“And 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;”
Are you so dull? he asked. Don't you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? — the question Are you so dull? (houtōs asunetos este, are you also without understanding?) expresses Jesus' exasperation with the disciples' persistent failure to understand. The also may refer to the Pharisees who failed to understand — the disciples are failing in the same way as the opponents they have just observed being rebuked. The principle is restated in the negative: nothing that enters from outside can defile.
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