Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Mark 7:15

This saying is called a parable in Mark 7:17, and Weiss contends that it must be taken strictly as such, i.e., as meaning that it is not foods going into the body through the mouth that defile ceremonially, but corrupt matters issuing from the body (as in leprosy). Holtzmann, H. C., concurs. Schanz dissents on the ground that on this view the connection with unclean hands is done away with, and a quite foreign thought introduced. Mt., it is clear, has not so understood the saying; (Mark 15:11), and while he also calls it a parable (Mark 7:15) he evidently means thereby an obscure, enigmatical saying, needing explanation. Why assume that Mk. means anything more? True, he makes Jesus say, not that which cometh out of the mouth, but the things which come out of the man. But if He had meant the impure matters issuing from the body, would He not have said ἐκ τοῦ σώματος, so as to make His meaning unmistakable? On the whole, the most probable view is that even in Mark 7:15 the thought of Jesus moves in the moral sphere, and that the meaning is: the only defilement worth serious consideration is that caused by the evil which comes out of the heart (Mark 7:21).

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Mark 7:15

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