Study Desk

Now a woman was there who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years.

for she kept saying, "If only I touch his clothes, I will be healed."

He instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts—

Now King Herod heard this, for Jesus' name had become known. Some were saying, "John the baptizer has been raised from the dead, and because of this, miraculous powers are at work in him."

For Herod himself had sent men, arrested John, and bound him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because Herod had married her.

For John had repeatedly told Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife."

But a suitable day came, when Herod gave a banquet on his birthday for his court officials, military commanders, and leaders of Galilee.

When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you want and I will give it to you."

So she went out and said to her mother, "What should I ask for?" Her mother said, "The head of John the baptizer."

He said to them, "Come with me privately to an isolated place and rest a while" (for many were coming and going, and there was no time to eat).

Send them away so that they can go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy something for themselves to eat."

But he answered them, "You give them something to eat." And they said, "Should we go and buy bread for two hundred silver coins and give it to them to eat?"

He saw them straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. As the night was ending, he came to them walking on the sea, for he wanted to pass by them.

for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them: "Have courage! It is I. Do not be afraid."

(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they perform a ritual washing, holding fast to the tradition of the elders.

Having no regard for the command of God, you hold fast to human tradition."

For Moses said, ‘ Honor your father and your mother ,' and, ‘ Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death .'

But you say that if anyone tells his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you would have received from me is corban' (that is, a gift for God),

then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother.

There is nothing outside of a person that can defile him by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles him." Now when Jesus had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, "Are you so foolish? Don't you understand that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him? For it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and then goes out into the sewer." (This means all foods are clean.) He said, "What comes out of a person defiles him. For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly. All these evils come from within and defile a person." After Jesus left there, he went to the region of Tyre. When he went into a house, he did not want anyone to know, but he was not able to escape notice. Instead, a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him and came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, of Syrophoenician origin. She asked him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, "Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and to throw it to the dogs." She answered, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Then he said to her, "Because you said this, you may go. The demon has left your daughter." She went home and found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. Then Jesus went out again from the region of Tyre and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had difficulty speaking, and they asked him to place his hands on him. After Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, he put his fingers in the man's ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue. Then he looked up to heaven and said with a sigh, "Ephphatha" (that is, "Be opened"). And immediately the man's ears were opened, his tongue loosened, and he spoke plainly. Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone. But as much as he ordered them not to do this, they proclaimed it all the more. People were completely astounded and said, "He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."