Mark 7:18–19

Context

The exchange begins when Pharisees and scribes who had come from Jerusalem raise an objection. Seeing the disciples eat bread with unwashed hands, they charge them with transgressing "the tradition of the elders" (Mark 7:1–5). Jesus replies that human tradition leads people to lay aside the commandment of God. He then calls the crowd to him and tells them that "there is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him" (7:14–15).

This passage records Jesus' explanation after he has entered a house and the disciples ask him the meaning of that parable. In the verses that follow (7:20–23), he says that what defiles a person is the evil thoughts that proceed from the heart. "Defile" here is not a matter of hygiene. It refers to ritual impurity, a state that restricts a person's participation in worship and community life.

Interpretation

Readings diverge depending on whose words the closing clause of verse 19 is taken to be and what it is understood to mean.

• Reading it as the author's commentary: Many scholars and translations today regard the clause as an explanation added by the author of the Gospel of Mark and read it as "Thus Jesus declared all foods clean." The Korean Revised Version likewise renders it as Jesus declaring them clean. Many Protestant interpreters take this to mean that the distinction between clean and unclean foods in Leviticus 11 is no longer binding in Christ. They connect it with Peter's vision (Acts 10) and with Paul's teaching (Romans 14:14, 20).
• Reading it as a description of digestion: Some later manuscripts have a different form of the Greek participle. Following these manuscripts, the clause describes the body's process of elimination: food enters the belly and passes out, "purging all meats." The King James Version follows this reading.
• Limiting it to a rebuttal of tradition: The Seventh-day Adventist Church continues to observe the biblical distinction between clean and unclean foods as a principle of Christian living. It holds that the issue in the passage is not the Levitical food laws but the tradition of the elders concerning handwashing. Accordingly, it interprets "all foods" as referring only to what the law permits as food.
• Reading it as an emphasis on purity of heart: Apart from the question of food laws, sermons and commentaries across many denominations locate the center of the passage elsewhere: the standard of purity has shifted from the outward to the inward, that is, to the heart.

Debates and Issues

• Differences from the parallel passage: The parallel passage in Matthew 15 lacks the statement about declaring all foods clean. For this reason many regard it as commentary Mark added for Gentile readers. Mark also explains Jewish washing customs separately in 7:3–4.
• Table fellowship in the early church: The question of Jewish and Gentile believers eating together was also taken up at the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15). Some interpreters read this passage as part of the background to that discussion.
• Objections to out-of-context citation: In discussions of alcohol and tobacco, some argue on the basis of "there is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him" that drinking cannot be faulted. Those on the other side hold that the passage addresses only ritual purity, not drunkenness or matters of health. They also point out that Scripture warns separately against drunkenness.
• Food offered in ancestral rites: The passage is also cited in discussions of whether Christians may eat food from ancestral rites. On this question, however, 1 Corinthians 8 and 10, which deal with food offered to idols, are read alongside it as more directly relevant texts.

Related Passages

• Mark 7:21–23
• Matthew 15:17–20
• Acts 10:9–16
• Romans 14:14
• Acts 15:28–29