Matthew 15
1 Then [some] Pharisees and men who taught the [Jewish] laws came from Jerusalem [to talk to] Jesus. They said,
Then the scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem came to Jesus 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 yoʋr disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash 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]
He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake 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 commanded, ‘Honor yoʋr father and yoʋr mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of his father or mother must surely die.’
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 you say, ‘If anyone says to his father or mother, “Whatever benefit yoʋ might have received from me is now a gift devoted to God,” then he certainly need 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.
You have nullified the commandment 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],
Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said,
8 ‘These people talk [as if they] honor me [MTY], but they do not think about honoring me at all [MET].
‘This people draws near to me with their mouth and honors me with their 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].’”
They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments 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.
Then Jesus called the crowd over and said to them, “Listen 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].”
It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person; it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person.”
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 his disciples came and said to him, “Do yoʋ know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard what yoʋ said?”
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].
Jesus answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.
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)
Leave them be; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.”
15 Peter said to Jesus, “Explain to us the parable [about what a person eats].”
Then Peter said to him in response, “Explain this parable to us.”
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]
Jesus said, “Are you also still 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].
Do you not yet understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled into the latrine?
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 the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these defile a person.
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 come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false testimony, and slander.
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 what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a person.”
21 After Jesus [took us and] left [Galilee district], we went into the region [where the cities of] Tyre and Sidon [are located].
Then Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district 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 behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came and cried out to him, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.”
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 did not respond to her at all. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she is crying out 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].”
In response Jesus said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of 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!”
But she came and bowed down before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”
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.”
He replied, “It is not good to take the children's bread 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]!”
She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters.”
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 answered her, “O woman, great is yoʋr faith; it will be done for yoʋ as yoʋ wish.” And her daughter was healed 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].
Departing from there, Jesus went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on the mountain and sat down.
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.
Large crowds came to him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, crippled, and many others. They put 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 the crowds were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified 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 over and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have stayed with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away without having eaten, lest they faint on 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 said to him, “Where can we get so many loaves in such a desolate place to fill such a large crowd?”
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 do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.”
35 He told the people to sit on the ground.
So he commanded the crowds to sit down 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 taking the seven loaves and the fish, he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowd.
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].
They all ate and were filled, and the disciples picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, seven baskets full.
Besides women and children, there were four thousand men who had eaten.
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.
After sending the crowds away, Jesus got into the boat and went to the region of Magdala.
