1: The Pharisees, along with some religion scholars who had come from Jerusalem, gathered around him.
2: They noticed that some of his disciples weren't being careful with ritual washings before meals.
3: The Pharisees--Jews in general, in fact--would never eat a meal without going through the motions of a ritual hand-washing,
4: with an especially vigorous scrubbing if they had just come from the market (to say nothing of the scourings they'd give jugs and pots and pans).
5: The Pharisees and religion scholars asked, "Why do your disciples flout the rules, showing up at meals without washing their hands?"
6: Jesus answered, "Isaiah was right about frauds like you, hit the bull's-eye in fact: These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn't in it.
7: They act like they are worshiping me, but they don't mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy,
8: Ditching God's command and taking up the latest fads."
9: He went on, "Well, good for you. You get rid of God's command so you won't be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions!
10: Moses said, "Respect your father and mother,' and, "Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.'
11: But you weasel out of that by saying that it's perfectly acceptable to say to father or mother, "Gift! What I owed you I've given as a gift to God,'
12: thus relieving yourselves of obligation to father or mother.
13: You scratch out God's Word and scrawl a whim in its place. You do a lot of things like this."
14: Jesus called the crowd together again and said, "Listen now, all of you--take this to heart.
15: It's not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it's what you vomit--that's the real pollution."
17: When he was back home after being with the crowd, his disciples said, "We don't get it. Put it in plain language."
18: Jesus said, "Are you being willfully stupid? Don't you see that what you swallow can't contaminate you?
19: It doesn't enter your heart but your stomach, works its way through the intestines, and is finally flushed." (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.)
20: He went on: "It's what comes out of a person that pollutes:
21: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries,
22: greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness--
23: all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution." [JC]
24: From there Jesus set out for the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house there where he didn't think he would be found, but he couldn't escape notice.
25: He was barely inside when a woman who had a disturbed daughter heard where he was. She came and knelt at his feet,
26: begging for help. The woman was Greek, Syro-Phoenician by birth. She asked him to cure her daughter.
27: He said, "Stand in line and take your turn. The children get fed first. If there's any left over, the dogs get it."
28: She said, "Of course, Master. But don't dogs under the table get scraps dropped by the children?"
29: Jesus was impressed. "You're right! On your way! Your daughter is no longer disturbed. The demonic affliction is gone."
30: She went home and found her daughter relaxed on the bed, the torment gone for good.
31: Then he left the region of Tyre, went through Sidon back to Galilee Lake and over to the district of the Ten Towns.
32: Some people brought a man who could neither hear nor speak and asked Jesus to lay a healing hand on him.
33: He took the man off by himself, put his fingers in the man's ears and some spit on the man's tongue.
34: Then Jesus looked up in prayer, groaned mightily, and commanded, "Ephphatha!-Open up!"
35: And it happened. The man's hearing was clear and his speech plain--just like that.
36: Jesus urged them to keep it quiet, but they talked it up all the more,
37: beside themselves with excitement. "He's done it all and done it well. He gives hearing to the deaf, speech to the speechless."