Mark 7:22
in Mark 7greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
covetings, wickednesses, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness:
KJV
Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
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This verse in Mark 7
Commentary
12 notes on this verseHow 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.
This site's exposition
That which cometh out of the man
on Mark 7:20-23
Jesus relocates true defilement entirely to the heart, and the list he gives is deliberately wide rather than merely illustrative, evil thoughts named first as the root from which the named sins of act, adultery, fornication, murder, theft, and the sins of disposition, covetousness, deceit, an evil eye, pride, foolishness, all proceed. The bench reads the list's order as significant, thought preceding deed, since every sin catalogued here begins as an inward movement before it ever becomes an outward act. All these evil things come from within closes the teaching exactly where it opened, defilement is a matter of the heart and never merely of the hands.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
A commentator
Apostolic ConstitutionsCONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES · Written before 380.
proposed
I mean blasphemies, evil-speaking, and if there be any other thing of the like nature.
The Medieval Church4 voices
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: …
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.
(non in Gloss. sed v. de Lyra in loc.) From evil thoughts, however, evil actions proceed to greater lengths, concerning which it is added, adulteries, that is, acts which consist in the violation of another man's bed; fornications, which are unlawful connections between persons, not bound by marriage; murders, by which hurt is inflicted on the person of one's neighbour; thefts, by which his goods are taken from him; covetousness, by which things are unjustly kept; wickedness, which consists in calumniating others; deceit, in overreaching them; lasciviousness, to which belongs any corruption of mind or body.
5 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Wickedness - The word means ill natured, cruelty, inhumanity, and all malevolent affections. Foolishness - Directly contrary to sobriety of thought and discourse: all kind of wild imaginations and extravagant passions.
Thefts,.... These also are mentioned in Matthew, but Mark omits "false witnesses", and adds the following; which, excepting "blasphemy", are not taken notice of by the other evangelists; covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; See Gill on Mat 15:19.
The Nineteenth Century3 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| μοιχεῖαι, | moicheiai | adulteries | G3430 → | |
| πλεονεξίαι, | pleonexiai | covetous desires, | G4124 → | |
| πονηρίαι, | poneriai | wickednesses, | G4189 → | |
| δόλος, | dolos | deceit, | G1388 → | |
| ἀσέλγεια, | aselgeia | sensuality, | G766 → | |
| ὀφθαλμὸς | ophthalmos | an eye | G3788 → | 100 times |
| πονηρός, | poneros | evil, | G4190 → | |
| βλασφημία, | blasphemia | slander, | G988 → | 18 times |
| ὑπερηφανία, | huperephania | pride, | G5243 → | |
| ἀφροσύνη· | aphrosune | foolishness; | G877 → |
μοιχεῖαι,adulteries
moicheiaiG3430 →
πλεονεξίαι,covetous desires,
pleonexiaiG4124 →
πονηρίαι,wickednesses,
poneriaiG4189 →
δόλος,deceit,
dolosG1388 →
ἀσέλγεια,sensuality,
aselgeiaG766 →
ὀφθαλμὸςan eye
ophthalmosG3788 →100 times
πονηρός,evil,
ponerosG4190 →
βλασφημία,slander,
blasphemiaG988 →18 times
ὑπερηφανία,pride,
huperephaniaG5243 →
ἀφροσύνη·foolishness;
aphrosuneG877 →
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
2 Corinthians 10:5We tear down arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
it leads to
- Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
- Isaiah 55:7
Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely…
- 1 Peter 1:14–15
As obedient children, do not conform to the passions of your former ignorance.
- Romans 7:23
But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.
- Matthew 15:19
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.
- Hebrews 4:12
Through
1 Peter 2:15For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish men.
it leads to
- 1 Peter 3:17
For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
- Titus 2:8
and wholesome speech that is above reproach, so that anyone who opposes us will be ashamed, having nothing bad to say about us.
- 1 Peter 3:17
Through
Matthew 20:15Do I not have the right to do as I please with what is mine? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
it leads to
- Romans 9:15–24
For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
- Romans 9:15–24
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Mark
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Apostolic Constitutions, CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES; 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; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Mark and Theophylact of Ohrid, Catena Aurea by Aquinas.