Mark 7:3-18

3(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they perform a ritual washing, holding fast to the tradition of the elders.

4And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. They hold fast to many other traditions: the washing of cups, pots, kettles, and dining couches.)

5The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with unwashed hands?”

6He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

7They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.’

8Having no regard for the command of God, you hold fast to human tradition.”

9He also said to them, “You neatly reject the commandment of God in order to set up your tradition.

10For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.’

11But you say that if anyone tells his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you would have received from me is corban’ (that is, a gift for God),

12then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother.

13Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like this.”

14Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand.

15There is nothing outside of a person that can defile him by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles him.”

17Now when Jesus had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable.

18He said to them, “Are you so foolish? Don’t you understand that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him?