The Meaning of Mark 7:18 Explained

Mark 7:18

KJV: 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;

YLT: and he saith to them, 'So also ye are without understanding! Do ye not perceive that nothing from without entering into the man is able to defile him?

Darby: And he says to them, Are ye also thus unintelligent? Do ye not perceive that all that is outside entering into the man cannot defile him,

ASV: And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Perceive ye not, that whatsoever from without goeth into the man, it cannot defile him;

KJV Reverse Interlinear

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; 

What does Mark 7:18 Mean?

Context Summary

Mark 7:1-23 - Breaking The Bonds Of Tradition
The Pharisees laid great stress on ritual. They followed endless rules, both intricate and troublesome, as to ablutions and outward ceremonials. So long as their devotees were careful in the minor observances, they were permitted a wide license so far as the weightier matters of the Law were concerned. This is a natural tendency of the human heart. It is glad to be able to reduce its religious life to an outward and literal obedience, if only its thoughts may be unhampered. In the life of true holiness everything depends on the control of the thoughts. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." With infinite wisdom the wise man said, "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life," and Jesus put "evil-thoughts" first in the black category of the contents of the evil heart. A gang of thieves sometimes put a very small boy through a tiny window that he may unlock the front door. So one evil thought will often admit an entire crew of evil. Heart of mine, hast thou learned this lesson? Art thou careful enough of thy cleanliness? That the hands should be often washed, that vessels of household use should be kept cleansed, that there should be decorum and neatness in the outward life, all these customs are good. But it becomes thee to inquire whether thou art not more eager for the outward than the inward cleanliness. "Create in me a clean heart," should be thy constant prayer. [source]

Chapter Summary: Mark 7

1  The Pharisees find fault with the disciples for eating with unwashed hands
8  They break the commandment of God by the traditions of men
14  Food defiles not the man
24  He heals the Syrophenician woman's daughter of an unclean spirit;
31  and one that was deaf, and stammered in his speech

Greek Commentary for Mark 7:18

Are ye so without understanding also? [ουτως και υμεις ασυνετοι εστε]
See note on Matthew 15:16. You also as well as the multitude. It was a discouraging moment for the great Teacher if his own chosen pupils (disciples) were still under the spell of the Pharisaic theological outlook. It was a riddle to them. “They had been trained in Judaism, in which the distinction between clean and unclean is ingrained, and could not understand a statement abrogating this” (Gould). They had noticed that the Pharisees stumbled at the parable of Jesus (Matthew 15:12). They were stumbling themselves and did not know how to answer the Pharisees. Jesus charges the disciples with intellectual dulness and spiritual stupidity. [source]
So []
So unintelligent as not to understand what I uttered to the crowd. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Mark 7:18

Mark 7:19 Purging all meats [καθαρίζων πάντα τὰ βρώματα]
According to the A. V. these words are in apposition with draught: the draught which makes pure the whole of the food, since it is the place designed for receiving the impure excrements. Christ was enforcing the truth that all defilement comes from within. This was in the face of the Rabbinic distinctions between clean and unclean meats. Christ asserts that Levitical uncleanness, such as eating with unwashed hands, is of small importance compared with moral uncleanness. Peter, still under the influence of the old ideas, cannot understand the saying and asks an explanation (Matthew 15:15), which Christ gives in Mark 7:18-23. The words purging all meats (Rev., making all meats clean )-DIVIDER-
are not Christ's, but the Evangelist's, explaining the bearing of Christ's words; and therefore the Rev. properly renders, this he said (italics), making all meats clean. This was the interpretation of Chrysostom, who says in his homily on Matthew: “But Mark says that he said these things making all meats pure.” Canon Farrar refers to a passage cited from Gregory Thaumaturgus: “And the Saviour, who purifies all meats, says.” This rendering is significant in the light of Peter's vision of the great sheet, and of the words, “What God hath cleansed” ( ἐκαθάρισε ), in which Peter probably realized for the first time the import of the Lord's words on this occasion. Canon Farrar remarks: “It is doubtless due to the fact that St. Peter, the informant of St. Mark, in writing his Gospel, and as the sole ultimate authority for this vision in the Acts, is the source of both narratives, - that we owe the hitherto unnoticed circumstance that the two verbs, cleanse and profane (or defile ), both in a peculiarly pregnant sense, are the two most prominent words in the narrative of both events” (“Life and Work of Paul,” i., 276-7). -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
[source]

