Chronological NT Plan

¹Then some Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus and said,

²"Why do Your disciples violate the tradition (religious laws) handed down by the [Jewish] elders? For Your disciples do not [ceremonially] wash their hands before they eat."

³He replied to them, "Why also do you violate the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition [handed down by the elders]?

⁴For God said [through Moses], 'Honor your father and mother,' and, 'He who speaks evil of or insults or treats improperly father or mother is to be put to death.'

⁵But you say, 'If anyone says to his father or mother, "Whatever [money or resource that] I have that would help you is [already dedicated and] given to God,"

⁶he is not to honor his father or his mother [by helping them with their need].' So by this you have invalidated the word of God [depriving it of force and authority and making it of no effect] for the sake of your tradition [handed down by the elders].

⁷You hypocrites (play-actors, pretenders), rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said,

⁸'This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me.

⁹'But in vain do they worship Me, For they teach as doctrines the precepts of men.'"

¹⁰After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said, "Listen and understand this:

¹¹It is not what goes into the mouth of a man that defiles and dishonors him, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles and dishonors him."

¹²Then the disciples came and said to Jesus, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard you say this?"

¹³He answered, "Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant will be torn up by the roots.

¹⁴Leave them alone; they are blind guides[leading blind followers]. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."

¹⁵Peter asked Him, "Explain this parable [about what defiles a person] to us."

¹⁶And He said, "Are you still so dull [and unable to put things together]?

¹⁷Do you not understand that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?

¹⁸But whatever [word] comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this is what defiles and dishonors the man.

¹⁹For out of the heart come evil thoughts and plans, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slanders (verbal abuse, irreverent speech, blaspheming).

²⁰These are the things which defile and dishonor the man; but eating with [ceremonially] unwashed hands does not defile the man."

²¹After leaving there, Jesus withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.

²²And a Canaanite woman from that district came out and began to cry out [urgently], saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David (Messiah); my daughter is cruelly possessed by a demon."

²³But He did not say a word in answer to her. And His disciples came and asked Him [repeatedly], "Send her away, because she keeps shouting out after us."

²⁴He answered, "I was commissioned by God and sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

²⁵But she came and began to kneel down before Him, saying, "Lord, help me!"

²⁶And He replied, "It is not good (appropriate, fair) to take the children's bread and throw it to the pet dogs."

²⁷She said, "Yes, Lord; but even the pet dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their [young] masters' table."

²⁸Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, your faith [your personal trust and confidence in My power] is great; it will be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed from that moment.

²⁹Jesus went on from there and passed along by [the eastern shore of] the Sea of Galilee. Then He went up on the hillside and was sitting there.

³⁰And great crowds came to Him, bringing with them the lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they put them down at His feet; and He healed them.

³¹So the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they praised and glorified the God of Israel.

³²Then Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, "I feel compassion for the crowd, because they have been with Me now three days and have nothing [left] to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, because they might faint [from exhaustion] on the way [home]."

³³The disciples said to Him, "Where are we to get enough bread in this isolated place to feed so large a crowd?"

³⁴And Jesus asked them, "How many loaves [of bread] do you have?" They replied, "Seven, and a few small fish."

³⁵He directed the crowd to sit down on the ground,

³⁶and He took the seven loaves and the fish; and when He had given thanks, He broke them and started giving them to the disciples, and the disciples [gave them] to the people.

³⁷And they all ate and were satisfied, and they gathered up seven full baskets of the broken pieces that were left over.

³⁸[Among] those who ate were 4,000 men, not counting women and children.

³⁹Then Jesus sent the crowds away, got into the boat and went to the district of Magadan.

¹Now the Pharisees and some of the scribes came from Jerusalem and gathered around Him,

²and they had seen that some of His disciples ate their bread with [ceremonially] impure hands, that is, unwashed [and defiled according to Jewish religious ritual].

