HolyStudy
Bible IndexRead BibleNotesChurchesMissionPrivacyTermsContact
© 2026 HolyStudy
HomeRead BibleBible NotesChurchesSign in
HolyStudy
HomeRead BibleBible NotesChurches
Sign in

Mark 7

1

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

2

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

1
3

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

4

And 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.

5

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

1
6

He 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.

1
7

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

8

For 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.

9

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

10

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

1
11

But 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.

12

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

1
13

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

1
14

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

15

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.

1
16

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

17

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

18

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;

1
19

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

20

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

21

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

22

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

23

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

2
24

And 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.

25

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

26

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

27

But 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.

28

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

29

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

30

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

31

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

32

And 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.

33

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

34

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

35

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

36

And 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;

37

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

← Previous ChapterNext Chapter →

Mark 7

The defilement controversy is the chapter's theological center: the Pharisees challenge the disciples' eating with unwashed hands, Jesus responds with the Isaiah 29:13 indictment (these people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me), the Corban example exposing how tradition nullifies the command to honor parents, and the radical teaching that nothing outside a person can defile but only what comes out — the heart's production of evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, slander, arrogance. Mark's parenthetical — in saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean — is the retrospective theological application that will take the early church years to grasp. Two Gentile healings follow, both in the region outside Jewish territory. The Syrophoenician woman's persistence through apparent rejection (the children's bread cannot be tossed to the dogs) produces the most brilliant reply in the Gospels — even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs — which Jesus commends as a sufficient reply and heals her daughter at a distance. The deaf man in the Decapolis receives the most physically elaborate healing in Mark: fingers in ears, spit, touch on the tongue, looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, and the Aramaic Ephphatha — be opened. He speaks plainly, and the Gentile crowd declares in the language of Genesis 1 and Isaiah 35: he has done everything well — he even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.

Mark 7:4

When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles — the marketplace contact with Gentiles or non-observant Jews could create ritual impurity; the washing upon return is the decontamination ritual. The many other traditions suggest that the handwashing controversy is the representative case of a broader system of purity regulation that the Pharisees applied to everyday domestic life.

Mark 7:1

The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus — the Jerusalem delegation returns, as in chapter 3 when Jerusalem scribes made the Beelzebul accusation. The centralization of the opposition from the capital city communicates the escalating institutional response to Jesus' Galilean ministry. Gathering around Jesus is the posture of interrogation and surveillance, not learning — these are not students seeking wisdom but evaluators seeking grounds for accusation.

Mark 7:2

And saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed — the observation that triggers the controversy is dietary-ritual: the disciples are eating without washing their hands in the prescribed manner. The that is, unwashed is Mark's explanatory aside, communicating that he is writing for a Gentile audience unfamiliar with Jewish purity practices. The offense is not hygienic (unsanitary hands) but ritual: the Pharisaic tradition required handwashing before meals as an extension of the priestly purity requirements into everyday life.

Mark 7:3

The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders — the explanatory parenthetical (verses 3–4) is extensive for Mark, who typically moves quickly. The tradition of the elders is the oral law — the body of rabbinic interpretation and application of the Torah that the Pharisees treated as binding alongside the written Torah. The ceremonial washing is not prescribed in the Torah itself but is part of the tradition the Pharisees elevated to Torah-level authority.

Mark 7:5

So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus: why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands? — the question is directed at Jesus, holding him responsible for his disciples' practice. Why don't your disciples... positions this as a question of discipleship formation: what is Jesus teaching them? The tradition of the elders is elevated as the standard against which the disciples' behavior is measured. The question implies that a genuine teacher of Israel would enforce the traditional purity practices on his followers.

Mark 7:6

He replied, Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me — Jesus' response begins with the accusation of hypocrisy through the Isaiah 29:13 citation. The hypocrites are not people who consciously say one thing and do another but people whose external religious practice has become disconnected from internal reality. These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me is the diagnostic: the lips perform the worship while the heart remains at distance. The external tradition-observance has become a substitute for the internal orientation it was meant to express.

Mark 7:7

They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules — the Isaiah citation continues: the worship is vain (matēn, empty, futile) because it is external performance without internal reality. Their teachings are merely human rules — the tradition of the elders, however serious and well-intentioned, originates in human reasoning rather than divine command. The Pharisees' elevation of human tradition to the level of divine command is the category error that Jesus is exposing.

Mark 7:8

You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions — the indictment is structural: the tradition of the elders has been prioritized over the commands of God to the point where the tradition violates the commands. Let go of the commands of God is not merely neglect but active prioritization of the tradition over the command. Holding on to human traditions communicates the tenacity with which the tradition is maintained even when it contradicts the divine intent.

Mark 7:9

And he continued: you have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions — the irony is sharp: fine (kalōs) is used sarcastically — you are very good at this, you have a practiced skill for it. Setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions communicates the deliberateness of the substitution. This is not accidental negligence but systematic preference for the tradition over the command.

