And there are gathered together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of
the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, and had seen that some of
his disciples ate their bread with defiled, that is, unwashen, hands.
(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands
diligently, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders; and when
they come from the market-place, except they bathe themselves, they
eat not; and many other things there are, which they have received to
hold, washings of cups, and pots, and brasen vessels.) And the
Pharisees and the scribes ask him, "Why walk not thy disciples
according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with
defiled hands?"
And he said unto them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as
it is written,
'This people honoreth me with their lips,
But their heart is far from me.
But in vain do they worship me,
Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men.'
"Ye leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men."
And he said unto them, "Full well do ye reject the commandment of God,
that ye may keep your tradition. For Moses said, 'Honor thy father and
thy mother;' and, 'He that speaketh evil of father or mother, let him
die the death;' but ye say, 'If a man shall say to his father or his
mother, That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is
Corban,' that is to say, Given to God; ye no longer suffer him to do
aught for his father or his mother; making void the word of God by
your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things ye
do."
And he called to him the multitude again, and said unto them, "Hear me
all of you, and understand: there is nothing from without the man,
that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out
of the man are those that defile the man."
Then came the disciples, and said unto him, "Knowest thou that the
Pharisees were offended, when they heard this saying?"
But he answered and said, "Every plant which my heavenly Father
planted not, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they are blind
guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both shall fall into a pit."
And when he was entered into the house from the multitude, his
disciples asked of him the parable.
And he saith unto them, "Are ye also even yet without understanding?
Perceive ye not, that whatsoever from without goeth into the man, it
cannot defile him; because it goeth not into his heart, but into his
belly, and goeth out into the draught?"
This he said, making all meats clean. And he said, "That which
proceedeth out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out
of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts,
murders, adulteries, covetings, wickedness, deceit, false witness,
lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness: all these
evil things proceed from within, and defile the man; but to eat with
unwashen hands defileth not the man."