THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK

THE NEW TESTAMENT
TRANSLATED FROM
THE SYRIAC PESHITO VERSION BY JAMES MURDOCK

Chapter 7

(Mar 7:1) And there gathered about him Pharisees and Scribes, who had come from Jerusalem.

(Mar 7:2) And they saw some of his disciples eating bread, with their hands unwashed; and they censured it.

(Mar 7:3) For all the Jews and the Pharisees, unless they carefully wash their hands do not eat; because they hold fast the tradition of the Elders.

(Mar 7:4) And [coming] from the market-place, except they baptize, they do not eat. And there are many other things which they have received to observe, [such as] the baptisms of cups, and of pots, and of brazen vessels, and of couches.

(Mar 7:5) And the Scribes and Pharisees asked him: Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the Elders, but eat bread with their hands unwashed?

(Mar 7:6) And he said to them: Well did Isaiah the prophet prophecy concerning you, ye hypocrites; as it is written: This people honoreth me with its lips, but their heart is very far from me.

(Mar 7:7) And in vain do they give me reverence, while teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.

(Mar 7:8) For ye have forsaken the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men, the baptisms of cups, and of pots, and many things like these.

(Mar 7:9) He said [also] to them: Full well do ye spurn the precept of God, that ye may establish your tradition!

(Mar 7:10) For Moses said: Honor thy father and thy mother; and whoever shall revile his father or his mother, shall surely die.

(Mar 7:11) But ye say: If a man say to his father or to his mother, Be it my oblation, whatever thou mayest gain from me:

(Mar 7:12) then ye suffer him not to do any thing for his father or his mother.

(Mar 7:13) And ye reject the word of God, on account of the tradition which ye hand down. And many things like these, ye do.

(Mar 7:14) And Jesus called all the multitude, and said to them: Hear, all ye; and understand.

(Mar 7:15) There is nothing without a man which, by entering him, can pollute him. But that which cometh out of him, that it is that polluteth a man.

(Mar 7:16) Whoever hath ears to hear, let him hear.

(Mar 7:17) And when Jesus had entered the house, apart from the multitude, his disciples asked him about this similitude.

(Mar 7:18) And he said to them: Are ye likewise so undiscerning? Do ye not know, that whatever from without entereth into a man, cannot defile him?

(Mar 7:19) For it doth not enter into his heart, but into his belly, and is thrown into the digestive process, which carries off all that is eaten.

(Mar 7:20) But that which proceedeth from a man, that defileth a man.

(Mar 7:21) For from within, from the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adultery, whoredom,

(Mar 7:22) theft, murder, avarice, malice, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, reviling, haughtiness, folly.

(Mar 7:23) All these evil things come from within, and defile a man.

(Mar 7:24) Thence Jesus arose, and went to the border of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house, and wished no man to know him; but he could not be concealed.

(Mar 7:25) For immediately a woman, whose daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him; and she came, and fell before his feet,

(Mar 7:26) the woman was a Gentile from Phenicia of Syria, and besought him, that he would expel the demon from her daughter.

(Mar 7:27) Jesus said to her: Permit the children first to be satisfied; for it is not becoming, to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs.

(Mar 7:28) And she replied, and said to him: Yes, my Lord: and yet the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.

(Mar 7:29) Jesus said to her: Go thou; because of this speech, the demon hath departed from thy daughter.

(Mar 7:30) And she went to her house, and found her daughter lying on a bed, and the demon gone from her.

(Mar 7:31) Again Jesus departed from the border of Tyre and Sidon, and came to the sea of Galilee, to the border of Decapolis.

(Mar 7:32) And they brought to him a deaf and stammering man, and besought him to lay his hand on him.

(Mar 7:33) And he led him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and spit, and touched his tongue,

(Mar 7:34) and looked towards heaven, and sighed, and said to him: Be opened.

(Mar 7:35) And immediately his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plainly.

(Mar 7:36) And he charged them to tell no man of it: and the more he charged them, the more they proclaimed it.

(Mar 7:37) And they admired exceedingly, and said: He doeth every thing excellently: he maketh the deaf to hear, and the speechless to talk.