“There 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.”
Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them — the principle is the most radical single statement in the chapter: defilement is internal, not external. The entire Levitical purity system is built on the premise that external things (foods, bodily discharges, corpse contact, skin conditions) can create ritual impurity. Jesus is not abolishing the Levitical system but locating the moral center of defilement in the heart rather than in the external contact. Mark's parenthetical note in verse 19 (in saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean) applies the principle to the dietary laws.
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