Mark 7:20

THE MESSAGE

He went on: "It's what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution."

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.

King James Version (1611)
And he said, That which commeth out of the man, that defileth the man.

King James Version
And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

English Standard Version
And he said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him.

New American Standard Bible
And He was saying, "That which comes out of the person, that is what defiles the person.

New Century Version
And Jesus said, "The things that come out of people are the things that make them unclean.

Amplified Bible
And He said, "Whatever comes from [the heart of] a man, that is what defiles and dishonors him.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
And He was saying, "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.

Legacy Standard Bible
And He was saying, "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.

Berean Standard Bible
He continued: "What comes out of a man, that is what defiles him.

Contemporary English Version
Then Jesus said: What comes from your heart is what makes you unclean.

Complete Jewish Bible
"It is what comes out of a person," he went on, "that makes him unclean.

Darby Translation
And he said, That which goes forth out of the man, that defiles the man.

Easy-to-Read Version
And Jesus said, "The things that make people wrong are the things that come from the inside.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Then he sayd, That which commeth out of man, that defileth man.

George Lamsa Translation
It is what goes out of man which defiles the man.

Good News Translation
And he went on to say, "It is what comes out of you that makes you unclean.

Lexham English Bible
And he said, "What comes out of a person, that defiles a person.

Literal Translation
And He said, That passing out of the man, it is the thing that defiles the man.

American Standard Version
And he said, That which proceedeth out of the man, that defileth the man.

Bible in Basic English
And he said, That which comes out of the man, that makes the man unclean.

Hebrew Names Version
He said, "That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man.

International Standard Version
He continued, "It is what comes out of a person that makes a person unclean.

Etheridge Translation
But that which proceedeth from a man, that polluteth a man.

Murdock Translation
But that which proceedeth from a man, that defileth a man.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And he sayde: That which commeth out of a man, defyleth the man.

English Revised Version
And he said, That which proceedeth out of the man, that defileth the man.

World English Bible
He said, "That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

Weymouth's New Testament
"What comes out of a man," He added, "that it is which makes him unclean.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
But he seide, The thingis that gon out of a man, tho defoulen a man.

Update Bible Version
And he said, That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man.

Webster's Bible Translation
And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

New English Translation
He said, "What comes out of a person defiles him.

New King James Version
And He said, "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.

New Living Translation
And then he added, "It is what comes from inside that defiles you.

New Life Bible
He said, "Whatever comes out of a man is what makes the man sinful.

New Revised Standard
And he said, "It is what comes out of a person that defiles.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And he was saying - That which, out of the man, cometh forth, that, defileth the man;

Douay-Rheims Bible
But he said that the things which come out from a man, they defile a man.

Revised Standard Version
And he said, "What comes out of a man is what defiles a man.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
And he sayde: yt defileth a ma which cometh oute of a man.

Young's Literal Translation
And he said -- `That which is coming out from the man, that doth defile the man;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And he sayde: The thinge that goeth out of the man,

Mace New Testament (1729)
but, said he, that which proceeds from a man, is what defiles him:

Simplified Cowboy Version
What comes out of a man's heart is what defiles him.

