Mark 7
BSASBJesus is challenged over hand-washing and shows that God cares most about the heart, not about human rules or outward cleanness. He then heals the daughter of a Gentile woman who answers Him with humble faith. Last, He opens the ears and loosens the tongue of a deaf man, and the crowd marvels.
Mark 7:1-2
Religious experts come all the way from Jerusalem to inspect Jesus. They notice that some disciples eat without first washing their hands in the prescribed way. This was not about dirt. It was a charge that the disciples were breaking the accepted rules of holiness.
BSA: defiled (“unholy, common, unsanctified”): The accusation is that the disciples treated their hands as ordinary, not set apart as ritually clean.
Greek: κοιναῖς (koinais, G2839) — “common.” The word literally means common, ordinary. In Jewish usage it meant ritually unfit. Mark explains it to his readers as ‘unwashed’.
Mark 7:3-4
Mark explains for non-Jewish readers. Over the years the elders had added many washing customs to God’s law, such as washing hands before meals, washing after the market, and washing dishes and furniture. These were handed down by teaching and example, and they carried great weight.
BSA: tradition (“custom, teaching passed down”): These were human teachings handed from one generation to the next, not commands written by God. washing (“baptism, ritual cleansing”): The word points to ritual dipping and cleansing for purity, not ordinary housekeeping.
Greek: βαπτισμούς (baptismous, G909) — “dippings, ceremonial washings.” This is the same root as ‘baptism’. Here it means ritual immersing of cups and pots, which shows how far the rules reached into daily life.
Mark 7:5
The question is not ‘Why do they break God’s law?’ but ‘Why do they not follow the elders’ tradition?’ The critics make a human custom the measure of faithfulness. They treat it as the standard by which Jesus’ followers are judged.
BSA: walk (“live or conduct themselves”): Walking is the Bible’s picture for a whole way of life, so they are asking whether the disciples live by the elders’ pattern.
Mark 7:6-7
Jesus answers with Scripture. Isaiah described people whose worship sounds right but whose hearts are distant. Such worship is empty. It looks devout while teaching human rules as though they were God’s own words.
BSA: hypocrites (“those who pretend to be righteous, insincere”): Jesus is naming a gap between a polished outside and an unmoved inside.
Greek: ὑποκριτῶν (hypokritōn, G5273) — “actors, play-actors.” The word was used of stage actors who wore masks and played a part. Jesus is saying their religion is a performance.
See also: Isaiah 29:13.
Mark 7:8
Jesus states the problem plainly. They let go of what God commanded and grasp what people invented. Human customs are not wrong in themselves. The trouble comes when they take the place of God’s word.
BSA: disregarded (“turned away from, rejected”): It is a deliberate turning of the back on God’s commandment, not an accident.
Mark 7:9
With sharp irony Jesus says they are good at it. They are clever at finding ways to put God’s command aside while looking devout. Their skill is in protecting their own tradition.
BSA: neatly (“cleverly, with cunning”): The setting aside is skillful and well argued, which makes it all the more serious.
Mark 7:10
Jesus gives an example, starting with what Moses taught. The fifth commandment calls children to honor their parents. The law also took cursing parents so seriously that it carried the death penalty. God’s word protects the care of parents.
See also: Exodus 20:12; Exodus 21:17.
Mark 7:11-12
A man could declare his money or property ‘Corban’, given to God. He might then claim it could no longer go to his parents. The vow sounded religious, yet it let him avoid helping his aging father and mother, and the teachers let him do it.
BSA: devoted (“dedicated, set apart”): Something set apart for God was treated as off limits to anyone else, including needy parents.
Greek: Κορβᾶν (Korban, G2878) — “an offering, a gift to God.” The word is Hebrew in origin and was used of gifts brought to the altar. Mark leaves it untranslated and then explains it, which shows how familiar the term was.
Mark 7:13
Jesus draws the conclusion. Their handed-down rule cancels the very word of God. He adds that this is no isolated case. Whenever human tradition outranks Scripture, God’s word loses its force.
