Matthew Fifteen

   Then Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came up to Jesus, saying, Why do your disciples disregard the tradition of the elders, and they do not wash their hands when they eat food? Jesus answered and said to them, Why do you also disregard the commandment of God on account of your tradition. For God said, Honor your father and your mother, and whoever curses his father and
his mother, let him be put to death. But you say, Whoever says to a father or to a mother, Whatever you may be benefited from me is Corban (my offering), he need not honor his father or his mother. So you have rendered useless the word of God for the sake of your tradition. O you hypocrites, the prophet Isaiah well prophesied concerning you and said, This people honor me with their lips, but
their heart is far away from me. And they worship me in vain, when they teach the doctrines of the commandments of men.

   ¶ Then he called the people and said to them, Listen and understand. It is not what enters into the mouth which defiles man; but what goes out of the mouth, that is what defiles man. Then his disciples came up and said to him, Do you know that the Pharisees who heard this saying were offended? But he answered and said to them, Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant, shall be uprooted.
Leave them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if the blind lead around the blind, both will fall into a pit. And Simon Peter answered and said to him, My Lord, explain this parable to us. And he said to them, Even yet do you not understand? Do you not know that what enters into the mouth goes into the stomach, and thence, through the intestines, is cast out? But what comes out of the mouth comes out from the heart; and that is what defiles man. For from the heart come out evil thoughts, such as fornication, murder, adultery, theft, false witness, blasphemy. It is these that defile man; but if a man should eat when his hands are unwashed, he will not be defiled.

    ¶ And Jesus went out from thence, and he came to the border of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from these borders, came out crying aloud, and saying, Have mercy on me, O my Lord, son of David; my daughter is seriously afflicted with insanity. But he did not answer her. And his disciples came up to him and urged him, saying, Dismiss her, for she keeps crying aloud after us. And he answered and said to them, I am not sent, except to the sheep which went astray from the house of Israel. But she came and worshipped him, and said, My Lord, help me. Jesus said to her, It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. But she said Yes, my Lord, even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the master’s tray, and they live. Then Jesus said to her, O woman, your faith is great; let it be to you as you wish; and her daughter was healed from that very
hour.

   ¶ And Jesus departed from thence, and he came toward the sea of Galilee; and he went up to a mountain and sat down there. And a great many people came to him, who had with them the lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at the feet of Jesus, and he healed them. So that the people wondered, to see the dumb speaking, and the maimed healed, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they praised the God of Israel.

   ¶ Jesus then called his disciples and said to them, I have compassion for this people, for they have remained with me three days, and they have nothing to eat; and if I dismiss them fasting, they might faint on the way; but this I do not wish to do. His disciples said to him, Where can we get bread in this desolate place to feed all this people? Jesus said to them, How many loaves of bread have you? They said to him, Seven, and a few small fish. So he ordered the people to sit on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves of bread and the fish, and gave thanks, and he broke them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. And all of them did eat and were satisfied; and they took up of the fragments that were left over, seven full baskets. And those who did eat were four thousand
men, besides women and children. And when he had dismissed the people, he went up to the boat and came to the border of Magadan.