| 7:1 | The Pharisees, along with some religion scholars who had come from Jerusalem, gathered around him. |
| 7:2 | They noticed that some of his disciples weren't being careful with ritual washings before meals. |
| 7:3 | The Pharisees--Jews in general, in fact--would never eat a meal without going through the motions of a ritual hand-washing, |
| 7:4 | with an especially vigorous scrubbing if they had just come from the market (to say nothing of the scourings they'd give jugs and pots and pans). |
| 7:5 | The Pharisees and religion scholars asked, "Why do your disciples flout the rules, showing up at meals without washing their hands?" |
| 7:6 | Jesus answered, "Isaiah was right about frauds like you, hit the bull's-eye in fact: These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn't in it. |
| 7:7 | They act like they are worshiping me, but they don't mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy, |
| 7:8 | Ditching God's command and taking up the latest fads." |
| 7:9 | He went on, "Well, good for you. You get rid of God's command so you won't be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions! |
| 7:10 | Moses said, 'Respect your father and mother,' and, 'Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.' |
| 7:11 | But you weasel out of that by saying that it's perfectly acceptable to say to father or mother, 'Gift! What I owed you I've given as a gift to God,' |
| 7:12 | thus relieving yourselves of obligation to father or mother. |
| 7:13 | You scratch out God's Word and scrawl a whim in its place. You do a lot of things like this." |
| 7:14 | Jesus called the crowd together again and said, "Listen now, all of you--take this to heart. |
| 7:15 | It's not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it's what you vomit--that's the real pollution." |
| 7:16 |  |
| 7:17 | When he was back home after being with the crowd, his disciples said, "We don't get it. Put it in plain language." |
| 7:18 | Jesus said, "Are you being willfully stupid? Don't you see that what you swallow can't contaminate you? |
| 7:19 | It doesn't enter your heart but your stomach, works its way through the intestines, and is finally flushed." (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.) |
| 7:20 | He went on: "It's what comes out of a person that pollutes: |
| 7:21 | obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, |
| 7:22 | greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness-- |
| 7:23 | all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution." |
| 7:24 | From there Jesus set out for the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house there where he didn't think he would be found, but he couldn't escape notice. |
| 7:25 | He was barely inside when a woman who had a disturbed daughter heard where he was. She came and knelt at his feet, |
| 7:26 | begging for help. The woman was Greek, Syro-Phoenician by birth. She asked him to cure her daughter. |
| 7:27 | He said, "Stand in line and take your turn. The children get fed first. If there's any left over, the dogs get it." |
| 7:28 | She said, "Of course, Master. But don't dogs under the table get scraps dropped by the children?" |
| 7:29 | Jesus was impressed. "You're right! On your way! Your daughter is no longer disturbed. The demonic affliction is gone." |
| 7:30 | She went home and found her daughter relaxed on the bed, the torment gone for good. |
| 7:31 | Then he left the region of Tyre, went through Sidon back to Galilee Lake and over to the district of the Ten Towns. |
| 7:32 | Some people brought a man who could neither hear nor speak and asked Jesus to lay a healing hand on him. |
| 7:33 | He took the man off by himself, put his fingers in the man's ears and some spit on the man's tongue. |
| 7:34 | Then Jesus looked up in prayer, groaned mightily, and commanded, "Ephphatha!--Open up!" |
| 7:35 | And it happened. The man's hearing was clear and his speech plain--just like that. |
| 7:36 | Jesus urged them to keep it quiet, but they talked it up all the more, |
| 7:37 | beside themselves with excitement. "He's done it all and done it well. He gives hearing to the deaf, speech to the speechless." |
Markus 7 - The Message Bible
