Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,
"Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat."
He answered them, "And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
For God said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.'
But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, 'Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,'
that person need not honor the father. So you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:
'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.'
Then Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand:
It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles."
Then the disciples came and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?"
He answered, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.
Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind.
And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit."
Peter said to him, "Explain this parable to us."
Then he said, "Are you also still without understanding?
Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?
But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles.
For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.
These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile."
Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon.
Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon."
But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us."
He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me."
He answered, "It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs."
She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table."
Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish."
And her daughter was healed instantly.
Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up a mountain and sat down.
Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they laid them at his feet; and he cured them.
The crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they praised the God of Israel.
Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.
If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way—some of them have come a long distance."
The disciples said to him, "Where are we to get enough bread in this wilderness to feed such a crowd?"
Jesus asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" They said, "Seven, and a few small fish."
He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground.
Taking the seven loaves and the fish, he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowd.
They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up what was left over—seven baskets full.
Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.
Then he sent the crowd away, got into the boat, and went to the region of Magadan.
This is the Patristics text that appears when you select Patristics.