BSA: nullify (“make void, set aside”): God’s word is emptied of its power to bind, like a law declared invalid.
Greek: ἀκυροῦντες (akyrountes, G208) — “making void, cancelling.” This is a legal word for annulling a contract or will. The tradition has the same effect on God’s command.
See also: Matthew 15:6.
Mark 7:14-15
Jesus turns from the experts to the whole crowd and gives a short, striking saying. What goes into a person from outside does not make him unclean before God. What comes out of him shows his true condition. The point is the heart, not the menu.
BSA: defile (“make unclean, profane”): Defilement here means being made unfit to stand before God, and Jesus locates its source inside the person. listen (“hear and obey”): Jesus asks for a hearing that acts on what it hears, not just for attention.
Mark 7:17
Away from the crowd, the disciples ask what He meant. Some of Jesus’ sayings were brief pictures that needed explaining. Here He takes time with His close followers and does not leave the truth hidden from them.
BSA: parable (“a story that teaches a moral lesson, an illustration”): Here the parable is a short, puzzling saying that points to a deeper truth.
Mark 7:18-19
Jesus is surprised they are still slow to grasp this. Food reaches the stomach, not the heart, and then leaves the body. It cannot touch a person’s inner life. Mark adds his own remark that Jesus was declaring all foods clean.
BSA: eliminated (“passes out of the body, purged”): Food is only passing through the body and never reaches the moral center of a person.
Greek: καθαρίζων (katharizōn, G2511) — “cleansing, declaring clean.” Mark’s aside says that by this teaching Jesus was making all foods clean. The food laws had marked Israel out from the nations, and this points to their coming end.
See also: Acts 10:15.
Mark 7:20
Jesus repeats the heart of His teaching. The trouble is not in the world outside, but in what pours out of a person’s inner life. The real source of defilement is within us.
BSA: defiles (“makes unclean, profanes”): What comes out of a person marks him as unclean before God, because it shows what is inside.
Mark 7:21-22
Jesus lists what comes out of the heart. Some are sins of the body, such as sexual immorality, adultery, theft and murder. Others are sins of attitude, such as greed, envy, pride and deceit. Each begins in the heart, and the list leaves no one out.
BSA: thoughts (“reasoning, thinking”): Evil begins in the mind’s reasoning, before it becomes action. envy (“an evil eye”): Envy looks at another’s good with a jealous, resentful glance.
Greek: ὀφθαλμὸς πονηρός (ophthalmos ponēros, G3788) — “an evil eye.” The Greek speaks of an evil eye, a grudging look at what someone else has. The English word ’envy’ loses this picture.
Mark 7:23
Jesus closes the teaching. Defilement is an inside job. This is humbling, because no washing of hands can reach it. It also points to our need for a changed heart, not just better habits.
See also: Psalm 51:10.
Mark 7:24
Jesus travels north to the area of Tyre, outside Israel, a mostly Gentile region. He wants to be unnoticed and rests in a house. Yet His fame has already gone before Him, and He cannot stay hidden.
BSA: escape (“hide, remain hidden”): Jesus tried to stay out of sight, but who He was could not be concealed.
Mark 7:25-26
A mother in great need hears of Him, comes and falls at His feet. She is not Jewish. Mark calls her Greek, meaning Gentile by culture and language, from the Phoenician coast of Syria. She keeps asking for her little daughter to be freed from an unclean spirit.
BSA: feet (“a symbol of reverence”): Falling at His feet shows humility and trust, as someone with nothing to claim. unclean (“impure”): The spirit is called impure because it is opposed to God’s holiness.
Mark 7:27
Jesus speaks in a picture of a family meal. The children are to be fed first, and Israel had been given the first call. The ‘dogs’ are household pets, not wild strays. The saying tests her and shows how her faith will respond.
