passage explained in the Barnes Notes on Mt 15:1-20. Mt 15:1 and Mt 15:2-20.

Verse 1. Came from Jerusalem. Probably to observe his conduct, and to find matter of accusation against him.

²And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.

Defiled hands. The hands were considered defiled, or polluted, unless they were washed previous to every meal.

³For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.

Except they wash their hands oft. The word oft means frequently, often. The word translated oft has been rendered various ways. Some have said that it means “up to the wrist;” unless they wash their hands up to the wrist. Others have said, “up to the elbow.” There is evidence that the Pharisees had some such foolish rule as this about washing, and it is likely that they practised it faithfully, But the word probably means, diligently, accurately, carefully. Unless they wash their hands carefully, or according to rule, etc.

The tradition. What had been handed down, not what was delivered by writing in the law of Moses, but what had been communicated from father to son, as being proper and binding. The elders. The ancients, not the old men then living, but those who had lived formerly.

⁴And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.

Market. This word means either the place where provisions were sold, or the place where men were convened for any purpose. In this place it probably means the former.

Except they wash. In the original, “Except they baptize.” In this place it does not mean to immerse the whole body, but the hands only. There is no evidence that the Jews washed their whole bodies every time they came from market. It is probable they washed as a mere ceremony; and often, doubtless, with the use of a very small quantity of water.

The washing of cups. In the Greek, the baptism of cups.

Cups. Drinking vessels. Those used at their meals.

Pots. Measures of liquids. Vessels made of wood, used to hold wine, vinegar, etc.

Brasen vessels. Vessels made of brass, used in cooking or otherwise. These, if much polluted, were commonly passed through the fire; if slightly polluted, they were washed. Earthen vessels, if defiled, were usually broken.

Tables. This word means, in the original, beds or couches. It refers not to the tables on which they ate, but to the couches on which they reclined at their meals. Mt 23:6. These were supposed to be defiled when any unclean or polluted person had reclined on them; and they deemed it necessary to purify them with water. The word baptism is here used--in the original, the baptism of tables; but as it cannot be supposed that couches were entirely immersed in water, the word baptism, here, must denote some other application of water, by sprinkling or otherwise, and shows that the term is used in the sense of washing in any way. If the word here is used, as is clear, to denote anything except entire immersion, it may be elsewhere; and baptism is lawfully performed without immersing the whole body in water.

⁷Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

For doctrines. For commands of God binding on the conscience. Imposing your traditions as equal in authority to the commands of God.

⁸For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.

Laying aside. Rejecting, or making it give place to traditions; considering the traditions as superior in authority to the Divine law. This was the uniform doctrine of the Pharisees. See Mt 15:1-9.

The tradition of men. What has been handed down by men, or what rests solely on their authority.

⁹And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

Full well. These words are capable of different interpretations. Some read them as a question: “Do ye do well in rejecting?” etc. Others suppose they mean skilfully, cunningly. “You show great cunning, or art, in laying aside God’s commands, and substituting in their place those of men.” Others suppose them to be ironical. “How nobly you act! From conscientious attachment to your traditions, you have made void the law of God;” meaning to intimate by it, that they had acted wickedly and basely.

¹⁷And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.

The parable. The obscure and difficult remarks which he had made in Mk 7:15. The word parable, here, means obscure and difficult saying. They could not understand it. They had probably imbibed many of the popular notions of the Pharisees, and they could not understand why a man was not defiled by external things. It was, moreover, a doctrine of the law, that men were ceremonially polluted by contact with dead bodies, etc., and they could not understand how it could be otherwise.

¹⁸And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;

Cannot defile him. Cannot render his soul polluted; cannot make him a sinner, so as to need this purifying as a religious observance.

¹⁹Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?

Entereth not into his heart. Does not reach or affect the mind, the soul, and consequently cannot pollute it. Even if it should affect the body, yet it cannot the soul, and consequently cannot need to be cleansed by a religious ordinance. The notions of the Pharisees, therefore, are not founded in reason, but are mere superstition.

The draught. The sink, the vault.

Purging all meats, The word purging, here, means to purify, to cleanse. What is thrown out of the body is the innutrious part of the food taken into the stomach, and leaving only that which is proper for the support of life; and it cannot, therefore, defile the soul.

All meats. All food; all that is taken into the body to support life. The meaning is, that the economy or process by which life is supported, purifies or renders nutritious all kinds of food. The unwholesome parts are separated, and the wholesome only are taken into the system. This agrees with all that has since been discovered of the process of digestion, and of the support of life. The food taken into the stomach is, by the gastric juice, converted into a thick pulp, called chyme. The nutritious part of this is conveyed into small vessels and changed into a milky substance called chyle. This is changed into blood, and the blood conveys nutriment and support to all parts of the system. The useless parts of the food are thrown off.

²⁰And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

That which cometh out of the man. His words; the expression of his thoughts and feelings; his conduct, as the expression of inward malice, anger, covetousness, lust, etc.

Defileth the man. Is really polluted, or offensive in the sight of God. They render the soul corrupt and abominable in the sight of God. See Mt 15:18-20.

²⁴And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.

²⁵For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:

²⁶The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.

²⁷But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.

²⁸And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.

²⁹And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.

³⁰And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.

See this miracle explained in Mt 15:21-28.

Verse 24. Would have no man know it. To avoid the designs of the Pharisees, he wished to be retired.

²⁶The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.

A Greek. The Jews called all persons Greeks who were not of their nation. Compare Rom 1:14. The whole world was considered as divided into Jews and Greeks. Though she might not have been strictly a Greek, yet she came under this general appellation.

³¹And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.

Departing from the coasts. The country, or regions of Tyre.

Came unto the sea of Galilee. The sea of Tiberias.

Decapolis. See Mt 4:25. He did not go immediately into Capernaum, or any city where he was known, but into the retired regions around the sea of Galilee. This was done to avoid the designs of the Pharisees who sought his life.

³²And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.

They bring. That is, his friends brought, or the people brought.

One that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech. Not entirely dumb, but who spoke indistinctly or with difficulty. His deafness might not have been of long standing; and his speech, therefore, not entirely ruined.

To put his hand upon him. That is, to cure him. Blessings were commonly imparted by laying on the hands.

³³And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;

And he took him aside from the multitude. Why this was done we have no means of information. It might have been to conceal from the multitude everything respecting the manner of cure, in order that none might attempt to cure in a similar way.

And put his fingers into his ears, etc. Why this was done it has been found exceedingly difficult to explain. Our Lord had power at once to open his ears and loose his tongue, but for some cause he chose to accompany it with a sign. It was intended, probably, simply as a sign that the power of healing came from Jesus; to satisfy the man by the touch that he had this power, and that it could come from no other quarter. Our Saviour often used signs in this way to denote his power to heal. See Mk 8:23, Jn 9:6.

³⁴And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.

Looking up to heaven. To lift up the eyes to heaven is an act imploring aid from God, and denotes an attitude of prayer, Ps 121:1,2, Mk 6:41, Jn 11:41.

He sighed. Pitying the sufferings of the man who stood before him,

Ephphatha. This word is Syriac, the language which our Lord used in addressing the man, and means, “Be opened.”

³⁵And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.

The string of his tongue was loosed. The difficulty in his speaking was removed.

³⁶And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;

Tell no man. Do not noise it abroad. He was not ambitious of being known; and he knew that if much was said of his cures, it would excite the jealousy of the Pharisees, and endanger his life.

³⁷And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

Beyond measure. Exceedingly; very much. In the Greek, “Very abundantly.”

He hath done all things well. All things in a remarkable manner; or, he has perfectly effected the cure of the deaf and the dumb.