Tradition of the Elders

1. And the Pharisees gather to Him, and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem.
2. And they see some of His disciples that they eat bread with defiled, that is, unwashed, hands, they found fault.
3. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash the hands with the fist, holding fast the tradition of the elders.
4. And from the marketplace, unless they wash themselves, they do not eat, and there are many other things that they received to hold, washings of cups and pitchers and bronze vessels.
5. And the Pharisees and the scribes question Him: “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with defiled hands.”
6. And He said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy concerning you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honours Me with the lips, but their heart is far away from Me.’
7. ‘And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
8. Leaving aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, washings of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”
9. And He said to them, “You splendidly set aside the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.”
10. “For Moses said, ‘Honour your father and your mother,’ and ‘The one speaking evil of father or mother, let him surely die.’”
11. But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)
12. “You no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother.”
13. “Thus you invalidate the word of God by your tradition which you handed down, and many such things you do.”
14. And having called the crowd again, He said to them, “Hear Me, all of you, and understand.”
15. “Nothing outside the man that goes into him is able to defile him, but the things that come out of the man are the things that defile the man.”
16. “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
17. And when He went into a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him about the parable.
18. And He says to them, “Are you also without understanding? Do you not realise that everything from outside entering into the man is not able to defile him.”
19. “Since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” Thus all foods are clean.
20. And He was saying, “What comes out of the man, that defiles the man.”
21. “For from within, out of the heart of men, come forth evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders.”
22. “Adulteries, covetous acts, wickednesses, deceit, sensuality, an evil eye, blasphemy, arrogance, foolishness.”
23. “All these evil things come from within and defile the man.”

The Syrophoenician Woman

24. And rising, He went away from there into the region of Tyre, and having entered into a house, He wanted no one to know, and yet He could not be hidden.
25. But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard about Him, came and fell down at His feet.
26. Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him that He would cast out the demon from her daughter.
27. And He said to her, “Let the children first be fed, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”
28. But she answered and says to Him, “Yes, Lord; and the little dogs under the table eat from the crumbs of the children.”
29. And He said to her, “Because of this word, go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”
30. And having departed to her house, she found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone out.

Healing of the Deaf Man

31. And again, departing from the region of Tyre, He came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the midst of the region of the Decapolis.
32. And they bring to Him a deaf man who speaks with difficulty, and they beg Him to lay His hand on him.
33. And taking him aside from the crowd privately, He put His fingers into his ears, and having spit, He touched his tongue.
34. And looking up into heaven, He sighed, and says to him, “Ephphatha”, that is, “Be opened.”
35. And immediately his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak plainly.
36. And He ordered them that they should tell no one, but the more He ordered them, the more exceedingly they proclaimed it.
37. And they were exceedingly astonished, saying, “He has done all things well; He makes both the deaf to hear and the speechless to speak.”