Contextual Overview

¹The Pharisees, along with some religion scholars who had come from Jerusalem, gathered around him. They noticed that some of his disciples weren't being careful with ritual washings before meals. The Pharisees—Jews in general, in fact—would never eat a meal without going through the motions of a ritual hand-washing, with an especially vigorous scrubbing if they had just come from the market (to say nothing of the scourings they'd give jugs and pots and pans). ⁵ The Pharisees and religion scholars asked, "Why do your disciples flout the rules, showing up at meals without washing their hands?" ⁶Jesus answered, "Isaiah was right about frauds like you, hit the bull's-eye in fact: These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn't in it. They act like they are worshiping me, but they don't mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy, Ditching God's command and taking up the latest fads." ⁹He went on, "Well, good for you. You get rid of God's command so you won't be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions! Moses said, ‘Respect your father and mother,' and, ‘Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.' But you weasel out of that by saying that it's perfectly acceptable to say to father or mother, ‘Gift! What I owed you I've given as a gift to God,' thus relieving yourselves of obligation to father or mother. You scratch out God's Word and scrawl a whim in its place. You do a lot of things like this." ¹⁴Jesus called the crowd together again and said, "Listen now, all of you—take this to heart. It's not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it's what you vomit—that's the real pollution." When he was back home after being with the crowd, his disciples said, "We don't get it. Put it in plain language." Jesus said, "Are you being willfully stupid? Don't you see that what you swallow can't contaminate you? It doesn't enter your heart but your stomach, works its way through the intestines, and is finally flushed." (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.) He went on: "It's what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution." From there Jesus set out for the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house there where he didn't think he would be found, but he couldn't escape notice. He was barely inside when a woman who had a disturbed daughter heard where he was. She came and knelt at his feet, begging for help. The woman was Greek, Syro-Phoenician by birth. She asked him to cure her daughter. He said, "Stand in line and take your turn. The children get fed first. If there's any left over, the dogs get it." She said, "Of course, Master. But don't dogs under the table get scraps dropped by the children?" Jesus was impressed. "You're right! On your way! Your daughter is no longer disturbed. The demonic affliction is gone." She went home and found her daughter relaxed on the bed, the torment gone for good. Then he left the region of Tyre, went through Sidon back to Galilee Lake and over to the district of the Ten Towns. Some people brought a man who could neither hear nor speak and asked Jesus to lay a healing hand on him. He took the man off by himself, put his fingers in the man's ears and some spit on the man's tongue. Then Jesus looked up in prayer, groaned mightily, and commanded, "Ephphatha!—Open up!" And it happened. The man's hearing was clear and his speech plain—just like that. Jesus urged them to keep it quiet, but they talked it up all the more, beside themselves with excitement. "He's done it all and done it well. He gives hearing to the deaf, speech to the speechless." ¹⁶The Source of Your Pollution The Pharisees, along with some religion scholars who had come from Jerusalem, gathered around him. They noticed that some of his disciples weren't being careful with ritual washings before meals. The Pharisees—Jews in general, in fact—would never eat a meal without going through the motions of a ritual hand-washing, with an especially vigorous scrubbing if they had just come from the market (to say nothing of the scourings they'd give jugs and pots and pans). The Pharisees and religion scholars asked, "Why do your disciples flout the rules, showing up at meals without washing their hands?" Jesus answered, "Isaiah was right about frauds like you, hit the bull's-eye in fact: These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn't in it. They act like they are worshiping me, but they don't mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy, Ditching God's command and taking up the latest fads." He went on, "Well, good for you. You get rid of God's command so you won't be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions! Moses said, ‘Respect your father and mother,' and, ‘Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.' But you weasel out of that by saying that it's perfectly acceptable to say to father or mother, ‘Gift! What I owed you I've given as a gift to God,' thus relieving yourselves of obligation to father or mother. You scratch out God's Word and scrawl a whim in its place. You do a lot of things like this." Jesus called the crowd together again and said, "Listen now, all of you—take this to heart. It's not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it's what you vomit—that's the real pollution." ¹⁷ When he was back home after being with the crowd, his disciples said, "We don't get it. Put it in plain language." ¹⁸Jesus said, "Are you being willfully stupid? Don't you see that what you swallow can't contaminate you? It doesn't enter your heart but your stomach, works its way through the intestines, and is finally flushed." (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.) ²⁰He went on: "It's what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Mark 7:15, Psalms 41:6, Hebrews 7:6, Micah 2:1, Matthew 12:34-37, James 1:14, James 1:15, James 3:6, James 4:1

Reciprocal: Leviticus 15:2 - when any man Leviticus 15:25 - General Job 4:17 - shall a man

Cross-References

Jeremiah 3:22
"We're here! We've come back to you. You're our own true God ! All that popular religion was a cheap lie, duped crowds buying up the latest in gods. We're back! Back to our true God , the salvation of Israel. The Fraud picked us clean, swindled us of what our ancestors bequeathed us, Gypped us out of our inheritance— God-blessed flocks and God-given children. We made our bed and now lie in it, all tangled up in the dirty sheets of dishonor. All because we sinned against our God , we and our fathers and mothers. From the time we took our first steps, said our first words, we've been rebels, disobeying the voice of our God ."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he said,.... Continued to say in his discourse; though this is left but in the Syriac version;

that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man; meaning, not his excrements, which were unclean by the law, Deuteronomy 23:13 but what comes out of his heart, by his mouth; or is expressed in action, as appears by what follows; Deuteronomy 23:13- :.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See this passage explained in the notes at Matthew 15:1-20.

Mark 7:1

Came from Jerusalem - Probably to observe his conduct, and to find matter of accusation against him.

Mark 7:2

Defiled hands - The hands were considered defiled or polluted unless they were washed previous to every meal.

Mark 7:3

Except they wash their hands oft - Our word “oft” means frequently, often. The Greek wore translated oft has been rendered various ways. Some have said that it means “up to the wrist” - unless they wash their hands up to the wrist. Others have said up to the elbow.” There is evidence that the Pharisees had some such foolish rule as this about washing, and it is likely that they practiced it faithfully. But the Greek Word πυγμή pugmē - means properly the “fist,” and the meaning here is, “Unless they wash their hands (rubbing them) with the fist” - that is, not merely dipping the finger or hands in water as a sign of ablution, but rubbing the hands together as a ball or fist, in the usual Oriental manner when water is poured over them. Hence, the phrase comes to mean “diligently, carefully, sedulously.” - Robinson, Lexicon. The idea is, unless they pay the utmost attention to it, and do it carefully and according to rule.

