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The Teaching of the Ancestors^(a)

¹ Then some Pharisees and teachers of the Law came from Jerusalem to Jesus and asked him, ² "Why is it that your disciples disobey the teaching handed down by our ancestors? They don't wash their hands in the proper way before they eat!"

³ Jesus answered, "And why do you disobey God's command and follow your own teaching? ^4 (b)For God said, ‘Respect your father and your mother,' and ‘If you curse your father or your mother, you are to be put to death.' ⁵ But you teach that if people have something they could use to help their father or mother, but say, ‘This belongs to God,' ⁶ they do not need to honor their father.^[a] In this way you disregard God's command, in order to follow your own teaching. ⁷ You hypocrites! How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you!

The Things That Make a Person Unclean^(d)

¹⁰ Then Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, "Listen and understand! ¹¹ It is not what goes into your mouth that makes you ritually unclean; rather, what comes out of it makes you unclean."

¹² Then the disciples came to him and said, "Do you know that the Pharisees had their feelings hurt by what you said?"

¹³ "Every plant which my Father in heaven did not plant will be pulled up," answered Jesus. ^14 (e)"Don't worry about them! They are blind leaders of the blind; and when one blind man leads another, both fall into a ditch."

¹⁵ Peter spoke up, "Explain this saying to us."

¹⁶ Jesus said to them, "You are still no more intelligent than the others. ¹⁷ Don't you understand? Anything that goes into your mouth goes into your stomach and then on out of your body. ^18 (f)But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these are the things that make you ritually unclean. ¹⁹ For from your heart come the evil ideas which lead you to kill, commit adultery, and do other immoral things; to rob, lie, and slander others. ²⁰ These are the things that make you unclean. But to eat without washing your hands as they say you should—this doesn't make you unclean."

A Woman's Faith^(g)

²¹ Jesus left that place and went off to the territory near the cities of Tyre and Sidon. ²² A Canaanite woman who lived in that region came to him. "Son of David!" she cried out. "Have mercy on me, sir! My daughter has a demon and is in a terrible condition."

²³ But Jesus did not say a word to her. His disciples came to him and begged him, "Send her away! She is following us and making all this noise!"

²⁴ Then Jesus replied, "I have been sent only to the lost sheep of the people of Israel."

²⁵ At this the woman came and fell at his feet. "Help me, sir!" she said.

²⁶ Jesus answered, "It isn't right to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."

²⁷ "That's true, sir," she answered, "but even the dogs eat the leftovers that fall from their masters' table."

²⁸ So Jesus answered her, "You are a woman of great faith! What you want will be done for you." And at that very moment her daughter was healed.

Jesus Heals Many People

²⁹ Jesus left there and went along by Lake Galilee. He climbed a hill and sat down. ³⁰ Large crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the dumb, and many other sick people, whom they placed at Jesus' feet; and he healed them. ³¹ The people were amazed as they saw the dumb speaking, the crippled made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they praised the God of Israel.

Jesus Feeds Four Thousand^(h)

³² Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I feel sorry for these people, because they have been with me for three days and now have nothing to eat. I don't want to send them away without feeding them, for they might faint on their way home."

³³ The disciples asked him, "Where will we find enough food in this desert to feed this crowd?"

³⁴ "How much bread do you have?" Jesus asked.

"Seven loaves," they answered, "and a few small fish."

³⁵ So Jesus ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. ³⁶ Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks to God, broke them, and gave them to the disciples; and the disciples gave them to the people. ³⁷ They all ate and had enough. Then the disciples took up seven baskets full of pieces left over. ³⁸ The number of men who ate was four thousand, not counting the women and children.

³⁹ Then Jesus sent the people away, got into a boat, and went to the territory of Magadan.