Matthew 15
1 Then [some] Pharisees and men who taught the [Jewish] laws came from Jerusalem [to talk to] Jesus. They said,
Then came to Jesus Pharisees and Scribes that were from Jerusalem, and said:
2 “(We think it is disgusting that your disciples disobey the traditions of our ancestors!/Why do your disciples disobey [what our ancestors wrote down and] our [elders taught us]?) [RHQ] They do not perform the proper ritual of washing their hands before they eat!”
Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders, and wash not their hands when they eat bread?
3 Jesus answered them, “(What is really disgusting is that you refuse to obey God’s commands [just] so that you can follow what your ancestors taught you!/Why do you refuse to obey what God commanded [people to do, just] so that you can follow your own traditions?) [RHQ]
Jesus replied and said to them: Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God, on account of your tradition?
4 God gave these [two] commands: ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘People who speak evil about their father or mother must be executed.’
For God hath said: Honor thy father, and thy mother; and he that revileth his father or his mother, shall be put to death.
5 But you tell people, ‘You can say to your father or mother, “What I was going to give to you [to help provide for you], [I have now promised] to give [to God].”’
But ye say: Whosoever shall say to a father or to a mother, Be that my offering, by which ye get profit from me: then he must not honor his father or his mother.
6 And if you do that, you think that you do not need to give anything to help your parents. In [that way], [by teaching people] your traditions, you disregard what God commanded.
And thus ye make void the word of God, for the sake of your tradition.
7 You only pretend to be good! Isaiah prophesied accurately about you [also when he quoted what God said about your ancestors. God said],
Ye hypocrites, well did the prophet Isaiah prophesy of you, and say:
8 ‘These people talk [as if they] honor me [MTY], but they do not think about honoring me at all [MET].
This people honoreth me with the lips, but their heart is far from me.
9 It is useless for them to worship me, because they teach what people thought up [as if I myself had commanded it].’”
And in vain they pay me homage, while they teach doctrines that are the precepts of men.
10 Then Jesus [again] summoned the crowd to come [nearer] to him. Then he said to them, “Listen to [what I am about to tell you], and [try to] understand it.
And he called the multitudes, and said to them, Hear and understand.
11 Nothing that a person puts into his mouth [to eat] causes [God to consider] that person to be unacceptable. Instead, it is [the words] that come out of people’s mouths [SYN] that cause [God to reject them].”
Not that which entereth the mouth, defileth a man; but that which proceedeth from the mouth, that defileth a man.
12 Later we disciples went to Jesus and said, “Do you know that the Pharisees heard what you said, and as a result they felt offended [RHQ]?”
Then came his disciples, and said to him: Knowest thou, that the Pharisees were offended when they heard that speech?
13 Then, [to teach us what God would do to the Pharisees], Jesus told [us this parable]: “My Father in heaven [will] get rid of all [those who teach things that are contrary to his truth, just like a farmer] gets rid of plants that he did not plant, by pulling them up along with their roots [MET].
And he replied, and said to them: Every plant, which my Father who is in heaven hath not planted, shall be eradicated.
14 Do not pay any attention to [the Pharisees]. They [do not help people who do not know God’s truth] to [understand it, just like] blind guides [do not help] blind [people to perceive where they should go] [MET]. If a blind person [tries to] lead [another] blind person, they will both fall into a big hole [MET]. [Similarly, both the Pharisees and their disciples will end up in hell].” (questioned)
Let them alone: they are blind leaders of the blind. And if a blind man leadeth one blind, they will both fall into the ditch.
15 Peter said to Jesus, “Explain to us the parable [about what a person eats].”
And Simon Cephas answered and said to him: My Lord, explain to us this similitude.
16 He replied [to them], “(I am disappointed that even you, [who should understand what I teach], still do not understand!/Why is it that even you [who should understand what I teach], still do not understand?) [RHQ]
And he said to them: Are ye also, up to this time, without understanding?
17 (You ought to understand that all [food that people] eat enters their stomachs, and later the refuse passes out of their [bodies]./Cannot you understand that all [food that people] eat enters their stomachs and later the refuse passes out [of their bodies]?) [RHQ] [Because food does not alter what we think and desire, what we eat does not cause God to consider that we are unacceptable to him].
Know ye not, that whatever entereth the mouth, passeth into the belly, and from there is ejected by purgation?
18 [You should know that] what comes out of [people’s] mouths, [meaning everything that they say] [SYN], comes from their inner beings/hearts. Many of the [things that they say] cause [God to consider] them to be unacceptable [to him].
But that which proceedeth from the mouth, cometh from the heart: and that is what defileth a man.
19 It is people’s innermost beings that [cause them] to think things that are evil, to murder people, to [commit] adultery, to commit other sexual sins, to steal things, to testify falsely, and to speak evil about [others].
For, from the heart proceed evil thoughts, adultery, murder, whoredom, theft, false testimony, reviling.
20 It is these actions that cause [God to consider] people to be unacceptable [to him]. To eat with unwashed hands does not cause [God to consider] people unacceptable to him.”
