The Saints Gospel 68
The Heart and the Commandment
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Woven from Matthew 15:1–20 · Mark 7:1–15 · Mark 7:17–23
The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Him. They saw that some of His disciples were eating their bread with common hands—that is, unwashed. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands with the fist, holding to the tradition of the elders. On returning from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash themselves. There are many other things they received to observe: washings of cups, xestes vessels, copper vessels, and couches. The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with common hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied well about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with its lips, but their heart is far from Me. In vain do they worship Me, teaching human commandments as teachings.’ You abandon God’s commandment and hold to human tradition.” He said to them, “You set aside God’s commandment very well indeed, so that you may keep your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Let whoever speaks evil of father or mother surely die.’
“But you say, ‘If a person says to his father or mother, “Whatever benefit you might receive from me is Corban”—that is, a gift—’ you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or mother, making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. You do many similar things.” Calling the crowd to Him again, He said to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand. There is nothing outside a person that, by entering him, can defile him. Rather, the things coming out of a person are what defile the person.”
Then the disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees stumbled when they heard this saying?” He answered, “Every plant that My heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted. Leave them; they are blind guides of the blind. If a blind person guides a blind person, both will fall into a pit.”
When He entered a house away from the crowd, Peter and the disciples asked Him to explain the parable. He answered, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not grasp that everything entering a person from outside cannot defile him, because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and goes out into the latrine?” Thus He cleansed all foods.
He said, “What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a person. From within, out of people’s hearts, come evil reasonings, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, murders, adulteries, acts of greed, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an evil eye, false testimonies, blasphemies, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a person, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person.”
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Saints Translation · The Saints Gospel · a harmony of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts 1 · words of Christ in red · working draft awaiting specialist review.