7:1 Now the Pharisees and some of the scripture scholars came from Jerusalem and gathered around Jesus,

7:2 and they saw some of his disciples eating bread without first having ritually cleansed their hands.

7:3 (The Pharisees and all the Judeans never eat without first ritually washing their hands, according to the traditions of their ancestors.

7:4 If they have just returned from the marketplace, they perform a ritual bath before eating. They also observe many other rituals such as washing cups, pitchers, saucepans, and even beds.)

7:5 So the Pharisees and scripture scholars asked Jesus, “Why is it that your disciples don’t observe the tradition of the elders? They eat bread with unclean hands.”

7:6 “Isaiah prophesied accurately about you, you pedants!” Jesus replied. “As it is written, “These people give me lip service but their hearts are far away.

7:7 In vain they pay their respects, for their teachings are their own and not mine.”

7:8 “You discard the command of God and cling to human tradition!”

7:9 Then he continued: “You really do push aside the command of God in order to establish your own tradition.

7:10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother; whoever speaks abusively against their father or mother must be put to death.’

7:11 But you say, ‘You can tell your father or mother that you don’t have to support them if the money is a gift offering which you get to keep’,

7:12 so you get them off the hook from helping their own father or mother!

7:13 You thereby invalidate the Word of God for the tradition you invent. And you do a lot of things like that.”

7:14 Once again he called the crowd to come to him, and he said, “Listen to me and understand:

7:15 It isn’t what’s outside of a person and goes into them that contaminates them, but what comes out of them.”

7:16

7:17 And when he left the crowd and went into the house, his disciples asked him about the parable.

7:18 And he replied, “Are you stupid too? Don’t you understand that whatever comes from outside of a person and goes into them cannot contaminate them?

7:19 It doesn’t go into their heart but into their bowels and then the toilet.” (In saying this, he was declaring all food ‘clean’.)

7:20 Then he added, “What comes out of a person is what contaminates them.

7:21 For it is out of people’s hearts that come depraved thinking, promiscuity, theft, murder,

7:22 adultery, greed, evil, treachery, vice, ‘the evil eye’, slander, arrogance, and empty-headedness.

7:23 All of these evil things come out from the inside and contaminate a person.”

7:24 Leaving there, Jesus went into the region of Tyre. He entered a house and didn’t want anyone to know, but he couldn’t avoid it.

7:25 Right away a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him and fell down at his feet.

7:26 She was a non-Judean from Syro-Phoenicia, and she asked if he could throw out the demon from her daughter.

7:27 But he said to her, “First let the children eat their fill; it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and toss it to puppies.”

7:28 “But sir,” she replied, “Even the puppies under the table eat the scraps the children drop!”

7:29 “Good answer!” Jesus said to her. “Because of it, you may go; the demon has come out of your daughter.”

7:30 She went to her home and found the little one placed on a bed, free of the demon.

7:31 Leaving the region of Tyre, once again he went through Sidon and the Ten Cities to the Sea of Galilee.

7:32 They brought him someone who was deaf and speech-impaired, pleading with him to place his hand on them.

7:33 He took the person away from the crowd, put his fingers into the person’s ears, and then spit and touched the person’s tongue.

7:34 Then he looked up to the sky and sighed deeply, saying, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened up!”).

7:35 Immediately they were opened up, and the person could hear and their tongue was loosened, and they began to talk normally.

7:36 Jesus commanded them not to say a thing, but the more he did so, the more they spread the news.

7:37 They were beyond awestruck and said, “He does everything well! The deaf hear and the mute talk!”