The tradition - What had been handed down; not what was delivered “by writing” in the law of Moses, but what had been communicated from father to son as being proper and binding.

The elders - The ancients; not the old men “then living,” but those who had lived formerly.

Mark 7:4

Market - This word means either the place where provisions were sold, or the place where men were convened for any purpose. Here it probably means the former.

Except they wash - In the original, “Except they baptize.” In this place it does not mean to immerse the whole body, but only the hands. There is no evidence that the Jews washed their “whole bodies” every time they came from market. It is probable that they often washed with the use of a very small quantity of water.

The washing of cups - In the Greek, “the baptism of cups.”

Cups - drinking vessels. Those used at their meals.

Pots - Measures of “liquids.” Vessels made of wood, used to hold wine, vinegar, etc.

brazen vessels - Vessels made of brass, used in cooking or otherwise. These, if much polluted, were commonly passed through the fire: if slightly polluted they were washed. Earthen vessels, if defiled, were usually broken.

Tables - This word means, in the original, “beds or couches.” It refers not to the “tables” on which they ate, but to the “couches” on which they reclined at their meals. See the notes at Matthew 23:6. These were supposed to be defiled when any unclean or polluted person had reclined on them, and they deemed it necessary to purify them with water. The word “baptism” is here used - in the original, “the baptism of tables;” but, since it cannot be supposed that “couches” were entirely “immersed” in water, the word “baptism” here must denote some other application of water, by sprinkling or otherwise, and shows that the term is used in the sense of washing in any way. If the word is used here, as is clear it is, to denote anything except entire immersion, it may be elsewhere, and baptism is lawfully performed, therefore, without immersing the whole body in water.

Mark 7:7

For doctrines - For commands of God binding on the conscience. Imposing “your” traditions as equal in authority to the laws of God.

Mark 7:8

Laying aside - Rejecting, or making, it give place to traditions; considering the traditions as superior in authority to the divine law. This was the uniform doctrine of the Pharisees. See the notes at Matthew 15:1-9.

The tradition of men - What has been handed down by human beings, or what rests solely on their authority.

Mark 7:9

Full well - These words are capable of different interpretations. Some read them as a question: “Do ye do well in rejecting?” etc. Others suppose they mean “skillfully, cunningly.” “You show great cunning or art, in laying aside God’s commands and substituting in their place those of men.” Others suppose them to be ironical. “How nobly you act! From conscientious attachment to your traditions you have made void the law of God;” meaning to intimate by it that they had acted wickedly and basely.

Mark 7:17

The parable - The “obscure” and difficult remarks which he had made in Mark 7:15. The word “parable,” here, means “obscure” and “difficult saying.” They could not understand it. They had probably imbibed many of the popular notions of the Pharisees, and they could not understand why a man was not defiled by external things. It was, moreover, a doctrine of the law that men were ceremonially polluted by contact with dead bodies, etc., and they could not understand how it could be otherwise.

Mark 7:18

Cannot defile him - Cannot render his “soul” polluted; cannot make him a “sinner” so as to need this purifying as a “religious” observance.

Mark 7:19

Entereth not into his heart - Does not reach or affect the “mind,” the “soul,” and consequently cannot pollute it. Even if it should affect the “body,” yet it cannot the “soul,” and consequently cannot need to be cleansed by a religious ordinance. The notions of the Pharisees, therefore, are not founded in reason, but are mere “superstition.”

The draught - The sink, the vault. “Purging all meats.” The word “purging,” here, means to purify, to cleanse. What is thrown out of the body is the innutritious part of the food taken into the stomach, and leaving only that which is proper for the support of life; and it cannot, therefore, defile the soul.

All meals - All food; all that is taken into the body to support life. The meaning is, that the economy or process by which life is supported “purifies” or “renders nutritious” all kinds of food. The unwholesome or innutritious parts are separated, and the wholesome only are taken into the system. This agrees with all that has since been discovered of the process of digestion and of the support of life. The food taken into the stomach is by the gastric juice converted into a thick pulp called chyme. The nutritious part of this is conveyed into small vessels, and changed into a milky substance called “chyle.” This is poured by the thoracic duct into the left subclavian vein and mingles with the blood, and conveys nutriment and support to all parts of the system. The useless parts of the food are thrown off.

Mark 7:20

Hat which cometh out of the man - His words; the expression of his thoughts and feelings; his conduct, as the development of inward malice, anger, covetousness, lust, etc.

Defileth the man - Makes him really polluted or offensive in the sight of God. This renders the soul corrupt and abominable in his sight. See Matthew 15:18-20.