Matthew 15 — Greek text and reception

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Then Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying,

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“Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”

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He answered them, “Why do you also transgress God’s commandment because of your tradition?

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For God said, ‘Honor father and mother,’ and ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’

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But you say, ‘Whoever tells his father or mother, “Whatever benefit you might receive from me is a gift,”

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will certainly not honor his father.’ You have thus nullified the word of God because of your tradition.

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Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied well about you, saying,

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‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.

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In vain they worship Me, teaching human commandments as teachings.’”

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He summoned the crowd and said to them, “Hear and understand:

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what enters the mouth does not defile a person, but what comes out of the mouth—this defiles a person.”

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Then the disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees stumbled when they heard this saying?”

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He answered, “Every plant that My heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.

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Leave them; they are blind guides of the blind. If a blind person guides a blind person, both will fall into a pit.”

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Peter answered Him, “Explain this parable to us.”

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He said, “Are you also still without understanding?

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Do you not understand that everything entering the mouth goes into the stomach and is expelled into the latrine?

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But the things coming out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile a person.

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For out of the heart come evil reasonings, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, and blasphemies.

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These are the things that defile a person, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person.”

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Jesus went out from there and withdrew to the regions of Tyre and Sidon.

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And behold, a Canaanite woman from those territories came out and cried, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is terribly oppressed by a demon.”

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But He did not answer her a word. His disciples came and asked Him, “Dismiss her, because she is crying out behind us.”

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He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

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She came and bowed before Him, saying, “Lord, help me.”

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He answered, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”

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She said, “Yes, Lord, for even the little dogs eat from the crumbs falling from their masters’ table.”

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Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it happen for you as you wish.” Her daughter was healed from that hour.

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Moving on from there, Jesus came beside the Sea of Galilee. He went up the mountain and sat there.

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Great crowds came to Him, bringing with them mute, blind, lame, maimed, and many others. They laid them at His feet, and He healed them,

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so that the crowd marveled when they saw mute people speaking, maimed people healthy, lame people walking, and blind people seeing. They glorified the God of Israel.

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Jesus summoned His disciples and said, “I am moved with compassion for the crowd, because they have already stayed with Me three days and have nothing to eat. I am unwilling to dismiss them fasting, lest they faint on the road.”

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The disciples said to Him, “Where can we get so many loaves in a deserted place, enough to fill so great a crowd?”

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Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.”

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He instructed the crowd to recline on the ground,

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took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke them, and kept giving them to the disciples, and the disciples to the crowds.

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They all ate and were filled, and they took up the surplus fragments: seven large baskets full.

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Those eating were four thousand men, besides women and children.

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After dismissing the crowds, He entered the boat and came to the territory of Magadan.