Mark 7:10

For Moses said, honor your father and your mother, and anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death — the Corban example begins with the Torah command: Exodus 20:12 (honor your father and mother) and Exodus 21:17 (anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death). The double citation establishes that the command to honor parents is not merely advisory but among the Torah's most serious requirements, backed by capital penalty for its violation. This is the divine command that the Corban tradition will be shown to violate.

Mark 7:11

But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God) — the Corban practice allowed a person to declare property or money as dedicated to God (Corban, from the Hebrew qorban meaning offering). Once declared Corban, the property could not be used for other purposes — including supporting aging parents. The practice may have originated as genuine piety but had become, in some applications, a legal device to avoid parental support obligations while retaining personal use of the resources.

Mark 7:12

Then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother — the consequence of the Corban declaration: the children are legally prevented from using the Corban-declared resources for parental support, even when the parents are in genuine need. The legal technicality of the tradition overrides the direct Torah command to honor parents. The tradition has created a legal pathway around a divine command, and the pathway is being used.

Mark 7:13

Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that — the nullification of God's word is the structural accusation: the tradition does not supplement the Torah but replaces it in practice. You nullify (akyrountes, making without authority, making void) the word of God by your tradition. And you do many things like that — the Corban example is representative, not unique. The pattern is systemic, not occasional.

Mark 7:14

Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, listen to me, everyone, and understand this — the teaching shifts from the private confrontation with the Pharisees (verses 1–13) to a public declaration to the crowd. The listen to me, everyone is the public summons to the teaching that will follow. The understand this communicates that what follows requires more than hearing — it requires comprehension of a principle that runs counter to deeply held assumptions about purity.

Mark 7:15

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.

Mark 7:16

If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear — the hearing refrain from the parables discourse (Mark 4:9, 23) appears here, attaching the defilement teaching to the parabolic mode of communication. The principle of verse 15, like the parables of chapter 4, requires active comprehension, not passive reception. The disciples will need private explanation (verses 17–23) even after this public teaching.

Mark 7:17

After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable — the movement from public teaching to private explanation is the same pattern as chapter 4: the public crowd receives the general principle; the disciples ask for elaboration. They identify the teaching as a parable — it was not a story narrative but a principle-statement that requires interpretive unpacking. The house is the recurring locus of private instruction throughout Mark.

Mark 7:18

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.

Mark 7:19

For it doesn't go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body. (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.) — the anatomical argument: food enters the digestive system, not the heart — the seat of moral reality. The heart is where defilement originates (verse 21); the stomach is not. Mark's parenthetical in saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean is a retrospective theological application of the principle to the dietary laws — the application that Peter will need a vision to grasp (Acts 10) and that will reshape early Christianity's relationship to Gentiles.

Mark 7:20

He went on: what comes out of a person is what defiles them — the positive restatement of the principle: defilement is outward-from-inward, not inward-from-outward. What comes out of a person — speech, action, attitude — is the moral reality that the purity system is ultimately trying to address. The external purity regulations were meant to point toward and cultivate internal moral purity; they have been treated as sufficient in themselves. Jesus is not abolishing the system but restoring its purpose.

Mark 7:21

For it is from within, out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come — sexual immorality, theft, murder — the catalog of internal defilements begins with the heart as the source: evil thoughts (dialogismoi kakoi). The specific sins that follow fall into three clusters: sexual sins (sexual immorality, adultery), property sins (theft, greed, deceit), and social violence (murder, wickedness, envy, slander, arrogance, folly). All of them originate in the heart — the internal moral condition — rather than in external contact with defiling things.

Mark 7:22

Adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly — the catalog continues: the twelve items in verses 21–22 cover the full range of moral failure available to human beings. The list is not exhaustive but representative; the point is not the specific list but the source: all of these come from within, from the heart. The Pharisees' concern is handwashing; Jesus' concern is the condition of the heart that produces murder, theft, adultery, and deceit.

Mark 7:23

All these evils come from inside and defile a person — the conclusion restates the principle with which the teaching began (verse 15): it is what comes out that defiles, and what comes out comes from within. The teaching is complete: the purity system's appropriate target is the heart, and the heart's defilement produces the moral failures that the law exists to prevent. External cleanliness without internal transformation is cosmetic — it addresses the symptom while leaving the disease.

Mark 7:24

Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret — the movement to Tyre is a significant geographic shift: Tyre is Phoenician territory, fully Gentile. Jesus is extending the mission beyond Jewish Galilee, as he extended it to the Decapolis in chapter 5. He did not want anyone to know it: the desire for privacy and rest (cf. Mark 6:31) is frustrated by his reputation. Yet he could not keep his presence secret — the fame that followed him in Jewish Galilee follows him even into Gentile territory.

Mark 7:25

In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet — the Syrophoenician woman comes immediately upon hearing of Jesus' presence — the same urgency as Jairus in chapter 5. She falls at his feet in the same posture of supplication as Jairus (5:22) and the Gerasene man (5:6). The little daughter echoes Jairus's little daughter of chapter 5. The parallels are deliberate: the two daughters healed in chapter 5 are now supplemented by a third daughter in a Gentile household.

