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Jesus Challenges the Pharisees’ Traditions
(Matthew 15:1–20)
1 The Pharisees and some experts in Moses’ Teachings who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. 2 They saw that some of his disciples were unclean* because they ate without washing their hands.
3 (The Pharisees, like all other Jewish people, don’t eat unless they have properly washed their hands. They follow the traditions of their ancestors. 4 When they come from the marketplace, they don’t eat unless they have washed first. They have been taught to follow many other rules. For example, they must also wash their cups, jars, brass pots, and dinner tables.†)
5 The Pharisees and the experts in Moses’ Teachings asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples follow the traditions taught by our ancestors? They are unclean because they don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
6 Jesus told them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites in Scripture:
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 Their worship of me is pointless,
because their teachings are rules made by humans.’
8 “You abandon the commandments of God to follow human traditions.” 9 He added, “You have no trouble rejecting the commandments of God in order to keep your own traditions! 10 For example, Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Whoever curses father or mother must be put to death.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a person tells his father or mother that whatever he might have used to help them is corban (that is, an offering to God), 12 he no longer has to do anything for his father or mother.’ 13 Because of your traditions you have destroyed the authority of God’s word. And you do many other things like that.”
14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and try to understand! 15 Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean. It’s what comes out of a person that makes him unclean. 16 Let the person who has ears listen!”‡
17 When he had left the people and gone home, his disciples asked him about this illustration.
18 Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand? Don’t you know that whatever goes into a person from the outside can’t make him unclean? 19 It doesn’t go into his thoughts but into his stomach and then into a toilet.” (By saying this, Jesus declared all foods acceptable.) 20 He continued, “It’s what comes out of a person that makes him unclean. 21 Evil thoughts, sexual sins, stealing, murder, 22 adultery, greed, wickedness, cheating, shameless lust, envy, cursing, arrogance, and foolishness come from within a person. 23 All these evils come from within and make a person unclean.”
The Faith of a Greek Woman
(Matthew 15:21–31)
24 Jesus left that place and went to the territory of Tyre. He didn’t want anyone to know that he was staying in a house there. However, it couldn’t be kept a secret.
25 A woman whose little daughter had an evil spirit heard about Jesus. She went to him and bowed down. 26 The woman happened to be Greek, born in Phoenicia in Syria. She asked him to force the demon out of her daughter.
27 Jesus said to her, “First, let the children eat all they want. It’s not right to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
28 She answered him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat some of the children’s scraps.”
29 Jesus said to her, “Because you have said this, go! The demon has left your daughter.”
30 The woman went home and found the little child lying on her bed, and the demon was gone.
Jesus Cures a Deaf Man
31 Jesus then left the neighborhood of Tyre. He went through Sidon and the territory of the Ten Cities§ to the Sea of Galilee.
32 Some people brought to him a man who was deaf and who also had a speech defect. They begged Jesus to lay his hand on him. 33 Jesus took him away from the crowd to be alone with him. He put his fingers into the man’s ears, and after spitting, he touched the man’s tongue. 34 Then he looked up to heaven, sighed, and said to the man, “Ephphatha!” which means, “Be opened!” 35 At once the man could hear and talk normally.
36 Jesus ordered the people not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them, the more they spread the news. 37 Jesus completely amazed the people. They said, “He has done everything well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute talk.”
* 7:2 “Unclean” refers to anything that Moses’ Teachings say is not presentable to God. † 7:4 Some manuscripts and translations omit “and dinner tables.” ‡ 7:16 Some manuscripts and translations omit this verse. § 7:31 A federation of ten Greek city states east and west of the Jordan River.