Mark 7:23
in Mark 7All these evils come from within, and these are what defile a man.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
all these evil things proceed from within, and defile the man.
KJV
All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
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This verse in Mark 7
Commentary
10 notes on this verseAll these evil things come from within,.... All evil thoughts, words, and actions, take their rise from the inward parts of man; from his heart; which is sadly corrupted, and is the fountain from whence all these impure streams flow.
This site's exposition
What comes out of a man, that is what defiles him
on Mark 7:20-23
Jesus places defilement in the heart: For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder. Evil thoughts stand first, the inward root named before the acts.
This site's exposition
these are what defile a man
John Gill calls the heart the fountain from which all these impure streams flow. Charles Spurgeon pictures Jesus as a true physician. The Pharisees, he says, were like a quack busy with outward signs while the patient died.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church3 voices
An evil eye, that is, hatred and flattery, for he who hates turns an evil and envious eye on him whom he hates, and a flatterer, looking askance at his neighbour's goods, leads him into evil; blasphemies, that is, faults committed against God; pride, that is, contempt of God, when a man ascribes the good, which he does, not to God, but to his own virtue; foolishness, that is, an injury against one's neighbour.
(non occ. sed v. Summa 2, 2. Qu. 46. 1. et 1, 2. Qu. 1, 1) Or, foolishness consists in wrong thoughts concerning God; for it is opposed to wisdom, which is the knowledge of divine things. It goes on, All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. For whatsoever is in the power of a man, is imputed to him as a fault, because all such things proceed from the interior will, by which man is master of his own actions.
By "envious eye" He means either envy or licentiousness: for the envious person typically casts a malicious and venomous glance at the one envied, and the debauched person, gazing with his eyes, strives toward an evil deed. By "blasphemy" He means an insult against God: …
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
How weary the Savior must have been of the idle prattle of the scribes and Pharisees! They are forever talking about washing hands before meals and washing pots and cups—and He is all the while occupied with the great griefs and sins of men and how He can save them from the wrath to come. He must have felt as some true physician feels who looks upon a patient, marks the serious nature of the sickness and plans a remedy—while some quack is boasting his nostrums or performing ridiculous signs and passes over the dying man.
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1857)
proposed
The corruption of human nature is a universal disease. It affects not only a man's heart, will, and conscience, but his mind, memory, and understanding. The very same person who is quick and clever in worldly things, will often utterly fail to comprehend the simplest truths of Christianity. He will often be unable to grasp the plainest reasonings of the Gospel. He will see no meaning in the clearest statements of evangelical doctrine. They will sound to him either foolish or mysterious.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1857)
proposed
The corruption of human nature is a universal disease. It affects not only a man's heart, will, and conscience, but his mind, memory, and understanding. The very same person who is quick and clever in worldly things, will often utterly fail to comprehend the simplest truths of Christianity. He will often be unable to grasp the plainest reasonings of the Gospel. He will see no meaning in the clearest statements of evangelical doctrine. They will sound to him either foolish or mysterious. He will listen to them like one listening to a foreign language, catching a word here and there, but not seeing the drift of the whole. "The world by wisdom knows not God." (1 Cor. 1:21.) It hears, but does not understand. We must pray daily for the teaching of the Holy Spirit, if we would make progress in the knowledge of divine things. Without Him, the mightiest intellect and the strongest reasoning powers will carry us but a little way. In reading the Bible and hearing sermons, everything depends on the spirit in which we read and hear. A humble, teachable, child-like frame of mind is the grand secret of success. Happy is he who often says with David, "Teach me Your statutes." (Psalm 119:64.) Such an one will understand as well as hear. We see, in the second place, from this passage, that the heart is the chief source of defilement and impurity in God's sight . Moral purity does not depend on washing or not washing — touching things or not touching them — eating things or not eating them, as the Scribes and Pharisees taught. "There is nothing from outside a man, that entering into him can defile him — but the things which come out of him, these are what defile the man." There is a deep truth in these words which is frequently overlooked. Our original sinfulness and natural inclination to evil are seldom sufficiently considered.
