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The Blue Letter Bible

Mark 7 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

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Jesus Teaches about Inner Purity
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:1 - One day some Pharisees and teachers of religious law arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus.
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:2 - They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating.
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:3 - (The Jews, especially the Pharisees, do not eat until they have poured water over their cupped hands,[fn] as required by their ancient traditions.
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:4 - Similarly, they don’t eat anything from the market until they immerse their hands[fn] in water. This is but one of many traditions they have clung to—such as their ceremonial washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles.[fn])
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:5 - So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.”
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:6 - Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:7 - Their worship is a farce,
for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’[fn]
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:8 - For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:9 - Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition.
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:10 - For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’[fn] and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’[fn]
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:11 - But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’[fn]
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:12 - In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents.
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:13 - And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.”
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:14 - Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand.
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:15 - It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.[fn]
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:17 - Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used.
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:18 - “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you?
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:19 - Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.)
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:20 - And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you.
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:21 - For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:22 - adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:23 - All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”
The Faith of a Gentile Woman
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:24 - Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre.[fn] He didn’t want anyone to know which house he was staying in, but he couldn’t keep it a secret.
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:25 - Right away a woman who had heard about him came and fell at his feet. Her little girl was possessed by an evil[fn] spirit,
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:26 - and she begged him to cast out the demon from her daughter.
Since she was a Gentile, born in Syrian Phoenicia,
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:27 - Jesus told her, “First I should feed the children—my own family, the Jews.[fn] It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.”
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:28 - She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps from the children’s plates.”
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:29 - “Good answer!” he said. “Now go home, for the demon has left your daughter.”
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:30 - And when she arrived home, she found her little girl lying quietly in bed, and the demon was gone.
Jesus Heals a Deaf Man
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:31 - Jesus left Tyre and went up to Sidon before going back to the Sea of Galilee and the region of the Ten Towns.[fn]
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:32 - A deaf man with a speech impediment was brought to him, and the people begged Jesus to lay his hands on the man to heal him.
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:33 - Jesus led him away from the crowd so they could be alone. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then, spitting on his own fingers, he touched the man’s tongue.
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:34 - Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened!”
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:35 - Instantly the man could hear perfectly, and his tongue was freed so he could speak plainly!
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:36 - Jesus told the crowd not to tell anyone, but the more he told them not to, the more they spread the news.
Unchecked Copy BoxMar 7:37 - They were completely amazed and said again and again, “Everything he does is wonderful. He even makes the deaf to hear and gives speech to those who cannot speak.”
NLT Footnotes
Greek have washed with the fist.
Some manuscripts read sprinkle themselves.
Some manuscripts add and dining couches.
Isa 29:13 (Greek version).
Exod 21:17 (Greek version); Lev 20:9 (Greek version).
Greek ‘What I would have given to you is Corban’ (that is, a gift).
Some manuscripts add verse 16, Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. Compare 4:9, 23.
Some manuscripts add and Sidon.
Greek unclean.
Greek Let the children eat first.
Greek Decapolis.
BLB Footnotes
Some Greek manuscripts exclude this verse. The NLT related footnote for 7:15 states:
7:15 Some manuscripts add verse 16, Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. Compare 4:9, 23.  
NLT

Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Full copyright information is provided here. Visit the New Living Translation website.

For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.

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Mark Chapter 7 — Additional Translations: