Mark 7:14-23  Food versus cleanliness.  Jesus clearly attacks the traditions of men regarding foods.  He tells them that their focus is entirely wrong. I am commenting on the passage, not going verse by verse, reading the passage for context is up to you.

Mark 7:19 To start with, let’s get the pink elephant out of the room. The Greek manuscripts did not have parenthesis. These were added by well meaning biblical translators who thought they needed to emphasize the meaning of the passage. This has effectively changed the meaning of the passage. Many have sprang off of this passage and declared that there are now no dietary rules in Torah that apply to people. In my opinion, they are incorrect. Here is the reason why.

“Thus he declared” is not found in the original language! If you were to translate the phrase in parenthesis literally it would bde “entire food clean”. The key Greek word is “katharidzo” which means to make clean or to purify. Now let’s put it to the simple test of context. Yeshua was saying that food goes into the stomach and is eliminated, food because of the digestion process has been made clean.

Now, let’s remember context once again. Have you heard of “kosher” food? The term “kosher” is relatively new, it was coined for the American food industry in the early 1900’s. The thing that makes “kosher food” kosher is because it has been inspected by a rabbi and the food processing company has followed kosher rules. If you are Jewish, eating non-kosher food is risking eating unclean food.

The concept of “kosher” goes all the way back to Old Testament times. Food in mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud 4,578 times, the majority of these have to do with dietary instructions.  The Jerusalem Talmud records 3,114 hits on food, again most have to do with dietary instructions. Food was a major focus for the Rabbi’s. Context shows that the teachers manipulated the people in order to draw monies that should have been going to their parents in order to pad the coffers of the temple. The same situation may have been taking place here. We really do not know if the Rabbi’s were inspecting food, that may be a purely American invention. What we do know is that the Rabbi’s had intricate rules set up which expounded upon food usage in the Oral Torah, which has now been written down in one form as the Talmud. They sought to make rules so that the people would not defile themselves with unclean food.

Yeshua, for example, was not declaring pork clean. The Jewish people did not even consider pork to be food. It was an abomination, unsafe for human consumption. He was declaring that if they ate food, it was purified by the stomach. Food is defined by the Jewish mindset as anything that complies with the dietary instructions. The Rabbi’s made incredible rules that burdened the people with many laws that effectively questioned the cleanliness of clean food. Clean food easily became unclean because of the stringent rules that were placed upon it. What is clean and unclean food is clearly outlined by the Levitical instructions. Anything that falls outside of these instructions is not considered to be food by Jewish standards…

Peter was one of the disciples who was with Yeshua during this discussion. If Yeshua were to have declared all foods to be clean, then the stand that Peter later makes is senseless (Acts 10:1-16). Peter refused to eat food that was not clean. Also remember, Mark is thought to be writing Peter’s account. Later, Peter recalls the vision from Acts and embellishes the interpretation. The vision had nothing to do with food! It had to do with unclean Gentiles (Acts 10:28-29; Acts 11:1-18). If Yeshua had declared all food “clean” then through His earthly ministry, it would have been consistent for Him to eat unclean food. By the way, that would have made Him a Torah breaker, which would have been sin. No, rather, Yeshua taught something different or Peter would not have taken such a strong stand in Acts. Peter absolutely refused to follow the instructions of God! That’s pretty strong, Peter learned his lesson with his denial of the Messiah.

God designed the stomach to eliminate food. Through the catharsis of digestion, food is made clean and pure for the use of the body. Food is for the body. It has no effect on the spirituality of man. What makes a man spiritually unclean is what comes out of man. On that same note, if you choose to eat or make the practice of following a “clean” diet that is consistent with the instructions of scripture, then you will certainly be healthier. The reason is that God’s diet avoids parasitic foods and potentially dangerous foods.

Most today, choose not to eat clean. This is unwittingly failing to follow the instructions of Torah and opening the door to the natural consequences of eating unclean food. It is a cultural error that has occurred since most believers are not even aware of dietary instructions. This falls back on our teachers and religious leaders. Each person who is aware of the dietary instructions makes a choice to follow them or not to follow them. Judgment on this belongs to God, not to me or anyone else. It falls down to personal choice. My view is simple. If I eat to the best of my ability according to the dietary instructions, then I will experience greater health. Torah is designed for liberty, not bondage. I have found that a healthier life is found by living according to a biblical diet. Back to the passage.

Mark 7:19-23 An interesting note, the words which are translated evil thoughts, could be translated better, “an evil balancing of accounts”, meaning that we take in information and reasoning it out with an evil purpose in mind.  This is referring to what the Scribes and Pharisees were doing with God’s instructions (Torah).  He equates this evil reasoning with fornications, or sexual immorality, “thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit”.  could also be translated treachery, slyness or trickery. “Sensuality, envy slander, pride and foolishness”.  The potential for word studies are great here, that is for you to follow up with.  The point of the matter was that the eating of foods and the following of traditions were not what defiled man, what defiled man was the wickedness which came from his own heart.  Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?”  This was not new to the Scribes and Pharisees, they just chose to ignore the concept.