Acts 10:14 For I have never eaten anything [hoti oudepote ephagon pan)]
Second aorist active indicative, I never did anything like this and I shall not do it now. The use of pan (everything) with oudepote (never) is like the Hebrew Common and unclean (Koinon kai akatharton). Koinos from epic xunos (xunsun together with) originally meant common to several (Latin communis) as in Acts 2:44; Acts 4:32; Titus 1:4; Judges 1:3. The use seen here (also Mark 7:2, Mark 7:5; Romans 14:14; Hebrews 10:29; Revelation 21:27; Acts 10:28; Acts 11:8), like Latin vulgaris is unknown in ancient Greek. Here the idea is made plain by the addition of akatharton (unclean), ceremonially unclean, of course. We have the same double use in our word “common.” See notes on Mark 7:18. where Mark adds the remarkable participle katharizōn (making all meats clean), evidently from Peter who recalls this vision. Peter had been reared from childhood to make the distinction between clean and unclean food and this new proposal even from the Lord runs against all his previous training. He did not see that some of God‘s plans for the Jews could be temporary. This symbol of the sheet was to show Peter ultimately that Gentiles could be saved without becoming Jews. At this moment he is in spiritual and intellectual turmoil. [source]
Acts 10:14 Common and unclean [Koinon kai akatharton)]
Koinos from epic xunos (xunsun together with) originally meant common to several (Latin communis) as in Acts 2:44; Acts 4:32; Titus 1:4; Judges 1:3. The use seen here (also Mark 7:2, Mark 7:5; Romans 14:14; Hebrews 10:29; Revelation 21:27; Acts 10:28; Acts 11:8), like Latin vulgaris is unknown in ancient Greek. Here the idea is made plain by the addition of akatharton (unclean), ceremonially unclean, of course. We have the same double use in our word “common.” See notes on Mark 7:18. where Mark adds the remarkable participle katharizōn (making all meats clean), evidently from Peter who recalls this vision. Peter had been reared from childhood to make the distinction between clean and unclean food and this new proposal even from the Lord runs against all his previous training. He did not see that some of God‘s plans for the Jews could be temporary. This symbol of the sheet was to show Peter ultimately that Gentiles could be saved without becoming Jews. At this moment he is in spiritual and intellectual turmoil. [source]
1 Corinthians 8:7 Being used until now to the idol [τηι συνητειαι εως αρτι του ειδωλου]
Old word συνητεια — sunētheia from συνητης — sunēthēs “It is defiled, not by the partaking of polluted food, for food cannot pollute (Mark 7:18.; Luke 11:41), but by the doing of something which the unenlightened conscience does not allow” (Robertson and Plummer). For this great word αστενης — suneidēsis (conscientia, knowing together, conscience) see note on Acts 23:1. It is important in Paul‘s Epistles, Peter‘s First Epistle, and Hebrews. Even if unenlightened, one must act according to his conscience, a sensitive gauge to one‘s spiritual condition. Knowledge breaks down as a guide with the weak or unenlightened conscience. For μολυνεται — asthenēs weak (lack of strength) see Matthew 26:41. Defiled Old word molunō to stain, pollute, rare in N.T. (1 Timothy 3:9; Revelation 3:4). [source]
1 Corinthians 8:7 Being weak [συνειδησις]
“It is defiled, not by the partaking of polluted food, for food cannot pollute (Mark 7:18.; Luke 11:41), but by the doing of something which the unenlightened conscience does not allow” (Robertson and Plummer). For this great word αστενης — suneidēsis (conscientia, knowing together, conscience) see note on Acts 23:1. It is important in Paul‘s Epistles, Peter‘s First Epistle, and Hebrews. Even if unenlightened, one must act according to his conscience, a sensitive gauge to one‘s spiritual condition. Knowledge breaks down as a guide with the weak or unenlightened conscience. For μολυνεται — asthenēs weak (lack of strength) see Matthew 26:41. [source]
Titus 1:15 All things are pure []
Comp. 1 Timothy 4:4, 1 Timothy 4:5; Acts 10:15; Mark 7:15, Mark 7:18, Mark 7:19; 1 Corinthians 10:26, 1 Corinthians 10:30; Romans 14:20. The aphorism is suggested by the commandments of men, Titus 1:14. [source]

What do the individual words in Mark 7:18 mean?

And He says to them Thus also you without understanding are Not understand you that everything - from outside entering into the man is able him to defile
Καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς Οὕτως καὶ ὑμεῖς ἀσύνετοί ἐστε οὐ νοεῖτε ὅτι πᾶν τὸ ἔξωθεν εἰσπορευόμενον εἰς τὸν ἄνθρωπον δύναται αὐτὸν κοινῶσαι

λέγει  He  says 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular
Root: λέγω 
Sense: to say, to speak.
αὐτοῖς  to  them 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Dative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
Root: αὐτός  
Sense: himself, herself, themselves, itself.
Οὕτως  Thus 
Parse: Adverb
Root: οὕτως  
Sense: in this manner, thus, so.
καὶ  also 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: καί  
Sense: and, also, even, indeed, but.
ἀσύνετοί  without  understanding 
Parse: Adjective, Nominative Masculine Plural
Root: ἀσύνετος  
Sense: unintelligent, without understanding, stupid.
νοεῖτε  understand  you 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 2nd Person Plural
Root: νοέω  
Sense: to perceive with the mind, to understand, to have understanding.
ὅτι  that 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: ὅτι  
Sense: that, because, since.
πᾶν  everything 
Parse: Adjective, Nominative Neuter Singular
Root: πᾶς  
Sense: individually.
τὸ  - 
Parse: Article, Nominative Neuter Singular
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
ἔξωθεν  from  outside 
Parse: Adverb
Root: ἔξωθεν  
Sense: from without, outward.
εἰσπορευόμενον  entering 
Parse: Verb, Present Participle Middle or Passive, Nominative Neuter Singular
Root: εἰσπορεύομαι  
Sense: to go into, enter.
εἰς  into 
Parse: Preposition
Root: εἰς  
Sense: into, unto, to, towards, for, among.
ἄνθρωπον  man 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Masculine Singular
Root: ἄνθρωπος  
Sense: a human being, whether male or female.
δύναται  is  able 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Middle or Passive, 3rd Person Singular
Root: δύναμαι  
Sense: to be able, have power whether by virtue of one’s own ability and resources, or of a state of mind, or through favourable circumstances, or by permission of law or custom.
κοινῶσαι  to  defile 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Infinitive Active
Root: κοινόω  
Sense: to make common.