Mark 7:20

Mark 7:20, in plain English

Jesus continues: 'It's what comes out of a person that makes them unclean.' The real problem isn't outside you — it's inside you.

Why it's here

This is the positive side of his teaching: true purity is a heart issue. You can wash your hands all day, but if your heart is corrupted, you're still unclean.

Who's speaking

Jesus teaches about the true source of defilement.

Where it sits in the story

Jesus redirects attention from the dinner plate to the human heart. The real contamination doesn't come from unwashed hands — it comes from an uncleansed soul.

The scholarly reading

Having dismissed external defilement, Jesus now positively identifies the true source of defilement: 'What comes out of a man (ek tou anthropou ekporeuomenon) is what defiles him.' The moral-internal replaces the ritual-external.

Language and setting

The shift from external to internal defilement represents one of Jesus' most significant theological contributions, relocating purity from observable behavior to the condition of the heart.

Voice

Jesus continues his private teaching, pivoting to what actually causes defilement.

Significance

Having cleared the external path, Jesus points to the true source of defilement: the human heart. What defiles a person is not what goes in through the mouth but what comes out from the soul.

18“Are you still so dull?” He asked. “Do you not understand? Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him,

19because it does not enter his heart, but it goes into the stomach and then is eliminated.” (Thus all foods are clean.)

20He continued: “What comes out of a man, that is what defiles him.

21For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,

22greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.

Read all of Mark 7 — Jesus declares all foods clean and then crosses into Gentile territory to heal a woman's daughter. The walls are coming down.