Mark 7:26

The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter — the triple identification of the woman's Gentile identity (Greek, Syrian Phoenicia) communicates that her status as an outsider to the Jewish covenant is explicit and known by all parties. She begged Jesus (erōta, asked, implored) — the same urgent requesting that characterizes every healing request in chapters 5–6. The specific request — drive the demon out — is the same request made for others throughout the Galilean ministry, now made by and for a Gentile.

Mark 7:27

First let the children eat all they want, he told her. For it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs — Jesus' response is the hardest saying in Mark. The children are Israel; the dogs are Gentiles (a standard Jewish term of contempt for non-Jews, though Jesus may use the diminutive — puppies — which softens it somewhat). First communicates that the Gentile mission is not yet time — the priority of Jewish mission must be honored. The saying is not a final refusal but a test of the woman's faith and an implicit challenge to be met.

Mark 7:28

Lord, she replied, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs — the woman's response is one of the most brilliant replies in the Gospels. She does not dispute the metaphor or the priority — she accepts both and finds within them the argument for her request. Even the dogs eat the crumbs — not the children's meal, just the pieces that fall. She is not asking for the children's bread; she is asking for what falls from the table in the abundance of the children's eating. The argument is humble, witty, and theologically precise.

Mark 7:29

Then he told her, for such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter — for such a reply — the response is the commendation that the faith behind the reply has earned. The healing is granted: the demon has left your daughter, stated in the perfect tense — the healing has already occurred, while the woman is still present in the house. The Syrophoenician woman's faith — Gentile faith in the Jewish Messiah — has produced the healing of her daughter at a distance, without Jesus going to the house or touching the child.

Mark 7:30

She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone — the verification of the healing is domestic and immediate: the woman goes home and finds exactly what Jesus declared. The child lying on the bed is the picture of natural rest rather than the violent, uncontrolled behavior of the possessed — the bed is now a place of peaceful rest rather than the tombs-and-hills wandering of the Gerasene man. The demon gone is the complete fulfillment of the request: the demon has left, not merely been suppressed.

Mark 7:31

Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis — the routing through Sidon before returning south to Galilee and the Decapolis is geographically unusual — Sidon is north of Tyre, making the route circuitous. The extended Gentile circuit communicates that Jesus is not merely passing through Tyre but conducting a sustained ministry in the Gentile regions before returning to Jewish territory. The Decapolis was the site of the Gerasene exorcism (chapter 5) — the territory where the Gerasene man was commissioned to testify.

Mark 7:32

There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him — the community that brings the deaf man to Jesus demonstrates the social integration of care: some people brought him — the man cannot come by himself (his impairment makes navigation and communication difficult), and his community brings him. The begged Jesus communicates faith-expectation in Jesus' ability to heal. The placing of his hand is the specific request — the same expectation as Jairus's request and the Gennesaret crowd's request.

Mark 7:33

After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue — the privacy of the healing (took him aside, away from the crowd) is consistent with the Messianic Secret pattern. The physical actions — fingers in ears, spit, touching the tongue — are accommodations to the man's condition: a deaf man who cannot understand spoken communication receives the communication through touch. Jesus meets the man in the modality available to him. The spit was used in ancient healing practice and appears again in the healing of the blind man (Mark 8:23).

Mark 7:34

He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, Ephphatha! (which means, be opened!) — the looking up to heaven communicates prayer and divine petition. The deep sigh (anastenaxas) may express Jesus' emotional engagement with the suffering he is about to heal — the same kind of compassion response as in chapter 6. Ephphatha (Aramaic for be opened) is another preserved Aramaic word in Mark, characteristic of the eyewitness tradition. The single Aramaic word addressed to the man's closed ears and tongue — be opened — is the command of creation applied to the limitations of disability.

Mark 7:35

At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly — the threefold restoration mirrors the threefold impairment: ears opened (hearing restored), tongue loosened (speech freed), began to speak plainly (communication established). The healing is comprehensive and immediate. The ears first, then the tongue — the sequence communicates that hearing is prior to speech, that receiving precedes giving. The man who could not communicate can now participate fully in the community's life of hearing and speaking.

Mark 7:36

Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it — the Messianic Secret command fails again, as it consistently does throughout Mark. The more he did so, the more they kept talking about it: the prohibition has the opposite of the intended effect. The miracle is too significant to contain; the command to silence is overwhelmed by the compulsion to testify. The progressive intensification (the more he did so, the more they talked) captures the futility of attempting to suppress news of the kingdom's arrival.

Mark 7:37

People were overwhelmed with amazement. He has done everything well, they said. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak — the amazement is expressed in Gentile territory — these are Decapolis crowds, not Jewish crowds. He has done everything well (kalos panta pepoieken) echoes the Genesis 1 refrain (God saw that it was good/well) — the Gentile crowds perceive in Jesus' ministry the re-creative work of God. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak fulfills Isaiah 35:5 (then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped) — the Gentiles are witnessing the messianic age Isaiah promised, even without the theological framework to name it fully.