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Mark 7

Jesus exposes the heart as the source of defilement and extends his authority and mercy beyond Israel’s borders.

Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem challenge Jesus because some disciples eat with unwashed hands. Jesus exposes how their traditions can set aside God’s commands, then teaches the crowd and his disciples that defilement comes from the heart. Near Tyre and Sidon, a Syrophoenician woman begs him to free her daughter from an unclean spirit. He grants her request. In the Decapolis, he restores a man’s hearing and speech, and the crowd spreads the news despite his command for silence.

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1Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered together to him, having come from Jerusalem.
2Now when they saw some of his disciples eating bread with defiled, that is unwashed, hands, they found fault.
3(For the Pharisees and all the Jews don’t eat unless they wash their hands and forearms, holding to the tradition of the elders.
4They don’t eat when they come from the marketplace unless they bathe themselves, and there are many other things which they have received to hold to: washings of cups, pitchers, bronze vessels, and couches.)
5The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why don’t your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unwashed hands?”
6He answered them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
8“For you set aside the commandment of God, and hold tightly to the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things.”
9He said to them, “Full well do you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.
10For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother;’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.’
11But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban,”’” that is to say, given to God,
13making void the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down. You do many things like this.”
14He called all the multitude to himself and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand.
15There is nothing from outside of the man that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.
17When he had entered into a house away from the multitude, his disciples asked him about the parable.
18He said to them, “Are you also without understanding? Don’t you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can’t defile him,
19because it doesn’t go into his heart, but into his stomach, then into the latrine, making all foods clean?”
20He said, “That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man.
21For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,
22covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness.
23All these evil things come from within and defile the man.”
24From there he arose and went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. He entered into a house and didn’t want anyone to know it, but he couldn’t escape notice.
25For a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell down at his feet.
26Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race. She begged him that he would cast the demon out of her daughter.
27But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not appropriate to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
28But she answered him, “Yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
29He said to her, “For this saying, go your way. The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
30She went away to her house, and found the child having been laid on the bed, with the demon gone out.
31Again he departed from the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and came to the sea of Galilee through the middle of the region of Decapolis.
32They brought to him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech. They begged him to lay his hand on him.
33He took him aside from the multitude privately and put his fingers into his ears; and he spat and touched his tongue.
34Looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!”
35Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was released, and he spoke clearly.
36He commanded them that they should tell no one, but the more he commanded them, so much the more widely they proclaimed it.
37They were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak!”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Mark 7:21Jesus locates evil within the human heart, explaining why washing hands cannot address the defilement he describes.
Mark 7:15This statement turns the dispute over unwashed hands toward the deeper question of what makes a person unclean.
Mark 7:7Jesus uses Isaiah’s words to expose worship that gives human commands the authority belonging to God.
Where this chapter reaches

Matthew recounts the same dispute over washing and defilement, followed by a Gentile mother’s plea for her daughter’s deliverance. Isaiah supplies Jesus’ quotation about lips and hearts, and its promise of restored hearing and speech echoes in the crowd’s response to the healing.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What distinction does Jesus draw between honoring God’s commands and holding to inherited practices?

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What stands out to you in the exchange between Jesus and the Syrophoenician mother?

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Questions people ask about Mark 7

What does Corban mean in Mark 7?

Mark explains Corban as something given to God. Jesus describes a practice in which someone declared resources dedicated to God and was then excused from using them to help parents. His charge is that this tradition made God’s command to honor father and mother ineffective.

Why does Jesus compare the Syrophoenician woman to a dog?

Jesus uses a household image: children receive bread first, while dogs are beneath the table. The children represent Israel, and the woman is a Gentile. Her reply accepts the image while asking for the crumbs. Jesus grants her request. Mark does not explain his motive for choosing this hard comparison.

Does Mark 7 say all foods are clean?

Verse 19 includes the phrase “making all foods clean” as Jesus explains that food enters the stomach rather than the heart. The discussion begins with eating with unwashed hands. Jesus broadens it by locating moral defilement in the evil that comes from within a person.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).