³( For the Pharisees and all of the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, holding firmly to the traditions of the elders;

⁴and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves [completely according to ritual]; and there are many other things [oral, man-made laws and traditions handed down to them] which they follow diligently, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper utensils.)

⁵So the Pharisees and scribes asked Jesus, "Why do Your disciples not live their lives according to the tradition of the elders, but [instead] eat their bread with [ceremonially] unwashed hands?"

⁶He replied, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites (play-actors, pretenders), as it is written [in Scripture], 'These people honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.

⁷'They worship Me in vain [their worship is meaningless and worthless, a pretense], Teaching the precepts of men as doctrines [giving their traditions equal weight with the Scriptures].'

⁸You disregard and neglect the commandment of God, and cling [faithfully] to the tradition of men."

⁹He was also saying to them, "You are experts at setting aside and nullifying the commandment of God in order to keep your [man-made] tradition and regulations.

¹⁰For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother [with respect and gratitude]'; and, 'He who speaks evil of his father or mother must be put to death';

¹¹but you [Pharisees and scribes] say, 'If a man tells his father or mother, "Whatever I have that would help you is Corban, (that is to say, already a gift to God),"'

¹²then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother [since helping them would violate his vow of Corban];

¹³so you nullify the [authority of the] word of God [acting as if it did not apply] because of your tradition which you have handed down [through the elders]. And you do many things such as that."

¹⁴After He called the people to Him again, He began saying to them, "Listen [carefully] to Me, all of you, [hear] and understand [what I am saying]:

¹⁵there is nothing outside a man [such as food] which by going into him can defile him [morally or spiritually]; but the things which come out of [the heart of] a man are what defile and dishonor him.

¹⁶["If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear."]

¹⁷When Jesus had left the crowd and gone into the house, His disciples asked Him about the parable.

¹⁸And He said to them, "Are you, too, so foolish and lacking in understanding? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile and dishonor him,

¹⁹since it does not enter his heart, but [only] his stomach, and [from there it] is eliminated?" (By this, He declared all foods ceremonially clean.)

²⁰And He said, "Whatever comes from [the heart of] a man, that is what defiles and dishonors him.

²¹For from within, [that is] out the heart of men, come base and malevolent thoughts and schemes, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, murders, adulteries,

²²acts of greed and covetousness, wickedness, deceit, unrestrained conduct, envy and jealousy, slander and profanity, arrogance and self-righteousness and foolishness (poor judgment).

²³All these evil things [schemes and desires] come from within and defile and dishonor the man."

²⁴Jesus got up and left there and went to the region of Tyre [and Sidon, the coastal area of Phoenicia]. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know about it; but it was impossible for Him to be hidden [from the public].

²⁵Instead, after hearing about Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet.

²⁶Now the woman was a Gentile (Greek), a Syrophoenician by nationality. And she kept pleading with Him to drive the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷He was saying to her, "First let the children [of Israel] be fed, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the pet dogs (non-Jews)."

²⁸But she replied, "Yes, Lord, but even the pet dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

²⁹And He said to her, "Because of this answer [reflecting your humility and faith], go [knowing that your request is granted]; the demon has left your daughter [permanently]."

³⁰And returning to her home, she found the child lying on the couch [relaxed and resting], the demon having gone.

³¹Soon after this Jesus left the region of Tyre, and passed through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of Decapolis [the ten Hellenistic cities].

³²They brought to Him a man who was deaf and had difficulty speaking, and they begged Jesus to place His hand on him.

³³Jesus, taking him aside by himself, away from the crowd, put His fingers into the man's ears, and after spitting, He touched the man's tongue [with the saliva];

³⁴and looking up to heaven, He sighed deeply and said to the man, "Ephphatha," which [in Aramaic] means, " Be opened and released!"

³⁵And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he began speaking plainly.

³⁶Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it.

³⁷They were thoroughly astounded and completely overwhelmed, saying, "He has done everything well! He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!"