Chapter 15

After this, Jesus was approached by the scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem, who asked:

Why is it that thy disciples violate the traditions of our ancestors? They do not wash their hands when they eat.

He answered them, Why is it that you yourselves violate the commandment of God with your traditions?

God has said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and again, He who curses his father or mother dies without hope of reprieve.

Whereas you say, If a man says to his father or mother, The offering which I make to God is all the advantage you will have from me,

then father or mother can get no service from him. So by these traditions of yours you have made God’s law ineffectual.

You hypocrites, it was a true prophecy Isaias made of you, when he said,

This people does me honour with its lips, but its heart is far from me.

Their worship of me is vain, for the doctrines they teach are the commandments of men.

Then he gathered the multitude about him, and said to them, Listen to this, and grasp what it means.

It is not what goes into a man’s mouth that makes him unclean; what makes a man unclean is what comes out of his mouth.

Thereupon his disciples came and said to him, Dost thou know that the Pharisees, when they heard thy saying, took it amiss?

He answered, No plant but must be rooted up, if my heavenly Father has not planted it.

Let them say what they will; they are blind men leading the blind, and when one blind man leads another, they will fall into the ditch together.

Peter answered him, Explain this parable to us.

What, he said, are you still without wits?

Do you not observe that any uncleanness which finds its way into a man’s mouth travels down into his belly, and so is cast into the sewer;

whereas all that comes out of his mouth comes from the heart, and it is that which makes a man unclean?

It is from the heart that his wicked designs come, his sins of murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury and blasphemy.

It is these make a man unclean; he is not made unclean by eating without washing his hands.

After this, Jesus left those parts and withdrew into the neighbourhood of Tyre and Sidon.

And here a woman, a Chanaanite by birth, who came from that country, cried aloud, Have pity on me, Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is cruelly troubled by an evil spirit.

He gave her no word in answer; but his disciples came to him and pleaded with him; Rid us of her, they said, she is following us with her cries.

And he answered, My errand is only to the lost sheep that are of the house of Israel.

Then the woman came up and said, falling at his feet, Lord, help me.

He answered, It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.

Ah yes, Lord, she said; the dogs feed on the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.

And at that Jesus answered her, Woman, for this great faith of thine, let thy will be granted. And from that hour her daughter was cured.

Then Jesus left that country, and passed along the sea of Galilee, and went up into the mountain and sat down there.

Great multitudes came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the deaf, the crippled, and many besides, whom they laid at his feet; and he healed them:

so that the multitudes were amazed to find the dumb speaking, the lame walking, and the blind recovering their sight; and they praised the God of Israel for it.

But now Jesus called his disciples, and said, I am moved with pity for the multitude; it is three days now since they have been in attendance on me, and they have nothing to eat. I must not send them away fasting, or perhaps they will grow faint on their journey.

His disciples said to him, Where could we find loaves enough in a desert to feed such a multitude?

And Jesus asked them, How many loaves have you? Seven, they said, and a few small fishes.

Thereupon he bade the multitude sit down on the ground,

and he took the seven loaves and the fishes with them, and when he had blessed and broken he gave these to his disciples, and his disciples to the multitude.

And they all ate and had enough; and they took up what was left of the broken pieces, seven hampers full.

Four thousand men had eaten, not reckoning women and children.

And so, taking leave of the multitude, he went on board the ship, and crossed to the region of Magedan.