Mark 7:1-37
1 Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.
2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled,a that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft,b eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.
4 And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots,c brasen vessels, and of tables.
5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
6 He answered and said unto them,Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
9 And he said unto them,Full well ye rejectd the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
10 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:
11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.
12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;
13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
14 And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them,Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:
15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.
18 And he saith unto them,Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?
20 And he said,That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
22 Thefts, covetousness,e wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
24 And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.
25 For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:
26 The woman was a Greek,f a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.
27 But Jesus said unto her,Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.
28 And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.
29 And he said unto her,For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.
30 And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.
31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.
32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.
33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;
34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him,Ephphatha, that is,Be opened.
35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.
36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;
37 And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
Mark 7:3. The pharisees, and all the jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not. Their traditionary laws, which enjoined all possible corporeal purity, were built on the notion that a person might unconsciously have touched something unclean. They washed their hands as far as the wrist, literally the fist. It is some credit to revelation that those were laws of tradition, imposed as maxims of the wise. Yet we cannot deny, that they obtained in various forms through the whole of Shem's race; and corporeal purity was associated with purity of heart. Those rites became so extensive, and were enforced with so much rigour, that St. Paul denominates the whole ritual law, “a yoke which neither they nor their fathers could bear.” During the dark ages of the church, christians were nearly as much burdened with papal injunctions as the jews with the cabala of their rabbins.
Mark 7:7. Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. See on Matthew 15:9. The pharisees came to Christ with unclean hands, violating the first duty of the second table by exempting for corban, a paltry gift, a young man from supporting his aged parents. Men who reprove others should themselves be pure. The rigorous observance of traditions was an affliction. How could a man in the field wash before meat when he had no water. The evangelist adds a word more than Matthew, that meat, like sin, does not enter the heart: Mark 7:15. Bruce found a people in Abyssinia called the Remmont, once the Falasha, who have a great abhorrence of fish, because they boast of a descent from the prophet Jonah. They carry wood and water to Gondar, a people of whom the Abyssinians speak with contempt. Having as christians been once baptized, and having once received the holy sacrament, they seem to pay no further attention to religion. On coming from market or any public place, they wash themselves from head to foot, lest they should have touched any one of a different sect to their own, esteeming all unclean. Travels, vol. 4. p. 275. This enterprising Caledonian had evidently received this account of those poor christians in Abyssinia from their mahommedan enemies.
Mark 7:10. Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death. “Moth jumath,” as in Beza, without any hope of commutation of punishment. This quotation is a full stroke at the commutation of corban, which excused a man from maintaining his aged parents.
Mark 7:21. Out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts. Here is the fountain of sin. The issues of life have their source in the heart, the seat of all depravity. The most powerful of exterior causes of excitement is, an evil eye. Achan saw in Jericho an ingot of gold, and a Babylonian garment. Here the motions of evil commence, followed by ruin in all its forms.
But what is the remedy? The answer of philosophy is here vague and weak, that of the gospel pure and perfect. Come unto me, says the Saviour, and I will give you rest. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth. Behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord, and be changed into the same image, which you see in the gospel as clearly as you see your own face in a mirror; yea, be changed from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. There is a moral connection between the heart and the objects with which it converses; and these acts of faith, connected with the ever-burning altar of piety, will produce a new creation in the soul, and make a man as heavenly as he has been earthly, as holy as he has been sinful. Sin can be conquered only by the mighty and effectual working of the Spirit of God. Romans 8:13; Ephesians 3:7.
Mark 7:25. A certain woman a Greek, a Hellenist. Mark adds this to Matthew 15:21. How illustrious is the character of this woman, whose case is worthily recorded by three evangelists. Severe afflictions excited her cries, and faith emboldened her pleadings. Her cries were not silenced by the silence of the Saviour. She ceased not to cry, though he had apparently disregarded the intercessions of the apostles, by saying, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Nay, the severe proverb of the jews, who called the gentiles dogs, only heightened her claims. She ascended above discouragement, and all these mountains, still keeping her eye on the charity that never faileth. See on Matthew 15:21; Matthew 15:28.
Mark 7:31. Decapolis, beyond Jordan, contained Pella, Macherus, and eight other towns.
Mark 7:34. Ephphatha, that is, be opened. St. Mark gives untranslated the Chaldaic imperative, which our Saviour used; for opening the drum of the ear, and loosing the ligament of the tongue, as well as giving sight to one born blind, were miracles in kind and character equivalent to the creation of the world. Therefore the people said,
Mark 7:37. He hath done all things well; yea, doubly well, for he had just made the pharisees deaf, and the scribes dumb; and now he made this man to hear and speak.
REFLECTIONS.
The Saviour appears here in his proper character. He purifies the law from all the soils it had received in the hands of men. He repudiates the gaited portrait of pharisaical superstition. They washed their hands, their pots, vessels, and beds. They washed whatever they bought in the market, and dipped their whole body in water for every species of ceremonial uncleanness, a custom which would kill the world in colder climates. Christianity nowhere imposes dipping, either in baptism or in ceremonial impurities.
These hypocrites, being now sent as spies on our Saviour's person, he treated them with all the becoming dignity of a prophet. He exposed their errors in magnifying exterior services, while they neglected the grand precepts of the law, purity and love; judgment, mercy and faith. In particular he corrected that error of ceremonial impurity, that man was not defiled by what entered his mouth, but by what proceeded from his heart. And where is there a foul and wicked deed that was not first conceived and nourished in the heart. We must trace the source of this evil to our birth- fault, or rather to original sin, whereby the nature of man is of itself inclined to evil. Hence it must be the work of regeneration to strike at the heart, and to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts. This would indeed be a hopeless struggle, had not God so strongly promised a new heart and a right spirit. But the flesh being always weak, no man can enjoy that glorious liberty and spiritual perfection, without the atoning merits of Christ every moment applied to the soul; nor can we in regard to the infirmities of nature enjoy it in this world. Yet, the believer having constant access to the merits of Christ may be so cleansed from unbelief and self- love, and so sanctified, that the emanations of pure love may flow from his heart to God and man.
We cannot but remark the confusion with which this deputation must have returned to Jerusalem. They did not find in the Lord an artful impostor, affecting sanctity, with a countenance looking twenty ways. They found, I know not what of heaven in his looks, so as to forbid them meeting his eyes. They were awed and embarrassed in his presence; they looked ashamed one at another, and dropped their countenance to the earth. They found a searcher of hearts, and a prophet tutored in the university of heaven. And when their foolish customs were exposed, they did not dare to open their mouth, but retired confounded before the crowd. His character is equally illustrious in the extension of grace and mercy to a poor woman of Tyre and Sidon. He refused the trammels of men in doing the work of the Father. What an example for ministers to be unawed by the bigotry and opposition of unbelieving men.