Mark 7:19

"He said to them, “Are you also without understanding? Don’t you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can’t defile him,"

Key Reflection

Jesus' statement in Mark 7:19 challenges the traditional Jewish practice of ritual purification, which was based on the assumption that external factors could contaminate a person's spiritual state. By asking, "Are you also without understanding?" Jesus highlights the disciples’ lack of insight into his true teaching about defilement. He clarifies that what enters a person from outside—such as food—cannot actually defile them; it is their hearts, filled with evil thoughts, that truly corrupt one's character and actions.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Verse 19. Entereth not into his heart. Does not reach or affect the mind, the soul, and consequently cannot pollute it. Even if it should affect the body, yet it cannot the soul, and consequently cannot need to be cleansed by a religious ordinance. The notions of the Pharisees, therefore, are not founded in reason, but are mere superstition. The draught. The sink, the vault. Purging all meats, The word purging, here, means to purify, to cleanse. What is thrown out of the body is the innutrious part of the food taken into the stomach, and leaving only that which is proper for the support of life; and it cannot, therefore, defile the soul. All meats.

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