How weary the Savior must have been of the idle prattle of the scribes and Pharisees! They are forever talking about washing hands before meals and washing pots and cups—and He is all the while occupied with the great griefs and sins of men and how He can save them from the wrath to come. He must have felt as some true physician feels who looks upon a patient, marks the serious nature of the sickness and plans a remedy—while some quack is boasting his nostrums or performing ridiculous signs and passes over the dying man. To serious compassion, imposture is provoking and sincere truthfulness is grieved by the mockeries of pretense. The dear Savior, knowing the Truth about the whole thing and solemnly concerned about it, is pained with the talk of these pretenders of learning and religion who, knowing nothing at all about the real mischief, professed to purge away defilement by the washing
How the passage was read
On Mark 7:1-23On Mark 7:1-23
Mark explaining Jewish practice to outsiders
Mark pauses mid-story to explain handwashing to his readers: “the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not” (7:3-4). A Gospel writer translating Jewish practice for outsiders is this layer's own method inside the canon. The washing is netilat yadayim, a ritual pouring over the hands before bread, extending priestly purity to the ordinary table; the Mishnah gives it a whole tractate (Yadayim 1:1), and its schools debated the meal's washings in detail (Berakhot 8:2 records a Hillel-Shammai dispute over the order of washing and mixing the cup). The korban vow Jesus then confronts, property locked away from one's parents by a dedication formula, is explained in this site's note on Numbers 30.
Verse 19's closing phrase, which most translations render “thus he declared all foods clean,” asks for plain honesty at the point of contact: observant Judaism keeps the food laws (kashrut) to this day and does not read the verse as ending them; the Christian church, reading Mark with Acts 10 and 15, historically has. The entry states the difference as difference. What both readings share is the verse's own center: defilement is not conquered at the lips but at the heart, “for from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts.”
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: Mishnah Yadayim 1:1 (the handwashing rite) · Mishnah Berakhot 8:2 (the schools on the meal's washings)
The words behind it
10 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| πάντα | panta | All | G3956 → | 1235 times |
| ταῦτα | tauta | these | G3778 → | 1381 times |
| τὰ | ta | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| πονηρὰ | ponera | evils | G4190 → | |
| ἔσωθεν | esothen | from within | G2081 → | |
| ἐκπορεύεται | ekporeuetai | go forth | G1607 → | 33 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| κοινοῖ | koinoi | it defiles | G2840 → | 14 times |
| τὸν | ton | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ἄνθρωπον.¶ | anthropon | man. | G444 → | 549 times |
πάνταAll
pantaG3956 →1235 times
ταῦταthese
tautaG3778 →1381 times
τὰ<the>
taG3588 →19766 times
πονηρὰevils
poneraG4190 →
ἔσωθενfrom within
esothenG2081 →
ἐκπορεύεταιgo forth
ekporeuetaiG1607 →33 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
κοινοῖit defiles
koinoiG2840 →14 times
τὸνthe
tonG3588 →19766 times
ἄνθρωπον.¶man.
anthroponG444 →549 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Titus 1:15To the pure, all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Indeed, both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
it leads to
- Romans 14:14
I am convinced and fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.
- Romans 14:20
Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to let his eating be a stumbling block.
- 1 Corinthians 10:23
“Everything is permissible,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is edifying.
- 1 Timothy 4:3–4
They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
- Romans 14:14
Through
1 Corinthians 3:17If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 6:18–20
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
- Ezekiel 43:12
This is the law of the temple: All its surrounding territory on top of the mountain will be most holy. Yes, this is the law of the temple.
- 1 Corinthians 6:18–20
Through
Mark 7:15Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him; but the things that come out of a man, these are what defile him.”
it leads to
- Proverbs 4:23
Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life.
- Proverbs 4:23
Through
Jude 1:8Yet in the same way these dreamers defile their bodies, reject authority, and slander glorious beings.
it leads to
- Hebrews 13:17
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch over your souls as those who must give an account. To this end, allow them to lead with joy and not with grief, for…
- Hebrews 13:17
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Mark
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1911: “Hideous Discovery” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Glossa Ordinaria, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; Theophylact of Ohrid, Catena Aurea by Aquinas and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Mark.