Mark 7:18

Mar 7:18. Ἔξωθεν, from without) This is added for the sake of explanation.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mar 7:18 . Here, as in Mar 6:52 , Mk. takes pains to make prominent the stupidity and consequent need of instruction of the Twelve. οὕτω καὶ ὑ ., etc.: are ye, too, so unintelligent as not to understand what I have said: that that which goeth into the man from without cannot defile?

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Because it entereth not into his heart,.... Which is the seat and fountain of all moral pollution; and if that is not defiled, no other part can be; and that that is not defiled by eating and drinking, unless in case of intemperance, is clear; because food and drink do not go into it:

but into the belly; it is taken in at the mouth, goes down the throat, and is received into the stomach, and from thence it passes through the bowels:

and goeth into the draught; , "the private house", as the Jews call it, without going into the heart at all:

purging all meats; that which it leaves behind, is pure and nourishing; and whatever is gross and impure, is carried with it into the draught, so that nothing remains in the man that is defiling.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;

Ver. 18. Are ye so without understanding also?] What, no wiser at 17 years of age than ye were at seven? as rude and unskilful in the sixth year of your apprenticeship, as at the first onset? God requireth and expecteth a proportion of knowledge according to the means we have had, the time we have enjoyed them, the capacities and natural abilities that he had given us, and according to the places and stations wherein he hath set us to do him service. If the leaders of God’s people cause them to err, how should those that are led by them do otherwise than be destroyed? Hence this sharp reprehension.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Christ checks his disciples for understanding things no better. Ignorance is more excusable in those who are strangers to God and Christ than in those that have relation to him. In our Saviour’s enumeration of those things which come out of the heart, several things are reckoned up which are the overt actions of the tongue, eye, hands; but our Saviour saith all these flow from the heart, for the actions of the outward man are but the imperate actions of the will, and things past the imaginations and understanding, before they come at the will, to be chosen or rejected. Here are but some sins reckoned instead of many, for it is true of all our evil actions, that they are first hatched in the heart, and are first entertained in our thoughts, in our understandings, then chosen by our wills, and then the bodily members are commanded by the soul to the execution of them. Mark reckoneth more than Matthew, but in both the enumerations are imperfect, and some sins are named instead of all. Nothing but sin defileth the man. Sin hath its first rise in the heart, and floweth from thence.

See Poole on "Mat 15:18", and following verses to Mat 15:20.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vers. 18, 19. Our Lord had already, in his sermon on the mount, taught his disciples fully wherein purity or impurity of heart consists, and he might, therefore, with good reason, ask them how it was that they, even they who had been so favored by being constantly with him, had forgotten or misunderstood him. Our Lord"s illustration is physically accurate. The portion carried off is that which by its removal purifies what remains. The part which is available for nourishment is, in its passage through the system, converted into chyle, the matter from which the blood is formed. What is not available for nourishment passes away into the afedrwn , or draught, Purging all meats. The most approved reading here is undoubtedly the masculine (kayarizwn), and not the neuter (kayarizon). This change of reading compels a somewhat different construction. Accepting, therefore, the masculine as the true reading, the only possible rendering is that which makes this last clause a comment by the evangelist upon our Lord"s previous words, in which he indicates to the reader that our Lord intended by this illustration to show that no food, of whatever kind, when received with thanksgiving, can make a man unclean. The clause must, therefore, be connected with the preceding words, by the introduction of the words, in italics, "This he said, making all meats clean." The passage, thus rendered, becomes a very significant exposition of what has gone before. It is well worthy of notice that this explanation is to be found in St. Chrysostom (Homily on St. Matthew 15): O de Markov fhsizwn ta brwmata tauta elegen : "But Mark affirms that he said these things, making the meats clean." It may be added that this explanation agrees finely with the words in Act_10:15, "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. Οὕτως καὶ ὑμεῖς. As before (Mar 4:13), He expresses surprise at their want of discernment. The position of οὕτως is against its being taken with ἀσύνετοι, “so wanting in discernment,” tam insipientes. Better, “Is it so,” siccine? Vulg. has Sic et vos imprudentes estis? Either “Even you” (Mar 1:27; Mat 5:46) or “you also” (Mat 20:4; Mat 20:7; Joh 6:68, where the context is decisive) may be right; see on Mar 2:28. “Even you, whom I have instructed,” or “you also, as well as the multitude.” We have similar surprise again in Mar 8:17, οὔπω νοεῖτε οὐδὲ συνίετε; Syr-Sin. has “Are ye yet so stubborn? Do ye not yet understand anything? that not everything which entereth into a man defileth him?”

οὐ δύναται κοινῶσαι. Cannot pollute him in any religious sense; he is not morally the worse. The Scribes taught otherwise. This repetition from Mar 7:15 is omitted in Mt.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. καὶ ὑμεῖς—You too, as well as the multitude. Jesus’ saying was a riddle to them, not only because of the concrete form of statement, but also because of its intrinsic spirituality. They had been trained in Judaism, in which the distinction between clean and unclean is ingrained, and could not understand a statement abrogating this. It was all a riddle to them.

πὰν τὸ ἔξωθεν … οὐ δύναται . κοινῶσαι—nothing outside can defile.1

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So. So unintelligent as not to understand what I uttered to the crowd.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.