These are the things that defile a man. But if a man eat while his hands are unwashed, he is not defiled.
21 After Jesus [took us and] left [Galilee district], we went into the region [where the cities of] Tyre and Sidon [are located].
And Jesus departed from there, and went to the confines of Tyre and Sidon.
22 A woman [from the group of people called] Canaanites who live in that region came [to the place where Jesus was staying]. She kept shouting [to him], “Lord, you are the descendant of [King] David, [you are the Messiah!] Have pity on me [and my daughter!] She is suffering very much because a demon controls her.”
And lo, a woman, a Canaanitess from those confines, came forth, calling out and saying: Compassionate me, my Lord, thou son of David: my daughter is grievously distressed by a demon.
23 But Jesus did not answer her at all. [We] disciples came to him, and [knowing that the woman was not a Jew], we said to him, “Tell her to leave, because she keeps [bothering us] by yelling behind us!”
But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and requested of him, and said: Send her away, for she crieth after us.
24 But Jesus said [to her], “I have been sent {[God] has sent me} to [help] only the Israelite people [at this time] [SYN]. [They are like] sheep that have gotten lost [MET] [because they do not know the way to heaven].”
But he answered and said to them: I am not sent, except to the sheep that have strayed from the house of Israel.
25 But she came [closer] to Jesus and knelt down in front of him [to worship him]. She pled, “Lord/Sir, help me!”
And she came, and worshipped him, and said: Help me, my Lord.
26 Then, [to suggest to her that he needed to help the Jews first and not the non-Jews, whom the Jews called dogs], he told her, “It is not good [for someone] to take food [that has been prepared for] the children and throw it to the [little] dogs.”
Jesus said to her: It is not proper, to take the bread of the children and throw it to the dogs.
27 [But to show that she believed that non-Jews could also receive help from God], the woman said [to Jesus], “Lord/Sir, what you [say is] correct, but even the [little] dogs eat the crumbs that fall to the floor [when] their masters [sit at] their tables [and eat]!”
And she said: Even so, my Lord; yet the dogs eat of the fragments that fall from the tables of their masters, and live.
28 Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, [because] you believe firmly [in me, I] will [heal your daughter] as you desire!” At that moment [the demon left] her daughter, [and she] became well.
Then Jesus said to her: O woman, great is thy faith: be it to thee, as thou desirest. And her daughter was cured from that hour.
29 After Jesus, [along with us disciples], departed from that area, we went [back] to Galilee Lake [and walked] along it. Then Jesus climbed the hill [near there] and sat down [to teach the people].
And Jesus departed from there, and came to the side of the sea of Galilee: and he ascended a mountain, and sat there.
30 Crowds kept coming to him for the next two days and brought lame, crippled, and blind people, those who were unable to talk, and many others [who had various sicknesses]. They laid them in front of Jesus [so that he would heal them] [SYN]. And he healed them.
And great multitudes came to him; and with them were the lame, and the blind, and the dumb, and the maimed, and many others: and they laid them at the feet of Jesus, and he healed them.
31 The crowd saw [him heal] people who could not talk, crippled people, lame people, and blind people, and they were amazed. They said, “Praise God [who rules over us who live in] Israel!”
So that the multitudes were amazed, when they saw the dumb speaking, and the maimed made whole, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing: and they praised the God of Israel.
32 Then Jesus called us disciples to him and said [to us], “This crowd [of people] has been with me for three days and have nothing [left] to eat. I feel sorry for them. I do not want to send them away [while they are still] hungry, [because if I did that], they might faint on the way [home].”
Then Jesus called his disciples, and said to them: I pity this multitude; for lo, these three days they have continued with me, and they have nothing to eat: and I am unwilling to send them away fasting, lest they faint by the way.
33 We disciples said to him, “In this place where nobody lives, (we cannot possibly obtain enough food to feed such a large crowd!/how can we obtain a large enough amount of food to feed such a large crowd?) [RHQ]”
His disciples say to him: Whence can we get bread in the wilderness, to satisfy all this multitude?
34 Jesus asked us, “How many small loaves do you have?” We said to him, “[We have] seven small loaves and a few [cooked] fish.”
Jesus said to them, How many loaves have ye? They said to him, Seven, and a few little fishes.
35 He told the people to sit on the ground.
And he commanded the multitudes to recline on the ground.
36 Then he took the seven small loaves and the fish. After he thanked [God for them], he broke them [into pieces], and he kept giving [them] to us. Then we [kept distributing] them to the crowd.
And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes.
37 [Because Jesus made the food multiply miraculously], all [those people] ate and had [plenty to] satisfy [them]. There were 4,000 men [who ate], but no [one counted] the women and the children [who also ate]. Then we [disciples] collected the pieces of food that were left over, and we filled seven large baskets [with them].
And they all ate, and were satisfied. And they took up the remains of fragments, seven full baskets.
And they that had eaten were four thousand men, besides women and children.
39 After Jesus dismissed the crowd, he, [along with us], got in the boat, and we sailed [around the lake] to the region called Magadan.
And when he had sent away the multitudes, he took ship, and came to the coasts of Magdala.
