Mark 7:1-23 is a controversy about ritual purity to which Jesus applies Isaiah 29, 13. The controversy is occassioned by the disciples who eat without ritually cleansing themselves. To the question of the Pharisees, Jesus answers: "Nothing that enters from the outside into a man's body makes that man unclean. Only those things which come out from the man's heart makes that man unclean."
The section can be divided into the following parts:
- 1-16 Ritual Purity and Impurity
- 1-5 The Objection of the Pharisees and scribes
- 6-7 Isaiah 29,13
- 8-13 An Example: Honor your father and your mother
- 14-16 The Lesson
- 17-23 The heart's disposition: basis for impurity or purity
- 17 The disciples ask for a clarification
- 18-19 Food and impurity
- 20-23 The heart, source of impurity
1-16: The Controversy. The narrative opens with a controversy with the Pharisees and scribes about ritual impurity. The disciples eat without making ritual ablutions. In vv. 3-4, Mark makes a comment on the Jewish customs surrounding the cleansing of food. This is added here for the sake of those who have no idea of such customs, e.g. converts from the Gentiles. In verse 5, the question of the Pharisees and scribes is expressed on the basis of the tradition of the elders. This latter is the collection of interpretations that a lone line of rabbis have made on the Law, preserved and passed on from one generation of rabbis to another. If Jesus were a rabbi, then he would be respecting these traditions and keeping them. But since his disciples disregard them, the Pharisees raise the question.
In verses 6-14, Jesus makes his response. He accuses the Pharisees of making use of rabbinic tradition to justify their own disregard for the Law. The quotation that Jesus uses -- Is. 29,13 -- is originally meant for the people of Jerusalem who will be deprived of prophecy because their worship of Yahweh has become purely external. The original statement goes:
Since this people draws near with words only
and honors me with their lips alone
THOUGH THEIR HEARTS ARE FAR FROM ME
and their reverence for me has become routine observance
of the precepts of men.
"Words", "lips" "routine observance" is placed in contrast with "hearts" that are far from Yahweh, the external -- what is observable -- rather than what is interior, the heart, the "I" of the worshipper, seen only by God.
In verses 8-13, Jesus illustrates his complaint with the way "Honor your father and your father" is disregarded through the use of human tradition. To honor the father and the mother should include even the help extended to them by a son in their old age. However, this responsiblity can be nullified by declaring "Qorban" those things that one can use to help them.
In verses 14-15, Jesus draws the lesson for the benefit of his hearers:
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.
The statement is still clearly about the question of ablutions before a meal. All the cleansings are meant to ensure that the food that is bought, prepared, cooked and served remains ritually pure. Jesus nullifies this custom with his statement about the food entering from outside into a man. Instead, the statement from Is. 29:13 about "the heart" becomes the basis for impurity or purity.
17-23: It is a Question of the Heart. The disciples ask for a clarification about the statement in 14-15. Jesus' responses in 18-19 concludes with a commentary: "Thus, he declared all foods clean". This reading has been judged as the more probable by reason of manuscript evidence and by its consistency with the rest of the section. What really matters in ritual purity is the heart. What a person harbors in it and externalizes by speech and action is what renders one impure. Thus the quotation from Is. 29,13 is once more applied with rigor here.
From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.
There are two sayings in 7:1-23 that need to be considered in practical life, the rest is context: verses 14b-15 and 21-23. The point of the controversy is to highlight these statements which in the final analysis means one thing: In matters of religion, it is always a question of the heart's disposition, the "I" before God.