BSA: First (“before others, in priority”): The word shows an order, not a final refusal. Israel is first in God’s plan, and others are not shut out. children (“the Jewish people, God’s chosen ones”): The picture is of Israel, whom God had called first, as His family at table.
See also: Romans 1:16.
Mark 7:28
She does not argue or take offense. She agrees and takes the picture further. Even pets under the table get the scraps. She asks only for a crumb from His power, trusting that it is more than enough for her daughter.
BSA: dogs (“little dogs, puppies”): The affectionate, small word fits a family pet that lives under the table, not an outcast.
Greek: κυνάρια (kynaria, G2952) — “little dogs, house puppies.” The word is a diminutive, used for household pets. It makes the scene gentler, and she builds on it with humble wit.
Mark 7:29-30
Jesus is moved by her reply. He tells her to go home, for the demon has left her daughter. She does not see it happen, but takes Him at His word. At home she finds the child resting peacefully and the demon gone, healed from a distance.
BSA: answer (“saying, word”): Her humble, believing word is what Jesus honors.
Mark 7:31
Jesus leaves Tyre and goes north through Sidon and then around to the east side of the Sea of Galilee. He comes into the Decapolis, a group of ten mostly Gentile cities. He keeps taking His mercy beyond Israel’s borders.
BSA: Decapolis (“a district east of Galilee”): It was largely non-Jewish country, so the healing that follows takes place among Gentiles.
Mark 7:32
Friends bring a man who cannot hear and can barely speak. They do not ask for much more than a touch. They trust that Jesus’ hand can do what no one else can, and they beg Him to lay it on him.
BSA: hand (“a symbol of power and healing”): The hand stands for Jesus’ personal, powerful touch, which the friends were counting on.
Greek: μογιλάλον (mogilalon, G3424) — “speaking with difficulty.” This rare word describes someone who can speak only with effort. It is the word used in the Greek version of Isaiah’s promise that the mute would sing.
See also: Isaiah 35:5-6.
Mark 7:33
Jesus leads the man away from the crowd. He touches the very places of need, putting His fingers into the ears and touching the tongue. This gentle, close approach speaks to a man who cannot hear explanations. He is treated as a person, not a spectacle.
BSA: privately (“away from the crowd, to be alone”): Jesus gives the man His personal attention, apart from the noise of the crowd.
Mark 7:34
Jesus looks up to heaven, since His power comes from the Father, and sighs deeply. This shows His compassion for human suffering. Then He speaks in Aramaic, the everyday language of the people: ‘Ephphatha!’ Be opened!
BSA: sighed (“groaned, expressing overwhelming emotion”): The sigh shows Jesus feeling the weight of this man’s suffering and of a broken world.
Greek: ἐστέναξεν (estenaxen, G4727) — “He groaned, sighed.” It is a deep, inward groan, not just a breath. Jesus enters the man’s trouble with real feeling.
Mark 7:35
The healing is immediate and complete. The ears open, the tongue is freed, and the man speaks clearly. There is no slow recovery. The word of Jesus does at once what it says.
BSA: released (“loosed, set free”): The tongue is pictured as bound and then untied, free to speak.
Mark 7:36
Jesus tells them to keep quiet, perhaps to avoid crowds that wanted only miracles. But they cannot hold back their joy and tell everyone. Good news about Jesus is hard to contain.
BSA: proclaimed (“preached, published”): They did not merely mention it. They spread the news openly far and wide.
Mark 7:37
The people are overwhelmed. Their verdict is that He has done everything well. Their words recall Isaiah’s promise that when God comes, the deaf will hear and the mute will speak. The chapter ends with wonder at what Jesus can do.
BSA: well (“rightly, with moral excellence”): The crowd sees His work as truly good and beautifully done, with nothing out of place.
Greek: καλῶς (kalōs, G2573) — “well, beautifully, rightly.” The word means done in a fine and fitting way. It is the same word family used for what God calls good in creation.
See also: Isaiah 35:5-6; Genesis 1:31.