Bible Chapter Summary
Mark 7 Summary
Traditions and the Heart
Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem question Jesus because his disciples eat with unwashen hands, violating the traditions of the elders. Jesus rebukes them as hypocrites, saying that what defiles a man comes not from without but from within his heart, from which proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, murders, and other wickedness. He travels to the borders of Tyre and Sidon where a Syrophenician woman begs him to cast a devil from her daughter; though he says the children's bread must not be cast to the dogs, her faith moves him to grant her request. Later he heals a deaf man with a speech impediment, causing those who witness it to marvel that he has done all things well.
Key themes
Key verses
Mark 7:15
“There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.”
Mark 7:20-23
“And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.”
Mark 7:29
“And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.”
Mark 7:37
“And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.”
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