He disputes with the Jewish leaders
7
📚Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him. 2 📚And when they saw some of his disciples eating bread with “defiled”, that is, unwashed hands, they found fault. 3 📚For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands in a certain way, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 📚And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And many other things there be, which they have received to keep, such as the washing of cups, pots, bronze vessels, and tables. 5 📚Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not behave according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?”
6 📚He answered and said to them, “Well has Isaiah prophesied about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honour me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me.
7 📚But they worship me in vain,
teaching as doctrines the commandments
of men.
8 📚“For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men, such as the washing of pots and cups. And you do many other such things”.
9 📚And he said to them, “You are good at setting aside the commandment of God, so that you can keep your own tradition. 10 📚For Moses said, ‘Honour your father and your mother’, and, ‘Whoever curses father or mother, must be put to death.’ 11 📚But you say that if a man tells his father or mother, ‘Anything of mine that might have been useful to you is Corban’ (that is, an offering to God), it is all right.’ 12 And you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother, 13 📚thus making the word of God without effect through your tradition, which you have handed down. And you do many such things”.
14 📚And calling the whole crowd, he said to them, “Everyone listen to me and understand. 15 📚There is nothing that enters the man from outside that can defile him; but the things that defile the man are those that come from within him. 16 If any one has ears to hear, let him hear”.
He teaches about clean and unclean
17 📚And when he came away from the people into the house, his disciples asked him about the parable.
18 📚And he said to them, “Are you also so lacking in understanding? Do you not see that whatever enters into a man from outside cannot defile him, 19 📚because it does not come into his heart, but into the stomach, and is eliminated?” (By saying this he declared all foods clean.) 📖
20 📚And he said, “That which comes from within the man, that defiles the man. 21 📚For from within, out of the heart of men, come evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 📚thefts, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustfulness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23 📚All these evil things come from within and defile the man”.
He heals the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman
24 📚And he got up from there and travelled to the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and went into a house, but did not want anyone to know it. But he could not escape notice. 25 📚For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him and came and fell at his feet. 26 📚The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by race. And she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
27 📚But Jesus said to her, “First, let the children be filled. For it is not proper to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs”.
28 📚And she answered and said to him, “Yes, Lord. Yet the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs”.
29 📚And he said to her, “Because of this statement go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter”.
7:29 Her reply was based on faith in the Lord Jesus (Matt 15:28).⚜
30 📚And when she arrived at her house, she found that the demon had left, and her daughter was lying on the bed.
7:24-30 See Matt 15:21-28. Syrian Phoenicia was a strip of land lying along the Mediterranean Sea slightly to the north of Israel. At that time it was controlled by Syria. The Jews called the people there Canaanites.⚜
He heals a deaf and dumb man
31 📚And leaving the region of Tyre and Sidon, he came again to the lake of Galilee, through the middle of the region of Decapolis 📖.
7:31 Sidon was an important town about 40 kilometers north of Tyre. The reason why Jesus first went north and then southeast to Decapolis is not given, but knowing what He is like, we may surely think that it was to help and bless some person or persons.⚜
32 📚And they brought to him a person who was deaf and who had a speech impediment, and they begged him to put his hand on him. 33 📚And he took him apart from the crowd, and putting his fingers into his ears, he spit and touched his tongue. 34 📚And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha”, that is, “Be opened”.
35 📚And immediately his ears were opened, and the ligament of his tongue was loosened, and he spoke clearly. 36 📚And he ordered them not to tell anyone, but the more firmly he ordered them, the more extensively they publicized it.
37 📚And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak”.