St Marks Gospel in Worldwide English

Laws made by men

1. Then some Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus.
2. They saw some of the disciples eating food. They had not washed their hands before they ate. The Pharisees said that was wrong.
3. They and all the Jews keep the laws made by men. God did not give them those laws. They do not eat until they wash their hands very well.
4. When they come from the market, they do not eat until they have washed themselves. They also keep many other laws such as washing cups, pots, brass pans, and beds.
5. The Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, `Why do your disciples not keep the law our fathers made? Why do they eat with hands that are not clean?'
6. Jesus said to them, `Isaiah spoke the truth about you people! You are not true to yourselves! He wrote about you this way: "These people respect me with their mouths. But their hearts are far from me.
7. They do not mean it in their hearts when they worship me. Their teachings are only words of men."
8. `You do not keep the law of God, but you keep the laws made by people. Those laws are about washing pots and cups. You do many other things like that also.
9. `You break God's law so that you can keep your own law.
10. Moses said, "Respect your father and your mother. Anyone who says wrong things to his father or his mother will die."
11. You say, "Tell your father or your mother that what you were going to give to them is Corban." (That means a gift to God.)
12. So you stop him from doing anything for his father and mother.
13. You make God's law to mean nothing so that you can keep your own laws. You do many other things like that also.'

    Things that make a person dirty

14. Then Jesus called the people to him again. He said, `Listen to me, all of you, and understand what I say.
15. What goes into a person's mouth does not make him dirty. But what comes out of a person's mouth makes him dirty.
16. Everyone who has ears to hear, listen!'
17. Jesus left the people and went into a house. His disciples asked him the meaning of the story.
18. He said, `Do you still not understand? Do you not know this? What goes into a person from the outside cannot make a person dirty.
19. It does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and then it goes out of the body.' By saying this, Jesus meant that food does not make a person dirty.
20. But he said, `What comes out of a person makes him dirty.
21. Here is what comes from the heart: wrong thoughts, all kinds of adultery, stealing, killing,
22. wanting things that other people have, doing very wrong things, fooling people, breaking the law, jealousy, saying wrong things about people, being proud, being foolish.
23. All these wrong things come from a person's heart and make him dirty.'

    A woman begs Jesus to help her daughter

24. Then Jesus went away to the country of Tyre and Sidon. He went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. But he could not hide from the people.
25. Right away a woman heard of him. She came and kneeled down before him. Her daughter had a bad spirit in her.
26. The woman was not a Jew and had been born in the country of Phoenicia in Syria. She begged Jesus to drive the bad spirit out of her daughter.
27. But Jesus said to her, `We will give the children all they want to eat first. It is not right to take the children's food and give it to the little dogs.'
28. She answered, `Yes, Sir. But even the little dogs under the table eat food that falls from the children's table.'
29. Jesus said to her, `Because you have said this, you may go home. The bad spirit has gone out of your daughter.'
30. When she came to her house, she found that the bad spirit had left. Her daughter was lying on the bed.

    A man who could not hear or talk is healed

31. Jesus went away from Tyre and Sidon and came to the sea of Galilee. He passed through the country of the Ten Towns.
32. The people brought a man to Jesus who could not hear and could not talk well. They begged Jesus to put his hand on him.
33. So Jesus took him away alone. He put his fingers in the man's ears. Then he spat and touched the man's tongue.
34. He looked up to heaven and sighed. He said, `Ephphatha!' That means, `Be opened!'
35. Right away the man's ears were opened and his tongue was made free. He could talk well.
36. Jesus said, `Do not tell anyone.' But the more he told them not to tell, the more they told it everywhere.
37. The people were very much surprised. They said, `He has done everything well. The people who could not hear can hear. The people who could not talk can talk.'

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