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¹ Then the Pharisees, with certain Scribes who had come from Jerusalem, came to Him in a body.² They had noticed that some of His disciples were eating their food with `unclean' (that is to say, unwashed) hands.<sup>3</sup> (For the Pharisees and all the Jews--being, as they are, zealous for the traditions of the Elders--never eat without first carefully washing their hands,<sup>4</sup> and when they come from market they will not eat without bathing first; and they have a good many other customs which they have received traditionally and cling to, such as the rinsing of cups and pots and of bronze utensils, and the washing of beds.)<sup>5</sup> So the Pharisees and Scribes put the question to Him: "Why do your disciples transgress the traditions of the Elders, and eat their food with unclean hands?"<sup>6</sup> "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites," He replied; "as it is written, "`This People honour Me with their lips, while their hearts are far away from Me:⁷ But idle is their devotion while they lay down precepts which are mere human rules.'⁸ "You neglect God's Commandment: you hold fast to men's traditions."⁹ "Praiseworthy indeed!" He added, "to set at nought God's Commandment in order to observe your own traditions!¹⁰ For Moses said, `Honour thy father and thy mother' and again, `He who curses father or mother, let him die the death.'¹¹ But *you* say, `If a man says to his father or mother, It is a Korban (that is, a thing devoted to God), whatever it is, which otherwise you would have received from me--'¹² And so you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or mother,¹³ thus nullifying God's precept by your tradition which you have handed down. And many things of that kind you do."¹⁴ Then Jesus called the people to Him again. "Listen to me, all of you," He said, "and understand.¹⁵ There is nothing outside a man which entering him can make him unclean; but it is the things which come out of a man that make him unclean."¹⁶ []¹⁷ After He had left the crowd and gone indoors, His disciples began to ask Him about this figure of speech.¹⁸ "Have *you* also so little understanding?" He replied; "do you not understand that anything whatever that enters a man from outside cannot make him unclean,¹⁹ because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and passes away ejected from him?" By these words Jesus pronounced all kinds of food clean.²⁰ "What comes out of a man," He added, "that it is which makes him unclean.²¹ For from within, out of men's hearts, their evil purposes proceed--fornication, theft, murder, adultery,²² covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, reviling, pride, reckless folly:²³ all these wicked things come out from within and make a man unclean."

²⁴ Then He rose and left that place and went into the neighbourhood of Tyre and Sidon. Here He entered a house and wished no one to know it, but He could not escape observation.²⁵ Forthwith a woman whose little daughter was possessed by a foul spirit heard of Him, and came and flung herself at His feet.²⁶ She was a Gentile woman, a Syro-phoenician by nation: and again and again she begged Him to expel the demon from her daughter.²⁷ "Let the children first eat all they want," He said; "it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."²⁸ "True, Sir," she replied, "and yet the dogs under the table eat the children's scraps."²⁹ "For those words of yours, go home," He replied; "the demon has gone out of your daughter."³⁰ So she went home, and found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

³¹ Returning from the neighbourhood of Tyre, He came by way of Sidon to the Lake of Galilee, passing through the district of the Ten Towns.³² Here they brought to Him a deaf man that stammered, on whom they begged Him to lay His hands.³³ So Jesus taking him aside, apart from the crowd, put His fingers into his ears, and spat, and moistened his tongue;³⁴ and looking up to Heaven He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha!" (that is, "Open!")³⁵ And the man's ears were opened, and his tongue became untied, and he began to speak perfectly.³⁶ Then Jesus charged them to tell no one; but the more He charged them, all the more did they spread the news far and wide.³⁷ The amazement was extreme. "He succeeds in everything he attempts," they exclaimed; "he even makes deaf men hear and dumb men speak!"